AGRI302077 Project: Organic farming in tropical and subtropical regions

Type
Project course
Semester hours
4
Lecturer (assistant)
Dorau, Luise , Vogl, Christian R.
Organisation
Organic Farming
Offered in
Wintersemester 2026/27
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

Watch! We also have subtropics and tropics in the European Union - with organic farming! This course allows transforming a private trip to a tropical or subtropical country into a meaningful learning experience, formally recognized in your curriculum!

This course gives you the opportunity to prepare, accompany and follow up on a "private" project planned (e.g. work doing WWOOF, a trip, an internship in a project of regional development or development aid) in a competent and structured way - if related to organic agriculture and taking place in the tropics or subtropics.

Please bear in mind that this project can be an excellent preparation or, if necessary, support or follow-up to your master thesis!

FOCUS 2026/2027
In the upcoming academic year, the focus of this course is the development of a project related to organic agriculture in the tropics/subtropics. This project should be largely implementable through prepared, structured research to be implemented at the BioFach trade fair in Nuremberg (Feb. 16–19, 2027)—and potentially deepened through a field trip. Possible topics include, for example:

Wild harvesting in organic agriculture in the tropics and subtropics;
Aquaculture in organic agriculture in the tropics and subtropics;
Beekeeping in organic agriculture in the tropics and subtropics;
Group certification and internal control systems in organic agriculture in the tropics and subtropics;

As part of the preparation, the project should narrowed down on a specific region—such as a climate zone, a continent, or a single country.


Content is:
1. Presentation of the nature of this course.
2. Presentation of the needed elements and steps of the preparation process for implementing the project.
3. Development of a student-specific personal “project” based on the individual focus area (dine by every student) with continuous feed back given by the lecturer.
4. Planning and organizing travel, accommodation, admission, etc.
5. Implementing the project.
6. Elaborating the final report.
7. Presentation of the results and outputs of the project.
Previous knowledge expected

1. Knowledge on organic agriculture required (e.g. exam in an introductory course on organic farming).
2. Students of the Master OAS&AE is given priority in the registration, then second priority is given to other master students.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Upon completion of this course the students will be able:
•plan and implement a bigger complex, strategically important and risky project;
•prepare and implement a project;
•compile the collected information in a meaningful, well structured report;
•Report orally on the experiences made.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.