Course Description
This course explores the complexities of international agricultural development, including food security, sustainability, and global interdependence. Students analyze agricultural systems and development programs while critically evaluating literature, data, and case studies. They investigate development challenges and assess their implications using interdisciplinary and culturally informed approaches.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will write an extra paper on issues of international agriculture and will also be expected to do extra readings.
Athena Title
International Ag Development
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ALDR 4710E, AFST 4710E, LACS 4710E or ALDR 6710E, AFST 6710E, LACS 6710E
Non-Traditional Format
Course dynamics emphasize case studies, discussions, and group
projects. Students in AFST and LACS will focus their term
assignments in their region of interest.
Prerequisite
Second year student standing
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will explain the origins and history of agriculture and critically analyze how agricultural transitions have shaped and been shaped by people, cultures, and the environment.
- Students will evaluate diverse agricultural systems and their shaping factors, considering environmental, resource, social, economic, political, institutional, and cultural influences, and recognizing their role in shaping global and local development.
- Students will develop an awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of diverse cultures and communities beyond one’s own by examining how agricultural traditions, food security, sustainability, and development practices differ across the world.
- Students will analyze the local and global impacts and consequences of agricultural development, considering historical and contemporary examples of how agricultural policies, technologies, and practices have influenced societies, economies, and the environment.
- Students will critically engage with social science research and agricultural literature, developing analytical skills to find, interpret, and evaluate research methodologies, sources, maps, graphs, tables, and indicators related to food security, sustainability, and agricultural development.
- Students will investigate and critique agricultural development programs by assessing their structure, objectives, and impacts at international, national, local, and community levels within diverse contexts.
- Students will analyze case studies of agricultural development to assess challenges, successes, and lessons learned in various cultural, economic, and environmental contexts.
- Students will identify and analyze additional social, economic, environmental, and political issues that influence or are influenced by agriculture and agricultural development, assessing their implications across different contexts.
- Students will apply systems thinking and research skills to independently and collaboratively explore agricultural development challenges, presenting findings through interdisciplinary, sustainability-focused, and culturally informed approaches.
- Students will engage in active learning, discussion, group work, and critical reflection on agricultural development challenges and solutions.
Topical Outline
- 1. Introduction to food security and international agricultural development
1.1. A systems thinking approach to food security
1.2. Agriculture, culture, and food security: A dynamic and interrelated system
1.3. Agricultural development and global interdependence
- 2. Origins and global impact of agriculture
2.1. The agricultural transition: From foraging to farming to the 20th century
2.2. The impact of the Green Revolution and the global consequences (environmental, economic, social, and cultural) of agricultural development
2.3. 21st-century trends in agriculture and global food security
- 3. Agricultural systems and the factors that shape them
3.1. Classification and global distribution of agricultural systems across cultures
3.2. Key environmental, resource, social, economic, political, institutional, and cultural factors shaping agricultural systems and global interdependence
3.3. Case studies: Low-input agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa; urban agriculture, and other culturally driven approaches
3.4. Case studies: Conflict, health, water, land, gender issues, weather, and the interconnectedness of agricultural systems
- 4. Sustainability, interdependence, and the Sustainable Development Goals
4.1. The environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability
4.2. Case studies: Agricultural development across the SDGs
4.3. Case study: The Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation project and other restoration case studies
- 5. Science, research, technology, and knowledge systems in agriculture
5.1. Scientific and technological contributions to agricultural development
5.2. Models of agricultural innovation across cultures: From technology transfer to co-creation of knowledge
5.3. Case studies: Appropriate technology and indigenous knowledge systems
5.4. Case studies: Preserving biodiversity, cultural heritage, and agricultural diversity
- 6. Organizations and program development in agricultural development
6.1. The role of extension and knowledge exchange in culturally diverse agricultural systems
6.2. Program development and evaluation in agricultural development
6.3. Case study: The CGIAR and other development organizations in an interconnected world
- 7. Research, data interpretation, and critical analysis in agricultural development
7.1. Social science research and critical analysis in international agricultural development: Understanding diverse perspectives
7.2. Interpreting and analyzing food security and agricultural data: Graphs, maps, tables, indicators, and cultural contexts
- 8. Case studies in agricultural development across the globe
- 9. Student-led research and learning projects
9.1. Team project: The missing lesson: Exploring an overlooked cultural or global perspective (or issue) in agricultural development
9.2. Individual (or team) project: The impact of agriculture on people, cultures, and the environment: A critical analysis
9.3. Individual project: Photovoice project: A cultural lens on agricultural and food systems
- 10. Lessons learned in international agricultural development and global interdependence
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
Social Awareness & Responsibility
The capacity to understand the interdependence of people, communities, and self in a global society.
