Overall objectives:

1 - Know agriculture and agrosystems, with emphasis on notions and concepts related to the structure, organization and components of the food production system;
2 - Understand the concept of agricultural and agroforestry systems, and their importance in the production of food and other goods.
3 - Understand the concept of livestock exploration or production, and its importance and functions in agriculture and food production, in order to understand the advantages of integrated production (agriculture).
4 - Know the current regulations to be observed in agricultural and livestock production.
5 - Apply knowledge in the analysis and evaluation of agricultural and livestock systems, their productivity and sustainability;
6 - Reflect on the ways of evaluating, using and valuing resources and production of agricultural and agricultural production systems.
7 - Interpret, evaluate, decide and intervene responsibly in situations related to future professional activity;
8 - Demonstrate initiative, autonomy and work habits.

Syllabus:

1 - Introduction to Agriculture. Stages of the agriculture development. Evolution of production methods in agriculture;
2 - Agroecology. Definitions and contribution to agricultural sustainability.
3 - Agrosystems concept. Types of agrosystems. Organization, structure, components and productive functions. of agrosystems. Features and specificities of regional agrosystems.
4 - Gestão dos agrossistemas. Evolução da gestão dos agrossistemas. Recursos do sistema de produção. Gestão dos recursos genéticos. Normas de manuseamento, qualidade e sanidade dos recursos genéticos e produções agrícolas.
5 - Cultural techniques and practices. Outline of production in the agrosystem. Techniques for analyzing and evaluating agrosystems and their productivity.
6 - Introduction to livestock production. Livestock farm concept. Livestock housing: Models of facilities; Free movement areas. Park management. Disinfection of livestock facilities.
7 - Origin of livestock animals. Species, breeds and lineages best adapted to regional livestock farming. Anatomy, physiology and animal reproduction. Food. Production elements in the livestock farm. Uses and purposes.
8 - Prophylaxis and Animal Health. Main diseases. Prophylaxis and control. Sanitary Plan for Livestock Exploitation. Applied Content;
9 - Field activities related to the topics of Agriculture and livestock production.
9.1 - Activities related to the inventory or use of the farm's genetic or other resources, and cultural practices used locally, application of production techniques and cultural practices, evaluation of the farm and its productivity.

Literature/Sources:

Mazoyer, M., Roudart, L., , 2001 , História das agriculturas do mundo - Do neolítico à crise contemporânea , Instituto Piaget, Lisboa
Altieri, M.A. , 1989 , Agroecologia: as bases científicas da agricultura alternativa , Rio de Janeiro: PTA/FASE
Boller, E.F., Hani, F., Poehling, H.M. , 2004 , EcologicalInfrastructures: Ideabook on Functional Biodiversity at the Farm Level Temperate Zones of Europe , Verlag und Bezug. Lindau.
Bangkok: Winrock International , 1986 , Agroecosystem analysis for research and development. , Conway, G.R.
D?Agostini, L. R., Schlindwen, S. L. , 1999 , Sobre o conceito de agroecossistema , Florianópolis, UFSCCCA
Schulze, E.D., Mooney, H.A. , 1993 , Schulze, E.D., Mooney, H.A. , Springer-Verlag. Berlin Heidelberg. New York.
Lopes, D., Pereira, A., Mexia, A., Mumford, J., Cabrera, R. , 2006 , A Fruticultura na Macaronésia. O Contributo doprojecto Interfruta para o seu desenvolvimento , SerSilito. Maia
Marten, G. C. , 1988 , Produtivity, Stability, Sustainability, Equitibability and Autonomy as Properties for Agroecosystem. Assessment. Agricultural Systems , Agricultural Systems.

Assesssment methods and criteria:

Classification Type: Quantitativa (0-20)

Evaluation Methodology:
The aim is to acquire and apply the knowledge foreseen in the course?s objectives and syllabus contents, through an active and interdisciplinary methodology. The student must learn the basic concepts and know-how to relate them to each other, proceeding with their reinforcement, through applied learning using available tools and study visits to concrete situations of the future professional activity. To achieve the objectives and implement the syllabus, the UC's contact hours are scheduled as follows: Theoretical-practical teaching: 17 hours; Practical and laboratory teaching: 15 hours; and Field work: 25 hours. The evaluation will include several moments of evaluation applied to the theoretical-practical components, laboratory practices and field work (e.g. frequencies, works and reports), any of the elements cannot exceed a weighting of 50%. the theoretical-practical elements can be retrieved in resource.