Distance Education Course from ACS
ORGANIC FARMING - BAG305
Duration: 100 Hours (you study at your own pace).
COURSE AIMS
·Discuss the scope and nature of organic farming in today’s world.
·Select appropriate organic management systems for different organic farms.
·Understand the environmental, economic and political issues concerning organic farming.
·Explain the role of living organisms and decomposing organic matter in creating and maintaining an appropriate soil condition for successful organic farming.
·Contrive and apply appropriate weed management practices for an organic farm.
·Select and apply appropriate pest and disease management practices for both animal and plant production on an organic farm
·Design an appropriate system for organic production of cattle, sheep and pigs.
·Design an appropriate system for organic production of poultry and other miscellaneous animals.
·Design an appropriate system for organic pasture management.
Explain the broad-acre organic production of a grain or legume crop
COURSE STRUCTURE
There are ten lessons in this module as follows:
1.Introduction to Organic Farming – scope, nature, history, types of organic farming
2.Integrated Farm Management Systems – rotation design, cash crops, managing
waste, permaculture, polyculture, biodynamics etc
3.Organic Management Issues – certification, environmental concerns, marketing, PR
4.Organic Soil Management and Crop Nutrition –composting, mulching, green
manuring, cover crops, organic fertilisers
5.Weed Management : selecting appropriate techniques of control, weed identification
6.Pest and Disease Management: Animals & Plants
7.Livestock Management I: Beef, Dairy, Sheep and Pigs.
8.Livestock Management II :Poultry, Goats, Alpacas, Ostriches, Deer
9. Pasture: Pasture Varieties, Management Principles, Intensive systems, nitrogen
fixation, correct seed mix, risks with legumes,
10.Crops (eg. Wheat, Plant Fibre, Hay and Silage, Mung Beans, Sesame seed, etc)
WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS COURSE
Here are just some examples of the type of things you may do in this course:
·Investigate Organic industry such as, Certifying Organisations, Producers or organic farming groups in your locality or region
·Determine allowable inputs to an organic farm certifying in your area
·Discuss how an organic farm requires more labour than a conventional farm
·Visit an organic farm, either a real visit or virtual visit if that is not possible
·Prepare a plan for an organic farm.
·Describe the conversion process for one of the organic farms
·Investigate organic market potential
·Prepare a compost heap
·Prepare a diagram of a healthy soil food web
·Prepare a weed collection (25 weeds –either pressings or illustrations)
·Determine appropriate weed control within allowable organic farming limits.
·Describe the life cycle of three animal parasites
·Describe habitat requirements of various predatory insects
·Survey one or more farms regarding animal production systems
·How can the animals above be integrated into a vegetable or fruit production system
·Determine organic solutions to different farming problems
·Investigate different pasture management systems.
To enrol click here
