Topic 0: Introduction

This introductory topic is divided in two parts:

1. A general introduction will include information about the CABI Academy learning platform, the organizations, tutors and participants that are involved in the course. One course unit is addressing students’ access to information through various University and CABI databases.
2. A technical introduction into Integrated Crop Management (ICM) will propose a conceptual framework and guidelines that are useful as a basis for ICM concept development and implementation.

Topic 1: Soil Management

The objective of this module is to introduce soil management principles and practices to reduce environmental degradation and enhance agricultural sustainability. A major emphasis is placed on soil conservation and methods for maintaining and improving soil organic matter and structure. Furthermore, soil management will be explored from a biological, chemical and physical perspective, emphasizing the complexities of soil and the need to design effective management practices that protect and enhance its beneficial properties.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to understand these principles and practices and to be able to develop a sustainable soil management plan.

Keywords: Soils: an introduction to chemical, biological and physical properties; Soil classification; Sustainable soil management & conservation; Soil management cases studies

Topic 2: Crop Nutrition

The objective of this module is to provide students with an understanding of the strong link between fertilisation and many aspects highly relevant for ICM sur as growing a healthy crop, pest population development, soil biota and the general environment. In particular, detailed knowledge will be provided on essential nutrients for plant growth, as well as their interaction with soil factors and processes. Students will learn how to interpret soil analysis information and to determine the amount of fertiliser necessary for optimum yields and crop quality. Several crops will be explored in more detail to deepen the students’ understanding of the subject and also practical issues affecting fertiliser use will be considered such as fertiliser types, application methods and environmental factors.

Keywords: Nutrient soil fertility; Fertilizers; Factors that influence fertilizer amount; Principles of calculation of fertilizer amounts; Crop examples; Importance of balanced fertilization for IPM

Topic 3: Seed/Planting Material

The objective of this module is to introduce students to the importance of seed and planting material in ICM. It will provide a background to strategies for production of seed and planting material. In addition, it will introduce students to the importance and issues relating to seed quality and health. It will provide an insight into the complexity of factors to consider for varietal selection for seed and planting material. Furthermore, students will be introduced to local, national and international approaches of seed conservation and gain an understanding of seed certification and regulation at the national and international level.

Keywords: Introduction to the importance and role of seed & planting material; Crop improvement: from domestication to the green revolution; Acquiring new material: traditional to enhanced strategies; Case studies in breeding; New frontiers in plant breeding; Seed systems and seed quality; Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: policy and conservation.

Topic 4: Integrated Pest Management

The aim of this topic is to enable trainees to use integrated pest management as a system to keep harmful vertebrates, arthropods, diseases and weeds below economic damage levels. This will consider (a) the ecology of crops, their harmful organisms and their natural enemies, (b) local conditions, (c) environmental, economic and social aspects, and (c) the international, national and local standards, regulations and compliance criteria. Trainees will be able to diagnose plant health problems, and to apply decision-making tools for choosing the best pest management options.

Topic 5: Water Management  

The agricultural sector is the largest water consumer worldwide and the available water resources are often used in an unsustainable way. The course discusses challenges in the context of the water-soil- agriculture nexus. Specifically, the following themes are discussed:

Water consumption in agriculture
Quality and quantity of water resources, including both surface and subsurface resources
Sustainable water resources management and agriculture
Irrigation techniques
The course will clearly illustrate the relevance of water resources in the context of agricultural production. Some easy yet powerful quantitative approaches will be learnt that will allow to estimate water consumption of current and upcoming agricultural projects, and anticipate sustainability issues related to water consumption and agriculture.

Keywords: Water balances, Groundwater, Surface water, Water supply, Sustainability, Irrigation

Topic 6: Cropping Strategies

The objective of this topic is to understand the agronomic impacts including the effects on soil quality factors of crop rotation. With the analysis of other relevant issues like profitability and risk of crop diversification and rotation, or more practical issues like advantageous crop sequences and technical feasibility, students will become familiar with the various aspects of this very important tool applied in ICM and IPM systems. Based on the theoretical background, students will learn how to develop rotation schemes that are adapted to the local conditions, thereby reducing weed, pest and soil related problems as well as optimising the nutrient balance in the field. In addition, the module will give an overview about other cropping strategies including intercropping, strip-cropping, cover crops and green manure.

Keywords: Introduction; Agronomic impacts; Effects on soil; Profitability and risk; Meadows in the rotation; Planning crop rotations; Other cropping strategies

Topic 0: Introduction

This introductory topic is divided in two parts:

1. A general introduction will include information about the CABI Academy learning platform, the organizations, tutors and participants that are involved in the course and access to information through the University and CABI.
2. A short technical introduction into Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and an overview about the CAS 2 content.

Topic 1: Policy Considerations

The objective of this topic is to familiarise the students with policy considerations related to ICM at international, regional and national levels, and to understand how they govern and/or support the implementation of ICM. It will introduce some of the drivers for policy development. Students will become familiar with international agreements related to pesticides management, biodiversity, plant genetic resources, food safety, trade, etc. Case studies will be used to look at the development and implementation of policies related to ICM at regional and national levels.

Keywords: Policy drivers; International frameworks; Regional policies; National regulations; Policy development

Topic 2: Agricultural System Implementation

The aim of this topic is to explain about other Implementation Systems that are adopted in agriculture apart from Integrated Crop Management. This allows for comparison of ICM with other systems and instigates trainees to assess the potential of implementing adapted agricultural systems under their local conditions. With our case studies, we will cover a wide breadth of systems, such as voluntary standards, national standards, and very local implementation types, such as producer clubs. 

Topic 3: Agricultural and Rural Economics

The main objective of this module is to understand some agricultural topics from an economic perspective. Students will be introduced to some basic concepts of economics, markets, agricultural policies, and environmental costs of agricultural production. Students will also learn how to compute farm profits and conduct benefit cost analysis to determine the financial viability of a farm business or project. The module will also provide a basic introduction to value chain analysis and assessment of the economic impacts of ICM interventions.

Keywords: demand and supply; opportunity cost; profit maximization; agricultural policies; food price crisis; market failure; externality; tragedy of the commons; value chain analysis; gross margin, net present value; impact assessment.

Topic 4: Gender Considerations

The objective of this module is to help students develop skills on how to integrate gender in agriculture programs and deliver gender sensitive rural advisory services. It will introduce basic concepts of gender and social inclusion and the rationale for adopting a gender lens in agriculture development programs. It will provide students with basic approaches to improve the participation and benefit of women and other socially excluded groups from agriculture interventions and how to conduct gender analysis in agriculture programs. Students will also learn how adopt rural advisory service provision to meet the needs of both men and women farmers.

Topic 5: Agricultural Extension

The objective of the topic is to understand the role that extension services play in implementing Integrated Crop Management. It will provide an overview of the various approaches to agricultural extension that are used by governmental, private and other organisations. We will focus on some extension methods (including ‘lead farmers’, ‘farmer field school’, ‘mass approaches’) and see in detail how they are applied in the context of ICM and how they are supporting farmers towards implementation. Using case studies of agricultural extension, the impact of the methods and approaches will be further analysed and discussed.

Keywords: Extension philosophies and methods, Demand-driven approaches, Face-to-face versus mass extension approaches, Plant clinics, Impact studies

Topic 6: Experimental Design & Statistical Methods

Topic 7: Climate Change

The objective of this module is to highlight the impact that climate change is having on agriculture now and in the future and how countries are looking to address the issue of climate change and food security. It will illustrate what is meant by climate smart agriculture and why it is needed to combat climate change. It will provide information on what areas this covers and how it can help combat the impacts of climate change on agriculture. In addition, it will introduce the concept of climate smart pest management and how this approach addresses the key pillars of climate smart agriculture. It will provide an opportunity to explore how the changing climate will affect pests and disease, and what adaptation and mitigation strategies can be deployed to support climate smart pest management.

Keywords: Climate change and agriculture: Climate smart agriculture: Climate smart pest management; introduction, : CSPM; Production and resources,: CSPM; creating an enabling environment.

Topic 0: Introduction and Basic knowledge

A general ‘Welcome’ part before topic 0 will include information about the Moodle platform, the organizations, tutors and participants that are involved in the course and access to information through the University and CABI. Topic 0 will give a brief overview about Integrated Crop Management (ICM). Under ‘Basic Knowledge’, we will first focus on strategies and tools that are part of biological control of pests in agriculture and ecosystems, providing definitions, concepts and approaches in preventive biological control as well as classical biocontrol. You will learn to classify agents, ingredients and tools under biocontrol or ecosystem services (e.g. macrobials / microbials). Population dynamics will help to understand the impact of biocontrol and ecosystem interventions, and the negative impact of pesticides and other interventions on pest and natural enemy dynamics. We will then discuss drivers for the use of biological control such as consumer demands, maximum residue levels, product prices, legislation, negative effects of pesticide use, and many others.

Topic 1: Prevention of Pest Problems

Topic 1 will first focus on natural biological control and explaining some systems, where naturally occurring enemies maintain pests at a level lower than it would occur without them. In order to estimate the extent of natural control in the field, it is important to identify at least some key natural enemies and the course will provide some units about basic pest, disease and beneficials identification. Another training unit will focus on conservation biocontrol. It will introduce the basic principles and provide practical advice on how to enhance natural enemies, beneficial soil macrobials and microbials and discuss the negative impact of agronomic practices including use of pesticides in the agro-ecosystem. The co-benefits of conservation biocontrol will be analysed with special regard to pollination, but including other ecosystem services including clean water, soil health, tourism etc.

Topic 2: Managing Landscapes

This Topic will focus on the role of the landscape on implementing nature-based solutions for the management of pests, diseases, weeds and on promoting crop production by increased pollination. First, we will explore how and to what extent landscape complexity, composition, as well as ecological quality affect green direct control measures and pollination on agricultural land. Students will improve their knowledge and skills with regard to the taxonomy and biology of key natural enemies and pollinators in different cropping systems. We will provide examples of how the surroundings of crop fields and whole landscapes can be designed to improve the supply of biological control, pollination and other ecosystem services. We will then discuss the economics of landscape management, emphasising that targeted conservation or restoration of ecological infrastructure can pay off within relatively short time. This will help trainees to think of ways, how the production of certain commodities in a particular biogeographic region can be improved by designing and implementing landscape management approaches.

Topic 3: Green Direct Control

The aim of this topic is to enable trainees to fully understand and make use of green direct control measures for the management of herbivorous arthropods, diseases, weeds and other plant health problems in agriculture. We will mainly focus on augmentation biological control approaches such as the use of macrobial biocontrol agents or microbial biopesticides. In addition, students will also improve their knowledge and skills with regard to other safe direct control methods, such as physical or semio-chemical methods or safe botanical-, biological-, or mineral – derived plant protection products.  This will help trainees to improve their skills in sustainable and integrated pest management as part of an integrated crop management approach and/or their skills in organic farming. We will consider (a) the ecology of crops, their harmful organisms and their natural enemies, (b) local conditions, (c) environmental, economic and social aspects, and (c) the international, national and local standards, regulations and compliance criteria.

Topic 4: Classical Biological Control

Topic 4 will deal with all important aspects of classical biocontrol. It starts with an introduction to the concept of classical biocontrol, a brief history and the question of why and when classical biocontrol could be a solution for pest control. Linked to this are general aspects of invasive species management and how it all fits with the concept of Integrated Pest Management. Students will understand all necessary steps in undertaking a classical biocontrol project, including target selection, agent selection, host range testing and generally the consideration of biosafety. In addition, relevant policies such as access and benefit sharing or the Nagoya protocol will be addressed and how all that needs to be considered when developing a petition for import and release. Finally, students will profit from various case studies that will be discussed within this topic.