Overall objectives:

1 - Know the current state of agriculture and the latest innovations in the sector, related with teh development of the agriculture 4.0.
2 - Understand the concept of agriculture 4.0 and its importance in the development of modern agriculture.
3 - Knowing the social challenges of agriculture in the face of global changes scenarios.
4 - Know the technologies and tools used by agriculture 4.0, to help the farmer in the management and sustainability of the production system.
5 - Know the concepts of sustainability and resilience applied to the production systems and the strategies to achieve sustainable development goals.
6 - Think over the role of agriculture as a guarantee of food production and food security, and its responsibility in mitigating climate change.
7 - Interpret, evaluate, decide and intervene in situations related to future professional activity
8 - Demonstrate initiative, autonomy and work habits

Syllabus:

1 - Main threats to agriculture and food production:
1.1 - Demography;
1.2 - Limitation of natural resources;
1.3 - Climate changes;
1.4 - Waste.
2 - Causes of decreased food production:
2.1 - Deforestation;
2.2 - Soil degradation and erosion. Loss and imbalance of nutrients. Changing nutrient cycles. Decrease in arable land;
2.3 - Climate change. Reduction of water resources. Rising temperatures and extreme events.
3 - Emerging threats;
3.1 - Desertification;
3.2 - Drought;
3.3 - Loss of crop productivity. Causes and consequences;
3.4 - Pests and diseases.
4 - Food security;
5 - Technological evolution of agriculture;
6 - Agriculture 4.0 concept;
7 - Innovations brought by Agriculture 4.0:
7.1 - Hydroponics;
7.2 - Algae cultivation;
7.3 - Agriculture in the desert and oceans;
7.4 - Sustainable packaging;
7.5 - Vertical and urban farms;
7.6 - Precision agriculture.
8 - Agriculture technology 4.0:
8.1 - Internet of things;
8.2 - Monitoring sensors;
8.3 - Artificial intelligence, 4.4. Big data;
8.4 - Cloud Computing.
9 - Agriculture 4.0 tools:
9.1 - Weather stations;
9.2 - Telemetry;
9.3 - Sensors;
9.4 - GPS;
9.5 - Geographic Information Systems;
9.6 - UAVs (Drones).
10 - Importance of Agriculture 4.0.

Literature/Sources:

Anonymous , 2008 , Estratégia Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentável ENDS 2015. I Estratégia. , Lisboa, Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente
Lisboa, Plataforma Transgénicos Fora. FAO , 2020 , Agricultura, Solo e Alterações Climáticas. Guia de boas práticas agrícolas para reduzir emissões, fixar carbono, e eliminar a aplicação de herbicidas. , Lisboa, Plataforma Transgénicos Fora. FAO
Rome, FAO. Gomes, A., Avelar, D.,Duarte Santos, F., Costa, H., Garrett, P , 2016 , Sustainable value chains for sustainable food systems ,
Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Recursos Naturais , 2015 , Estratégia de Adaptação às Alterações Climáticas da Região Autónoma da Madeira , MAMAOT
Arvanitis, K. G., Symeonaki, E. G. , 2013 , Estratégia de adaptação da agricultura e das florestas às alterações climáticas , Portugal Continental. d. M. Ministério da Agricultura, do Ambiente e do Ordenamento do Território
Clercq, M. de, Vats, A., Biel, A , 2020 , Agriculture 4.0:The Role of Innovative Smart Technologies Towards Sustainable Farm Management. ,
FAO , 2020 , Agriculture 4.0: The future offarming technology. , FAO
Kovács, I.,Husti, I. , AGRICULTURE 4.0. Agricultural robotics and automated equipment for sustainable crop production. , FAO
? , 2018 , The role of digitalization in the agricultural 4.0 ? how to connect the industry 4.0 to agriculture? ,

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 should learn the basic concepts and know-how to relate them to each other, proceeding with their reinforcement, through applied learning with resources and available tools. To achieve the objectives and implement the syllabus, the UC's contact hours are scheduled as follows: Theoretical-practical teaching: 23 hours; Practical and laboratory teaching: 35 hours; and Field work: 20 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.