Agronomy V (Oil Crops) is a 100 hour course that encourages learners to enhance their skills and knowledge on the many different types of oil crops that are in high demand to produce a wide variety of products- from food, biofuels, cleaning products and much more.
Farmers who understand crops and land management practices will have more profitable businesses and will be able to diversify their crops when they need to.
This course has nine lessons:
Lesson 1: Nature & scope of oil crops
- What are plant oils?
- Essential oils
- Plant oil crops & uses
- Vegetable oil uses
- Essential oil uses
- Economic value of oil crops
- What crops can be grown where?
Lesson 2: Oil extraction
- Introduction
- Oil seed processing
- Mechanical processing
- Chemical processing
- Other processing methods
- Distillation
- Simple distillation
- Steam distillation
- Fractional distillation
- Vacuum distillation
- Molecular distillation
- Extractive distillation
- Membrane distillation
Lesson 3: Canola and rapeseed
- Characteristics of canola
- World production
- Growing canola
- Using seed
- Soil types
- Soil preparation
- Sowing
- Growth stages
- Environmental stresses
- Nutrition
- Irrigation management
- Weeds
- Pest control
- Diseases
- Harvesting
- Storage
- Processing
Lesson 4: Olive oil
- Characteristics of olive oil
- World production
- Growing olives
- Using seedlings
- Soil types
- Soil preparation
- Planting
- Pruning
- Growing conditions
- Varieties
- Nutrition
- Irrigation management
- Weeds
- Pest control
- Diseases
- Organic production
- Harvesting
- Storage
- Processing
Lesson 5: Other edible oils
- Growing conditions
- Organic matter
- Soil texture
- Subsoil PH
- Soil water available to plants
- Slope of the topography
- Natural soil drainage
- Maintaining good soil structure
- Growing edible oil crops
- Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)
- Flax/linseed (Linum usitatissimum)
- Soybean/soya bean (Glycine max)
- Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea)
Lesson 6: Herbal and pharmaceutical oils
- Introduction
- Pros and cons of herbal medicine & nutraceuticals
- Essential oils
- General guidelines for growing herbs for essential oils
- Planting
- Agronomy
- Improved herbs and essential oils
- Growing select crops for cosmetic or pharmaceutical oils
- Avocado (persea americana)
- Mint (mentha arvensis)
- Tea tree (melaleuca alternifolia)
- Blackcurrant (ribes nigrum)
- Passionfruit (passiflora edulis)
Lesson 7: Biofuel and other industrial oils
- Biofuel production
- Vegetable oils and genetic modification
- Extraction of oils from plants
- GMO crops
- Oleic acid
- Oil palm trees
- Novel fatty acids
- Chemical and biotechnological transformations of basic industrial oils
- Key targets for future industrial oil crops
- Unusual fatty acids
- Industrial importance
- Growing select crops for biofuels and other industrial uses
- Poppy (papaver somniferum)
- Castor bean (ricinus communis)
- Camelina (camelina sativa)
- Crambe (crambe abyssinica)
Lesson 8: Issues, Risks, Optimising success
- Successful farming
- Capital
- Profitability
- Risk management
- Succession
- Entrepreneurial skills of farmers
- Production management
- Developing a farming business plan
- Goals and mission
- Asset planning
- Land
- Irrigation water
- Livestock
- Farm management
- Labour and machinery
- Capital
- Soil testing
- Produce selection
- Integrated pest management
- Integrated weed management
- Grain storage
Lesson 9: Product development and management
- Oilseed production and extraction yields
- Oil fatty acid composition and biodiesel
- Oil extraction and biodiesel processing
- On-farm oil seed processing
