Benchmarking crop nutrition and crop protection in arable farming systems

Chair group

Plant Production Systems

Supervision

Dr. Paul Ravensbergen (PPS-WUR) - paul.ravensbergen@wur.nl
Jop van der Wel, PhD candidate (PPS-WUR) – jop.vanderwel@wur.nl

Timeline

MSc thesis starts: Field work is from July – October, start ideally somewhere before or in this period.

Project Summary

To decrease the environmental impact of arable farming, while also meeting productivity targets, more efficient use of inputs as nutrients and pesticides is needed. At Plant Production Systems, research is being conducted in a large network of arable farmers in the Netherlands to quantify and explain variations in resource use efficiencies among farmers.

We are looking for MSc students that:

• Have an interest in topics like yield gaps, resource use efficiency, pesticide use. Also socio-economic/behavioral aspects of farmers decision making can be considered.
• Are willing to do field work somewhere in the period of July – October. This also involves visiting farmers.
• Have experience with/or want to learn quantitative research methods like modelling, data analysis

Requirements

• Required courses for doing a MSc thesis at PPS
• Enthusiasm to do field work
• Some basic knowledge in using R statistics