Welcome from the Dean

The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources offers students a distinctive mix of degrees and units that reflects our focus on commerce and science.

Our faculty provides students with opportunities to integrate studies in a range of fields in applied economics and in plant, soil and water sciences at the University of Sydney, including units from many other faculties. Integration and breadth have long been hallmarks of our degrees and I hope you will find the current offerings as exciting, challenging and ultimately rewarding, as have the many previous students of the faculty who have gone on to take leading positions in business, science and government. For nearly 100 years, our faculty has helped lead Australian agriculture via both its education and research activities.

In this handbook you will find descriptions of degrees and units that will help equip students to tackle some of the most significant and challenging issues of our time:

• How can we feed the world, especially when climates and resources such as water are changing constantly?
• How can Australia meet its commitments to improve its carbon balance?
• How can we use all of our resources in a sustainable way, for all purposes, including the production of energy?
• How can we produce nutritious food and high quality fibre without degrading environmental values such as the quality of soil, water and the atmosphere?
• How do we use markets and other economic and policy instruments to help us do all of the above?

We welcome students who share our passion for application of science and economics to these major issues. It is increasingly clear that providing solutions is an exciting career path. Opportunities for skilled graduates are growing exponentially. Previously unheard of opportunities in fields such as carbon and water trading, food futures, ecohydrology, and sustainability complement recent developments in catchment management, land rehabilitation, molecular biology and many more. Our graduates can be found in merchant banks, in environmental consultancies, in scientific research organisations around the world, in government departments and a host of other progressive institutions. Coupled to on-going demand for generalists and specialists within traditional fields such as agronomy, horticulture, plant breeding, and pests and diseases, the future for our graduates is bright. It is no surprise that they are in extraordinarily high demand.

Our degrees emphasise quantitative and analytical skills. We focus our teaching on "learning by doing" and students get ample opportunity for adding to theory via learning during field trips, study tours, work experience and practical classes.

Research is our other primary focus and meshes seamlessly with our teaching. Much of our research is based "in the bush" as much as it is in the laboratory. Our students engage with land-owners, industry and government agencies, especially in senior years as they develop their knowledge at the forefront of science and economics. The faculty’s research is world-leading in fields across environmental and agricultural sciences and our researchers and students are involved in international collaborations that span the globe.

Through our teaching and research, we aim to help students become significant contributors to local, regional and global economic development and to developing better ways of managing resources such that we address the environmental challenges of our time. Most of all, we hope that your time in our faculty will impart a love of learning that will serve you well throughout your career.

Professor Mark Adams
Dean