The Crop and Environment Sciences Department
The Crops and Environment Sciences (CES) Department consists of 34 academic members of staff providing high quality teaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Department also delivers several short courses for continuing professional development of the industry.
The Department is also actively involved in research, with 5 Professors and a total of 23 staff publishing peer-reviewed papers. The Crop and Environment Research Centre (CERC) provides dedicated facilities and the technical expertise required to conduct the wide range of research projects and commercial crop trials undertaken by University staff. The main areas of research include producing food and non-food crops by sustainable methods, the conservation of biodiversity and protection of the environment.
Most of the undergraduate teaching within the CES Department is delivered to FdSc and BSc Agriculture (& routes), FdSc and BSc Countryside Management, BSc Countryside and Environmental Management and BSc Wildlife Conservation with Natural Resource Management courses. The CES Department also delivers a significant range of modules for Masters courses including:
- MSc Entomology
- MSc Forestry
- Fresh Produce Production
- MSc Integrated Pest Management
- MSc Nematology, MSc Plant Pathology
- MSc Rural Sustainable Energy
- MSc Sustainable Agriculture
- MSc Soil and Water Management
- MSc Weed Science.
Undergraduate courses have a work placement providing strong links with commerce, industry and the professions. The employability of Harper Adams graduates is consequently excellent, ranking 3rd out of all UK HE institutions (HESA 2012 data).
There are approximately 25 PhD students within the CES Department supported by a range of funders including BBSRC, EU FP7, overseas governments, industry and charities.Facilities and technical support for crop and environment research projects that are directly supported by the CES Department include the Crop and Environment Research Centre (CERC). CERC facilities and services include field laboratories, chemical store, chemical preparation room, seed store, controlled environment growth cabinets and drying ovens. Soil analysis facilities and cold storage are also available. A glasshouse complex comprising six growing compartments, misting facilities and a pot sprayer, is supplemented by additional smaller glasshouses and polytunnels, enabling important non-field based crop trials to be undertaken. Field trials supported by CERC currently exceed 40 hectares with over 5,000 trial plots. The CES Department is due to open a new Entomology Laboratory (September 2014) with 3 walk in Weiss Environmental Growth Chambers. Other Entomology Facilities include dedicated Entomology Resource Room with a substantial collection of preserved insects. Several virtual interdisciplinary research centres are located within the CES Department including the Centre for Integrated Pest Management, the Centre for Evidence Based Agriculture, the Soil and Water Management Centre and the Fresh Produce Research Centre. Academic staff within the CES Department are strongly encouraged to develop their own research areas by applying for research grants,publishing within peer-reviewed academic journals attending and participating at conferences and producing articles of professional and industry-related interest.
Staff are also encouraged to contribute to the development and delivery of the Workforce Development agenda through short courses and CVE programmes, The CES Department has several areas of interest including BASIS (Agrochemicals), FACTS (fertilisers) and Environment Agency (Natural Resource Protection).