IARD 1100 - Perspectives on International Agriculture and Rural Development

(crosslisted) DSOC 1100
(OPHLS-AG) (CU-SBY)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

S. Giroux, R. Nelson, W. Wolford.

Designed to enable students to gain an understanding of major issues in international agricultural development. The course provides an overview of world poverty and hunger and of varying perspectives on approaches being taken to address these and related problems. Students characterize the state of agriculture and rural livelihoods in selected developing countries, and analyze how innovations in agriculture in these countries can contribute to rural development.

Outcome 1: Identify key actors (governmental, non-governmental, and scientific) involved in international agriculture and rural development efforts

Outcome 2: Articulate challenges and opportunities in international agriculture and rural development and understand the linkages among them (e.g., carbon emissions, environmental refugees and hunger; rural organizations, food processing, and market development; gender issues, crop diversity and nutrition, etc.)

Outcome 3: Describe some current strategies being used/proposed to address challenges and opportunities.

Outcome 4: Recognize and appreciate the variety of perspectives of relevance to agricultural development issues; identify common themes across viewpoints (i.e., economics, plant breeding, natural resources, sociology, etc.)

Outcome 5: Use “systems thinking” to identify an opportunity and write a grant proposal for a fundable intervention that would be appropriate for addressing a current agricultural development challenge in a county of the student’s choosing