Introduction to Agricultural Crop Growth, Form, and Function

Catalog description

About 12,000 years ago, humans began harvesting their food from the natural biological diversity that surrounded them, resulting eventually to domesticated agricultural crops. Over thousands of years farmers selected for desirable traits in crops, and thus improved the plants for agricultural purposes. Agricultural Crop Growth, Form, and Function is a required introductory course for options in the Plant Science major. This course provides fundamental information on agricultural crop growth needed for understanding course content of upper level courses within the major. The major focus areas will include general crop growth and function, environmental and plant interactions in agriculture, Pests of agricultural crops, and breeding and genetics of agriculturally important crops. Upon successful completion of the course students should have a better understanding of the following topics: structural components of cells and plants; growth of tissue systems; plant interactions with their environment; physiological processes in plant growth; basic components of plant genetics; and the impact of human selection, genetic engineering, and climate modifications on plant development and food production.