Programme Structure of Organic Agriculture

Semester I

  1. ACS101(Academic Skills): This module aims to develop the knowledge and understanding of a range of academic skills required for study at university level. The module will focus on the development of academic writing, oral presentation, as well as listening skills to enable students to communicate effectively in both spoken and written forms. The module will enhance their learning throughout their studies at university and beyond, through close reading, discussions and critiquing of academic texts. Further, it will also enhance students’ capacity to critically reflect on their own learning.
  2. DZG101(Dzongkha Communication): རྦྱོང་ཁ་བརྡ་དྦྱོན་སྦྱོད་ལེན་གྱི་སྦྱོང་ཚན་འདྱི་ མཐར་འཁྦྱོལ་ཞྱིནམ་ལས་ སྦྱོབ་སྦྱོང་པ་ཚུ་གྱིས་ རང་གྱི་མྱི་ཚེ་ནང་ལཱ ་གཡྦྱོག་དང་འབེལ་བའྱི་གནད་དྦྱོན་ ག་ཅྱིའྱི་ཐད་ལས་འབད་རུང་ རྦྱོང་ཁའྱི་ནང་ ངག་ཐྦྱོག་དང་ཡྱིག་ཐྦྱོག་ གཉྱིས་ཆ་རའྱི་ནང་ བརྡ་དྦྱོན་སྦྱོད་ལེན་ ཚུལ་དང་མཐུན་ཏྦྱོག་ཏྦྱོ་འབད་ འབད་ཚུགས་ནྱི།
  3. OAG102(Principles of Sustainable Agriculture): This module aims to provide the fundamental principles of sustainable agriculture. It deals with the sustainable agriculture development objectives, sustainability tripod of agriculture and sustainability indicators. It covers some of the approaches to sustainable agriculture such as conservation agriculture, organic farming, agro-ecology, low external input supply agriculture, precision farming, farm diversification and resource for sustainable agriculture.
  4. EXT101(Communication & Extension):
  5. SSC103(Fundamentals of Soil Science): The module aims to provide the students with fundamental knowledge of soil science covering the different aspects of soil pedology and edaphology. This deals with soil formation processes, soil components, soil classification, soil biology, physical and chemical properties of soil. It also covers on different soil sampling methods, types of land degradation and on soil health quality. Relevant laboratory activities will be conducted to support students’ understanding of concepts that have been introduced in the module.

Semester II

  1. OAG101(History & Principles of Organic Agriculture):
  2. BIC301(Biochemistry): The module aims to provide a broad knowledge of biochemistry to support the students’ understanding of other modules such as food science and postharvest technology. The module deals with structure, function and properties of biomolecules, classification of enzymes, their mechanism of action and industrial applications, basic thermodynamics, and the principles of biophysics. It also covers metabolic pathways and molecular basis of heredity. Relevant laboratory activities will be conducted to support students’ understanding of concepts that have been introduced in the module.
  3. SSC104(Plant Nutrition & Development): The module aims to provide students with the knowledge about plant nutrition and development. Students will learn about the role of essential nutrients (macro, micro and beneficial) from organic sources in plant growth. It will provide students with the understanding of plant-nutrient relationship and also the significance of hormones in the development of plant.
  4. WMT101(Crop Water Management): The module will provide understanding of crop-water-soil relationship. It will also develop skills in determining crop water needs and irrigation scheduling and designing different irrigation structures and drainage based on soil types and crop water requirements.
  5. HOR103(Fundamentals of Organic Horticulture): This module aims to develop fundamental knowledge and skills that are essential to organic horticulture. The focus will be on knowing about plant propagation, propagation structure, orchard establishment and management, bearing habits and problems of fruiting. This module will allow other succeeding modules on horticulture to build on its content.

Semester I

  1. CPY201(Plant Physiology): The module deals with plant anatomy, cell functions, and physiological functions of water in plants, nutrient assimilation, photosynthesis and respiration. It aims to provide students with knowledge and understanding of how plants function and carry out the vital living processes. Practical will also be conducted for better understanding of the concepts covered by the module.
  2. HOR206(Organic Horticulture Production): This module aims to provide knowledge and skill on sustainable organic production of horticultural crops through both theory and practical classes. The module covers the objectives, role and current status of horticultural crops focusing on their organic production practices which emphasizes on growing conditions, cultural techniques, harvest and postharvest operations.
  3. PLP201(Plant Disease & Management): The module aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills to understand the key concepts and processes in plant disease and management. Through the module students will acquire the ability to identify plant disease including their management to reduce crop loss. Lessons will be delivered through theory and practical sessions.
  4. PLP202(Pest Ecology & Management): The module aims to introduce students to key concepts and practices of pest management in organic agriculture. Essential topics such as fundamentals of entomology and integrated pest management will be covered.
  5. LP203(Weed Management in Organic Agriculture): This module aims to provide basic understanding of the principles and practices of weed management. The module will focus on various strategies to manage weeds organically and the effects of weed control on agriculture and environment. Field practical will be carried out for better understanding of the concept and principles on weed management.

Semester II 

  1. ATT201(Field attachment): Field Attachment module is designed to enhance students’ ability to integrate academic knowledge with practical application and to expose them to real life situation. It is also expected to create relevance for past and future classroom learning and develop work place social and human relation skills.
  2. SSC201(Soil & Plant Diagnostics): This module aims to provide an understanding of the principles of soil and plant diagnostic techniques. Soil diagnostics techniques will provide students with the knowledge and skills in soil sampling, interpret soil tests results, and make fertilizer recommendations in relation to organic farming. Plant diagnostics will provide students with skills in plant sampling for diseases and nutrient disorder diagnosis. Students will learn to integrate field observations and management history of the farm with that of soil and plant tests results and recommend remedial measures for organic farming.
  3. OLF201(Principles of Organic Livestock Farming): This module will enable students to acquire an understanding of the principles of Organic Livestock farming with practical experience of working with farm animals. The module will include livestock rearing in the context of organic principles, focusing on animal breeding, feeding, animal welfare, disease prevention, treatment, certification and marketing. The students will also learn about organic farming in the context of value chain management.
  4. AGR204(Organic Field Crop Production): This module aims to provide student with knowledge and skills on the principles and practices of organic field crop production. The focus of the module is on the management and production practices of major field crops based on organic principles.
  5. SSC201(Organic Fertilizers & Pesticides): This module aims to provide an understanding of fertilizers and pesticides used in organic agriculture and their production methods. The module focuses on three major aspects: principles of nutrient cycling using organic manures and their production, Bio-fertilizers and their production and Pesticides used in organic agriculture.

Semester I

  1. OLF302(Organic Livestock Production): This module aims to provide students an understanding of the principles of organic dairy, poultry, swine, honey and fish production. The module will also enable students to deal with the management of organic farm, and production of organic feed.
  2. HOR205(Medicinal Herbs & Spices): The module aims to provide students with knowledge and skills in the production and domestication of a wide range of medicinal and aromatic plants. It will also provide students understanding of various traditional healing practices, the uses, and classification and conservation strategies.
  3. BRS201(Organic Plant Breeding & Seed Production): This module aims at providing knowledge and skills on concepts of organic plant breeding and quality seed production. It focuses on different breeding methods, aspects of quality seed production, policies and application of biotechnology in organic farming.
  4. AGR301(Farm Equipment): This module aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to identify and take advantage of opportunities to use appropriate technology to aid hand scale production and to mechanize farm activities. In order to achieve this intention, students will learn how to study farm activities and identify opportunities to mechanize and use new tools. They will also be introduced to a range of agricultural equipment currently employed in the country, and the basic mechanism on which they function, including basic maintenance of these equipment. In addition, students will learn basic elements of design to aid them with the development of simple prototypes for new agricultural equipment and innovation in Bhutan.
  5. ECN201(Farm Economics & Marketing): This module is designed to provide relevant knowledge on the basics of farm economics, agricultural marketing and farming systems (managerial aspect of farm production). It also aims to teach a pragmatic approach in the application of economic analysis of farm enterprises for improving the farming systems.

Semester II

  1. STS301(Statistics): This module aims to equip students with knowledge of basics of statistics and skills on how to use the knowledge of statistics while designing proposal, carry out research projects, analyse data and write a research paper. This module also aims to equip students with necessary skills in using various software tools required to process and analyse the collected data and also understand the statistical information presented in reports and research papers.
  2. RES301(Research Methods): This module equips students with necessary knowledge and skills of research methods needed in carrying out social surveys, case studies, and experiments, and write technical reports. It includes the fundamental concept of research, data collection procedures, case studies, survey methods, research designs, and scientific writing.
  3. OFP301(Organic Foods & Product): The module aims to provide an understanding of the role of the organic foods and products in sustainable livelihoods. Through the module, students will learn how to promote and market organic foods and products. Students will also get opportunities to design innovative ways to exhibit organic foods and products.
  4. EDP101(Entrepreneurship Development): The module will enable students to kindle the spirit of enterprise in themselves, evaluate and develop their skills, and motivate them to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. The module intends to enable students to assess the Bhutanese labor market, economy, and equip them with ability to identify business ideas, spot business opportunities, develop business model and business plan/proposal.
  5. GIS201(Geographic Information System & Remote Sensing): The module provides student with concepts and hands-on practice on GIS (Geographic Information System) and GPS (Global Positioning System) to enable them to use these applications in the field. Students are also introduced to the concepts and principles of Remote Sensing technology, which they can relate its applications in conjunction with GIS and GPS.

Semester I

  1. OAG404(Agro-ecology & Food Systems): The module aims to provide an understanding of the principles, practices and approaches of agroecology and food systems. It will also cover farm systems and the complexity of how farmers manage the agroecosystem. Students will be exposed to successful case studies of agroecologically managed production systems around the world. In addition to this, students will get the opportunity to make a critical analysis of food systems, food sovereignty, and the role of politics and policies in food and agroecological transition.
  2. OAG405(Planning & Designing Organic Farms): This module aims to provide an understanding and skills in planning and designing organic farms as a viable living enterprise concerned as much with sustainable profit as with values associated with organic agriculture. The module will introduce students to General Systems Theory and its application in designing and planning organic farm. Besides, the students will learn the farm budgeting techniques to ensure sustainable income from the farm.
  3. HOR203(Organic Post Production Management & Quality): This module aims to provide an understanding of organic postharvest management and quality. The module focuses on postharvest physiology and measures for shelf life extension, principles of food processing, food preservation and different modus operandi in food preservation using both traditional and novel method.
  4. OAG406(Organic Regulations, Standards & Certification): The module aims to provide an understanding of the requirement and evolution of standards, regulation and certification in organic agriculture. The module will discuss how consumer and societal values can be addressed via standards, regulations and other incentives. The module will cover global and local situations and relevant standards and certification processes. Through this module student will learn the practical relevance and implementation of standards and certification for marketing and trade of organic produce.
  5. MGT201(Organizational Management & Leadership): This module provides the basis for understanding leadership and management how it influences organizational management and performance. It explains the importance of first creating self-awareness to develop interpersonal effectiveness in managing the tasks. The module will equip the students with the knowledge and skills to develop into effective and successful leaders and to manage their personal and organizational situations.

Semester II

  1. RES402(Research Project): This module is designed to provide students with the understanding and firsthand experience of carrying out a research project in organic agriculture by applying concepts/theories and practice, integrating multiple sources of information from different areas and test their analytical skills. It will allow the students to specialize in a given field of study.