Department of Basic Science
Chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics and statistics — the ground the agricultural disciplines are built on.
The first year, and the reason the later ones work.
The department teaches the sciences the rest of the curriculum assumes: chemistry and biochemistry behind soil and plant nutrition, botany and plant physiology behind growth and yield, microbiology, physics and environmental science, and the mathematics and statistics that any trial or survey rests on.
Statistics carries particular weight here. Agricultural research is a discipline of variable ground, variable weather and small differences, and a trial that is not designed and analysed properly produces a confident number that means nothing — so experimental design is taught as a working skill rather than as a formula.
Chemistry and biochemistry
Analytical chemistry behind soil, plant and produce testing.
Botany and physiology
Plant structure, growth, physiology and microbiology.
Statistics and design
Experimental design and analysis for field trials and surveys.
Physics and environment
Agro-meteorology, soil physics and environmental science.