Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

MSc in Sustainable International Agriculture

It offers a well-founded knowledge of bio-physical and socio-economic factors determining agricultural livelihood systems, an understanding of global ecosystems and their relationship with agriculture and social, professional and methodological expertise. The study programme is internationally oriented.

The scientific and project-oriented study programme teaches methodical, cooperative and interdisciplinary competences, which are more and more important in the professional world. Basic knowledge taught in the obligatory modules is combined with specialised, up-to-date knowledge and analytical/ methodical skills taught in a wide range of mandatory and elective modules. This ensures the relevance of the knowledge gained through the programme for the mentioned professional fields.

The study programme offers three possibilities for specialisation (profiles):

International Agribusiness and Rural Development Economics

The profile “International Agribusiness and Rural Development Economics” within the MSc program “Sustainable International Agriculture” trains students to analyse socio-economic interactions between individuals, resources and markets in agriculture using up-to-date quantitative and qualitative methods.

Students acquire the tools they need to contribute to the provision of answers to vital questions ranging from the macro-level (e.g. global hunger, the world trade system) to the meso-level (e.g. the structure and performance of national and international food chains; food safety and quality issues) and the micro-level (e.g. the efficiency of agricultural production, participation and poverty at the household level) in agricultural systems.

International Organic Agriculture

The profile “International Organic Agriculture” within the MSc program “Sustainable International Agriculture” offers students the unique possibility to focus entirely on Organic Agriculture. It includes a broad range of topics from soil, crop and animal sciences, as well as environmental, social and economic sciences.

You will be asked to: Examine and assess the validity of literature from the natural and social sciences, statistics and other documents. Use state-of-the-art statistical techniques to analyse ‘hard‘ and ‘soft‘ data. Apply laboratory methods, technical procedures and qualitative/quantitative approaches of data collection. Interpret and display research data. Apply your skills in the context of international and organic agriculture and agroecosystems‘ assessment.

Tropical Agricultural and Agroecosystems Sciences

The profile “Tropical Agriculture” within the MSc program “Sustainable International Agriculture” aims at qualifying students to become open-minded, well-trained professionals in sustainable agricultural land use of integrated tropical and subtropical agro-ecosystems.

A wide range of modules in soil, plant, animal and socio-economic sciences, as well as method-oriented classes, confer skills for in-depth analysis, understanding and possible modification of existing farming systems in the wake of the need for a resource-efficient production of agricultural goods that responds to the challenges of population growth, globalisation and climate change in a site-specific way.

A bi-annual two-week excursion to a tropical country (e.g. Oman, Mexico, Kenya, and Thailand) and participation in ongoing long-term field research projects of different faculty members allows you to test and apply your skills under real conditions while collecting credits.