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Main course page
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Welcome to the course at the Duchy College University Centre, based close to the Cornwall and Devon border!
Agriculture is undoubtedly at a time of change, with severe challenges, including reduced and changed support funding, climate change, rising food quality demands and an expectation to enhance the environment. This agriculture degree is designed to turn these challenges into opportunities by providing tools to assist you in entering the sector, whether as farmers, managers, advisors, or applied scientists, as the digital agricultural revolution takes place.
There is a demand from both the farming and the ancillary sectors including animal nutrition, agronomy, farm consultancies and research and development organisations for a unique type of graduate with excellent knowledge of underlying economic principles and policy, along with a high level of understanding of science and the ability to critically evaluate and apply new technologies to a sector, which is lagging others in the uptake of technology.
We are a recognised centre of agricultural knowledge exchange excellence through the activities of Duchy College’s Rural Business School (RBS) and our ‘Future Farm’ applied dairy research facility. We will use these resources to include a wide range of guest speakers, on-farm activities and participation in farm events, trials and conferences to give you the expertise, knowledge and skills you need to meet the demands of employers in the sector.
The programme will cater for those applicants wishing to enter the sector in farm management roles as well as for those wishing to enter as applied scientists and advisors.
I am Paul Ward, your manager for both our BSc (Hons) Agriculture and FdSc Agriculture programmes.
Feel free to get in touch with any queries about your course. My contact details are:
Email: paul.ward@duchy.ac.uk
Tel: 07967 131712 and 01579 372315
Paul Ward | Programme Manager BSc (Hons) Agricuture and FdSc Agriculture
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Full-Time Course Starting September 2025
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Suggested reading would be industry magazines:
- Arable Farmer
- British Dairying
- Dairy Farmer
- Farmers Guardian
- Farmers Weekly
An industry textbook:
Soffe, R. and Lobley, M. (Eds) (2021) The Agricultural Notebook. 21st Edition. Chichester. Wiley-Blackwell.
(Speak to the course manager for a discounted cost copy)
- Arable Farmer
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The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a statutory levy board, funded by farmers, growers and others in the supply chain to help the industry succeed in a rapidly changing world. They aim to create a world-class food and farming industry, inspired by and competing with the best.
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is a part of the government responsible for improving and protecting the environment. Their aim is to grow a green economy and sustain thriving rural communities. They also support our world-leading food, farming and fishing industries.
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A collaboration between Duchy College, Animal Welfare Approved and A Greener World, this website of animal health and welfare information supports sustainable livestock farming by bringing together appropriate material from a wide range of recent research and advisory sources and making it accessible for farmers, veterinarians and advisors.
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Farm Net Zero is a major project from the farming community in Cornwall to show the contribution that agriculture can make to achieving Net Zero. Alongside the farming community, organisations contributing to deliver of the project include the Duchy College Rural Business School, the Farm Carbon Toolkit, Westcountry Rivers Trust, Innovative Farmers, Innovation for Agriculture and Just Farmers. The project is managed by Cornwall College and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund from January 2021 for five years.
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The SWARM Knowledge Hub was a resource management web information service dedicated to farmers and growers in South West England. By providing knowledge on best practice approaches and new innovations, the site helped to show that sustainable agriculture means more profit for the farming community.
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