The Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia, was the first to offer its students comprehensive education in the field of agroecology, from the Bachelor’s to Master’s and to doctoral studies.

The Department guarantees the following Bachelor’s study programme:  

• Agroecology - brings an insight into agriculture and landscape care, with the emphasis on areas and processes with ecologically limited farming practices. Thanks to its overlap into practice, graduates can become researchers or businesspersons operating in agriculture and services, or specialists in the use and protection of natural resources in the agricultural landscape at the levels of companies and institutions in the provinces of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Environment and the Ministry for Regional Development.

Two study programmes in the follow-up Master’s study:

• Agroecology – in the Master’s form of study, a more particular focus is placed on two key areas.
  • Organic Agriculture, with its aim at forming an organic farmer oriented at production.
  • Landscape Care, at the centre of which lies a farmer who runs his farm by application of nature protection and landscape management principles,
• Multifunctional Agriculture – this programme is offered to students in English. The programme is rooted in the multifunctionality of agriculture per se. The study identifies those farming alternatives that improve the economic situation in forms other than food production (e.g. social farming). The study of Multifunctional Agriculture benefits from the fact that it spans several departments, with a result of a more holistic approach to study.

The doctoral study consists in the programme of Agroecology, where a more specific profiling depends on the breadth of the defined themes and the supervisor appointed. These themes are based on the context of crop production in organic farming, farming systems, soil fertility or processing practices in relation to ecologic farming.

In the Bachelor’s study programmes, students will obtain a more general foundation of agriculture, with an overlap into sustainable farming. Master’s study offers a more particular specification purely in organic agriculture. In doctoral study, students address specific and detailed issues which might be applied, for example, even in their own farms.

The pivotal study area at our Department relies on the system of subjects dedicated to ecological agriculture - from how to design a farm with an emphasis on the complexity of the link between crop and animal production, how to produce a specific plant, to the creation and sale of an ecological product. Moreover, students will learn how the above principles should be applied in relation to the surrounding environment, how to perceive the landscape as a whole and people themselves as parts of that whole.

Areas and questions that a prospective student should ask and answer with a “yes”:

• Ecological (sustainable) agriculture is not a way back.
• The essence of organic farming is the application of modern scientific knowledge along with traditional tried-and-tested procedures used for centuries.
• Do I intend to understand the substance of agriculture in relation to nature?
• Agriculture must be approached to as a complex organism rich with opportunities for sustainability and abilities to prevent the occurrence of agricultural problems.

Practical training during the study is mandatory. Practical training is usually completed by students on the experimental plots managed by our University, or in cooperating ecological companies. There is also an opportunity for students to conduct internships abroad with help of scholarship, and the result of professional and language knowledge and life experience.

The ideal graduate of our department is an organic farmer who has his/her own family farm. Alternatively, an employee who works in the downstream sector of public administration in the area of agriculture, mainly in the field of control activities.

The Department’s research activities are centred around sustainable farming methods in submontane and mountain areas, with an accent on creating harmony between their productive and non-productive uses. Our primary focus rests on the innovation of technological procedures on arable land to obtain quality crop suitable for food, feed, energy and other non-food uses. In addition, our objective is to reduce the impact of agricultural management and to design sustainable farms.

Based on our work and research, we are involved in a number of projects:

• Projects of the National Agricultural Research Agency,
• Contracted research (testing of varieties within the system of recommendation of varieties for organic agriculture - wheat, barley),
• International projects (Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ projects).

The Department’s staff are founding members of the international society ECOLOGICA and the Czech Technology Platform for Organic Agriculture (CTPEZ). Both organizations primarily carry out research and transfer of knowledge into practice, including consultancy in organic agriculture. From a long-term perspective, we have cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information in the training of accreditation of advisors, we are involved in projects of the Association of Advisors in Organic Agriculture (EPOS) as well as activities of the Food-industry cluster “Tastes Good. South Bohemian”, and, last but not least, we also cooperate with other domestic and foreign partners (Bioinstitut, ZERA, AK, KIS, Bioforschung Austria, BAAL Gumpenstein, etc.).

Agroecology joins people with a similar mindset. Accordingly, our international cooperation focuses especially on the participation in projects and professional organizations. As a pivotal form of our international cooperation, we are members of ENOAT (European Network Organic Agriculture Teachers), where we collaborate with 12 university institutes in the EU. Under the programmes Aktion, Kontakt, ERASMUS+, CEEPUS, etc., we try to exchange teachers and students with partner universities or research institutions to the greatest extent possible.

Every year, we participate in the organization of International Summer Schools, we encourage attendance at conferences and provide instruction in selected subjects in the English language.