Departments

 Department of Agroecology

Overview

Faculty Members

PhD Students and Postdocs

Today, increase in the world population and the pressure that has been imposed on agricultural systems to meet the food security of such a growing population, have caused the sustainability of agroecosystems to be threatened seriously. Production of enough healthy food while conserving the soil, water and air resources is the greatest challenge to policy-makers, decision-makers, scientists and farmers. Conventional agriculture faces great challenges such as food insecurity, pollution of soil and water resources with agrochemicals and rapid loss of biodiversity. Agroecology is the science of applying the ecological principles in studying, designing, managing and evaluating the agricultural systems so that not only crop yield is sustained but also natural resources consumption is optimized and negative impacts of conventional agriculture on environment are minimized. This paradigm uses a holistic approach in a manner that agricultural system is considered an integrated unit which has various biophysical, technical, social, economic and environmental components with complex interrelations with one another. Equal emphasis on the aforementioned components, and combining traditional and modern techniques under a systems' approach umbrella guarantees moving toward sustainable agricultural production. 
Dr. Jafar Kambouzia, Agricultural systems analysis and modeling
Dr. Korous Khoshbakht, Agrobiodiversity
Dr. Abdolmajid Mahdavi Damghani, Agroecology and sustainable agriculture
Dr. Hossein Mahmoudi, Sociology and impact assesssment
Dr. Reza Deihimfard, Agricultural systems analysis and modeling
Dr. Omid Nouri, Horticulture science and urban agriculture
Dr. Fatemeh Aghamir, Soil chemistry
Dr. Saeid Soufizadeh, Agricultural systems analysis and modeling
Number of current Ph.D. students: 37
Number of Ph.D. graduates: 16
Number of current master’s students: 21
Number of M.Sc. graduates: 113

Course Outlines

Master of Agroecology

PhD of Agroecology

Research

 
  • Agrobiodiversity
  • Principles of sustainable agriculture
  • Principles of urban agriculture
  • Advanced statistics
  • Applied statistics
  • Principles of remote sensing and GIS
  • Crops production ecology (potential and limiting conditions)
  • Crops production ecology (reducing factors)
  • Research methodology
  • Principles of agricultural development and extension
  • Adaptation to climate change in agriculture
  • Soil productivity and plant nutrition
  • Principles of organic agriculture
 
  • Analysis of ecological data
  • Modeling in crop ecology
  • Biodiversity in cropping ecosystems
  • Analysis of cropping ecosystems
  • Sustainable management of cropping ecosystems
  • Climate change and its impact on agricultural ecosystems
  • Soil ecology and tillage management
  • Ecological aspects of cropping ecosystems
  • Free discussions and agroecology
 
  • Projects
Agroecological zoning of Urmia Lake Basin
Quantifying wheat yield gap in Alborz province
 
Agroecosystem-based design of cropping pattern based on ecological carrying capacity of arable lands in Isfahan province
 
  • Centers of Excellence
  •  Scientific Associations
  • Scientific-Student Teams