Plant Health Management – Principles

Some form of crop protection is practised on all modern arable farms, horticultural enterprises and in glasshouses.  This module is designed to develop an appreciation of factors that influence occurrence and severity of weed, pest, and disease outbreaks, and to enable the student to appreciate the importance of lifecycles and other ecological information in the design of appropriate strategies for the management of key weeds, pests, and diseases.  In so doing the students will develop an awareness of the significance of crop protection problems and an understanding of the principles of conventional and novel approaches to their management.

By the end of the Plant Health Management – Principles course participants will be able to:

• Predict and forecast example weed, pest and disease problems and evaluate their economic and biological significance.
• Relate the biology, epidemiology and population dynamics of key example weed, pest and disease problems to the occurrence and severity of, and management strategy for, their outbreaks.
• Critically evaluate the sustainability of example integrated pest management systems.
• Evaluate the mode of action of pesticides and how to predict and minimise management problems arising from their use (for instance resistance, resurgence).
• Appraise the current and potential future use of technology such as molecular diagnostics, genetic modification, and GIS/GPS in crop protection.

Course Provider: Harper Adams University
Course Date: This course commences each October
Course Delivery: 4 Days Campus Workshops
Course Fee: £1200.00