This master's program is an original educational opportunity that provides scientific and research training in the field of fruticulture, and it responds to the major changes occurring in the field of fruticulture, changes that require continuous modernization in aspects such as plant material, cultivation techniques, and crop protection, among others.
Its fundamental objective is to train specialized researchers in advanced techniques in the field of fruticulture, provide and transmit scientific and technical knowledge applied to this field, as well as introduce its students to the basic fundamentals of research, preparing them for their future careers.
Regulated profession: No
Doctorates providing access:
Completing the Advanced Research and Production Techniques in Fruticulture Master's Program entitles its graduates to continue their academic education in a PhD program. It also forms graduates capable of starting their careers in R&D departments at enterprises in the agricultural sector.
Fruticulture, which includes citriculture, plays a very significant role in Spain's agricultural sector. Therefore, this program fulfills a need by businesses, competent public administrations in agriculture, public and private research centers, and by society for graduates from schools of agronomic engineering and other similar programs.
The tremendous changes occurring in the field of plant production, and specifically in fruticulture, with new techniques for more efficient cultivation, techniques for obtaining and selecting new patterns and varieties, new techniques for crop protection, international certification on fruit production, etc., are arousing great interest in the sector, which is demanding trained professionals in this field, and up until now no graduate program had existed either at this University or any other nearby that addressed these issues simultaneously.
Moreover, consumers are increasingly demanding healthier food with greater nutritional and sensory properties, food that has been obtained in a transparent process and certified during its production, especially in the use of agrochemicals and other techniques that ensure the quality of the resulting food, the sustainability of the production system, and the health of farm workers.
ECTS credits: 60
| Core | Required | Electives | External internships | Final Master's Project |
|---|
| 0 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
Design
This master's program is comprised of 60 ECTS credits that are distributed among 7 required subject matter areas (fourteen 3-credit courses accounting for 42 credits) and the Final Master's Project (18 credits). All courses are taught in a blended learning format except for the defense of the Final Master's Project, which is presented in person.
Subject matter and courses:
- Research training (9 credits): Experiment Design and Data Analysis for Fruticulture Research; Introduction to Fruticulture Research; Multiple-Criteria Methodologies for Decision Making in New Planting and Priorities in Research.
- Plant material (9 credits): Plant Genetic Resources. Origin, Importance and Conservation; Morphological, Biochemical and Genetic Characterization of Plant Genetic Resources; Research Lines & Trends for Obtaining new Varieties and Patterns in Fruticulture, Citriculture and Viticulture.
- Cultivation techniques (9 credits): Irrigation Programming and Agronomic and Physiological Response from Fruit Trees under Deficit Irrigation; Influence of Abiotic Stress on the Nutrition of Fruit. Diagnosis Methods and Recommendations; Growth Regulators and their Applications in Fruticulture: Plant Growth and Reproductive Regulation and the Importance of Alternate Production for the Quality of Fruit.
- Production systems (3 credits): Integrated Production and GAP Management Systems.
- Crop protection (9 credits): Integrated Pest Control; Diagnosis and Control of Diseases Caused by Fungi and Bacteria; Methods for Diagnosing and Identifying Fruit Viruses and Phytoplasma.
- Post-harvest (3 credits): The Harvest and Advanced Techniques for Conserving Quality in Postharvest Fruit.
- Final Master's Project (18 credits)
Courses
Competencies
General competencies
- Analysis and synthesis capacity.
- Ability to plan and organize.
- Information management skills.
- Problem solving.
- Decision making.
- Ability to be critical and self-critical.
- Teamwork.
- Ability to work on an interdisciplinary and multicultural team.
- Ability to communicate with experts in other areas.
- Ability to apply knowledge in practice.
- Ability to generate new ideas.
- Ability to design experiments from a new idea.
- Ability to work with order and rigor.
- Rapidly incorporate and assimilate scientific advances within one's professional field, acquiring a solid foundation for performing tasks related to research, developmental, and innovational aspects of fruticulture.
- Ability to work autonomously.
Specific competencies
- Understand and apply experimental designs in various fields of fruticulture.
- Know the different economic resources for research funding.
- Know and identify the different phases that constitute a research project (background, feasibility, development) as well as the management of documentation, information, and their flows within fruit research.
- Plan scientific research projects and development and innovation in different fields of fruticulture.
- Understand and carry out pomological, phenological, biochemical, and genetic characterization of fruit species.
- Design, implement, and discuss scientific experiments.
- Understand the structure of a scientific document and write the results of a scientific experiment.
- Analyze data obtained from various experimental designs.
- Interpret the results from statistical analysis.
- Understand and determine the changes in the parameters involved in the process of fruit ripening and determinants of its quality.
- Apply the latest scientific knowledge of post-harvest technologies, considering the quality and safety of fruit.
- Know the latest techniques for the propagation of different fruit species.
- Understand the regulations, operations, and management of a genebank.
- Understand and apply methodological tools that allow considering different attributes in making decisions concerning fruit plantations.
- Determine the economic viability of new orchards and reasonably choose the most appropriate alternative.
- Understand the methods and technologies for determining the water requirements of crops.
- Develop watering schedules based on climatic variables, the measurement of the energy state of soil water or the plant's hydric status, both individually and combined.
- Establish deficit irrigation strategies with initiative, methodology, and critical reasoning.
- Understand and analyze the influence of abiotic stress in fruit trees and the methods for its assessment.
- Select and apply the appropriate techniques for diagnosis of viruses and phytoplasmas in a phytopathological laboratory.
- Link causal agents and crop damage.
- Know and understand the basics of epidemiology and diagnosis of diseases caused by fungi and bacteria in fruit crops.
- Design programs to control fungal and bacterial diseases.
- Understand the factors involved in the use of plant growth regulators.
- Know and identify the research enhancement patterns of different species and varieties of fruits and the latest varieties.
- Know and understand the principles of integrated pest management in fruit crops.
- Design programs of integrated pest control in orchards.
- Know and develop quality systems for farms.
Access and Admissions
Access
For access to official master's education, applicants must hold either an official Spanish university degree or one conferred by a higher education institution in a country belonging to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) that entitles access to master's education in such country.
Access may also be granted to those possessing a degree from an educational system outside the EHEA, without requiring its homologation, but following verification by the UMH that the degree represents an educational level that is equivalent to the corresponding official Spanish university degree and that it entitles access to graduate education within the issuing country. Access this way does not mean, under any circumstance, homologation of the degree the interested party holds, or its recognition for anything besides acceptance into a master's program.
Admissions
Admission requirements for this master¿s program include possession of either a degree of licenciado or grado (bachelor's equivalent) in agro-food and agro-environmental engineering; grado in food science and technology, agricultural engineering; graduado or licenciado in food science and technology, enology, chemical science, biological science, environmental science; or an agricultural technical engineering degree in any of its different specialties.
The Master's Admission Committee will examine the competencies contained in the applicants' degrees presented seeking admission into the master's program along with the curricula vitae of pre-registered applicants, and may, if necessary, condition any admission.
Links of interest of the master
Schedule
Fall Semester
September 17, 2018 - January 11, 2019
Thursdays and Fridays
Spring Semester
February 7, 2019 - May 29, 2019
Thursdays and Fridays
This schedule is for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change.