Agriculture, Food and Environment

The mission of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment is to improve education and research in agriculture, food production, sustainability and environment protection in the Mediterranean basin; and to educate future professionals who will enhance the knowledge and dissemination in these fields and will serve the needs of the society.

Education and research

The Department offers courses at doctoral (Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science; Biotechnologies), master (Agricultural Science and Technology; Food Science and Technology; Agricultural Biotechnologies; Territory, Environment and Landscape Protection), and bachelor level (Agricultural Science and Technology; Food Science and Technology; Territory and Landscape Planning and Protection). Some of these programs are developed in the framework of Erasmus projects, both at master (Agriculture Climate Change and Transitions) and at PhD level (Agricultural Transformation by Innovation, AgTraIn). The Department has more than 40 Erasmus+ agreements with EU and non-EU Countries.

The Department is partly located in Via Valdisavoia 5 (the historical building of the former Faculty of Agriculture) and partly in the modern campus of Via Santa Sofia 100.

The Department has several facilities, libraries and laboratories to support the research and teaching activities. In the fields of Agronomy and Agroecosystem Management, Food Crops, non Food Crops, Plant Biotechnology, Agricultural Chemistry, Food Technologies, Animal Biotechnology, Animal Production, Plant Pathology and Applied Entomology.

The Department hosts a number of laboratories including Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Mass Spectrometry, Micropropagation, Ecophysiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Food Technology and Sensory Evaluation. The Department is deeply involved in the University of Catania agricultural experimental field station whose main focus is to promote sustainable and moder agriculture by conducting applied research, providing educational programs, and supporting local farmers and agri-food system companies in optimizing production processes, analyzing final products and providing consultancy for their commercial exploitation.

The academic and research staff of the Department attracts public funding from regional, national and international bodies. Moreover, the active relationship with the rural and industrial world is testified by the numerous contracts with national and international companies.

Contacts

Via Santa Sofia 100, I-95123 Catania
e-mail: di3a@unict.it
www.di3a.unict.it