CROP SCIENCE

About this Course

This course will provide the students with knowledge and cognitive principles of physiology and plant development that may influence yield performance of cultivated crops. Students should be able to describe the fundamental principles of plant physiology and development. This course will also emphasize on the practical skills around plant physiology and development to provide hands-on learning experience to the students.

Course Learning Outcomes

1) Employ the principles of crop science to understand growth, development and yield performance of cultivated crops.
2) Perform plant physiological experiments to understand biological processes and functional activities occurring in plants.
3) Interactively explain the fundamental processes at the cellular, plant development and crop canopy levels for the improvement of crop productivity and economic yield using digital tools.

Course Syllabus

+ Course Syllabus

1) Plant Morphology and Anatomy
1.1 Overview on Cell and Tissue morphology and anatomy:
1.2 The Plant Body; Roots, Stems, Leaves and Buds, Flowers
1.3 Pollination and fertilization processes, and life cycle

2) Photosynthesis and Respiration
2.1 Light and Dark Reactions of Photosynthesis
2.2 Photosynthetic types and environmental adaptations (C3, C4, and CAM)
2.3 Factors limiting photosynthesis in the field (water, nitrogen)

3) Growth, Phenology and Development
3.1 Growth, development and morphogenesis
3.2 Phenological development and internal and environmental controls of phenology.

4) Assimilate/Biomass Partitioning and Yield Components
4.1 Assimilate translocation: pathways and patterns, Phloem Transport, loading and unloading
4.2 Assimilate partitioning and remobilization:

5) Mineral Nutrition of Crops
5.1 Nutrient uptake and transport within plants
5.2 Nitrogen and Phosphate assimilation
5.3 Biological nitrogen fixation and its regulation
5.4 Nutrient use efficiencies
5.5 Root microbe interaction

6) Crop Water Relations
6.1 Properties of water and the soil plant continuum (SPAC)
6.2 The concept of water potential and the availability of water
6.3 Stomatal function and its control over water and carbon exchange
6.4 Transpiration and factors affecting

7) Growth Hormones and Plant Growth Regulators
7.1 Growth hormones and plant control and development
7.2 Natural hormones and PGR; Auxin, Gibberelic Acid, cytokinin, ethylene, abscisic acid
7.3 Commercial PGR in agriculture

8) Crop Stress Physiology
8.1 Water deficit and drought tolerance
8.2 Temperature stress: heat
8.3 Flooding and hypoxic stress: the suffocation of plant tissues
8.4 Salinity stress: the salt injury
8.5 Abiotic; heavy metals, pollutants

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