Aims of the module
To provide a comprehensive series of lectures and practicals that demonstrate the main processes in crop growth and development and to use integrated approaches to analysing the principal environmental factors that affect the rate of crop growth.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:

• describe crop growth processes;
• analyse effects of environmental variables on growth.
• predict the consequences of variation in environmental variables on crop growth;
• identify crop species.

Syllabus / Curriculum design
The lecture course is principally concerned with crop growth and provides an introduction to the origin and growth of the shoot and root systems; leaf growth and functioning; photosynthesis and factors determining rates of photosynthesis; crop growth analysis, in particular in terms of radiation interception and radiation use efficiency; seed quality and germination; plant population density effects; crop water relations and nutrient requirements; introduction to plant-microbe interactions. The practicals investigate the vegetative and reproductive structure of grasses and keys are used to identify species; the internal anatomy of leaves, stems and roots; developmental changes in wheat and oilseed rape; structure and development of a range of fodder and root crops; inflorescence structure in cereals.