For the production of healthy food in a healthy environment, in addition to a good knowledge of agricultural plants, it is important to know the wider environment in which they grow and develop, which includes weather and climate, space, land, and human behaviour as an individual and the wider community. All of the above are areas in which the chair members are active in the pedagogical and research fields.
The chair staff is organized into three thematic groups:
Agrometeorology Group
The influence of weather and climate on agricultural production is decisive for both the quantity and quality of the crop. Through research work in the field of agrometeorology, we want to use the acquired knowledge to enable the use of favourable climatic conditions and avoid the adverse effects of weather and climate in order to achieve optimal quality and quantity of the crop. We are developing models to study the impact of weather on plant growth and development and the development of plant diseases and pests. We are also preparing the agro-climatic regionalization of relief-rich Slovenia, with a special focus on the phenomena of drought. We also study quantitative relationships between weather and the well-being of domestic animals and humans. Recently, we have also been seriously dealing with climate change, its causes, scale and future climate scenarios. The aim is to assess the vulnerability of agriculture and the necessary adaptations to existing weather variability and expected climate change.
Agricultural Land Management Group
Research in the field of agricultural land management is based on the fact that agricultural space and agricultural land do not only serve food production, although on most agricultural land it is the most important, but also serve many other ecosystem functions, such as maintaining biodiversity and regulating water and circulation of nutrients. In order to balance all the above-mentioned functions, it is usually necessary to ensure adequate spatial planning of agricultural land and sufficient, but not too large, water supply. Not only is agricultural production dependent on water, but also agricultural activity often affects the quantity and quality of this natural resource in a given area, which still remains an important research challenge.
Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, and Rural Sociology Group
As part of social science research at the Department of Agronomy, we study socio-economic development strategies and models of market integration of farms as basic production and economic entities in food production. We investigate the economic and sociological characteristics of the rural population, rural development factors as well as socio-economic interactions between agriculture and environmental protection.