Courses

Quality Management in Agriculture

General

Course Contents

  • The course includes the basic principles and concepts of quality management through sustainable systems that are applied and recognized worldwide.
  • The main standards of sustainable agriculture, which can be certified by accredited bodies and are recognized by both the national and the global market, will be analyzed.
  • The methods, procedures and processes of these standards, work instructions and forms that must be followed for the completion of quality management, in the enterprises of the wine sector will be developed.
  • The prerequisites of the quality management systems for the design, development and implementation of the relevant systems in the field (on site) will be analyzed.
  • Risks will be identified and critical control points will be assessed that must be monitored in order to produce agricultural products that are safe and of good quality for consumption.
  • The management system related to the production of organic products, its requirements and the processes that should be followed throughout the production process will be presented. Its inspection questionnaire will be presented and each of its requirements will be analyzed. At the same time, the procedure for the inclusion of an agricultural holding in the organic program of the FSA will be presented.
  • The management system of integrated agriculture, for the production of “certified products”, as the most prevalent alternative form of agriculture worldwide, will be thoroughly presented. The internal inspection checklist will be analyzed step by step.
  • The comparative advantages and innovative actions of sustainable agriculture will be determined, leading to reduced production-handling-disposal costs, product quality and producer health safety.
  • The preventive measures and processes implemented by the standards will be developed to minimize the impact of the production process on the sustainability of the environment.
  • A comparative analysis (SWAT) will be done between organic, integrated and conventional agriculture.
  • Environmental aspects that affect quality management in agricultural production will also be identified.

Educational Goals

The course material aims to acquaint students with the basic principles of Quality Management in Agriculture. Learning outcomes will be achieved through course objectives

The objectives of the course are for the student to:

  • To be introduced to the basic concepts of sustainable quality management systems applied in agriculture and to the connection of the concept and its role with the strategic business objectives of the agricultural holding.
  • To realize the essential contribution of these systems to the quality of the produced product, to its safe consumption, to the health of those involved (farmers) and to the protection of the environment.
  • To get to know all the management models/systems of sustainable agriculture, as well as the requirements – obligations – commitments that arise for agricultural holdings (organic farming – integrated management).
  • To know the concepts and usefulness of quality management, to be able to recognize the risks and critical points in the production process of agricultural products.
  • To be able to inspect and certify an agricultural holding, according to the applicable standards of 1) organic and 2) integrated agriculture.
  • To understand the peculiarities of the management of organic products and the problems arising from the application of organic farming at the economic and administrative level.
  • To raise awareness of organic farming issues, both from its sociological and economic aspects.
  • To understand the comparative advantages in a farm that implements one of the sustainable agriculture systems, but also the practical problems arising from their daily application.
  • To raise awareness of issues of quality management of agricultural products and the safety they provide to the health and quality of life of consumers.
  • To learn crisis management from emergency crisis situations (eg Covid-19) and to adjust the quality policy.
  • To get in touch with professionals in the field, both at the level of inspector (farmer) and at the level of inspector of quality management systems, in order to get examples of good practice and application of the knowledge gained during the teaching of the course.
  • To recognize the possible risks that may appear at each stage of the production process of an agricultural product, in order to minimize the possibility of food safety problems.

The objectives of the course will be achieved:

  • with the comparative presentation of the management and organization between certified and non-certified agricultural holdings, in order to prove the economics and usefulness of quality management for the farm, with the aim of improving the quality of its agricultural products.
  • by developing specific examples from my own certified applications of sustainable agriculture management systems.
  • with the analysis (step by step) of the procedures of the quality management certification standards.
  • with the study and presentation by the students themselves of a quality management system implementation study.
  • By writing a project quality plan and completing an internal audit questionnaire.
  • by visiting agricultural holdings to directly monitor the implementation of a quality system, on the day of the external inspection.
  • by the invitation for lecture/discussion of quality management officers and external quality system inspectors from the certification bodies live or via skype/zoom.

General Skills

  • Decision making.
  • Autonomous work.
  • Teamwork.
  • Production of free, creative and inductive thinking.
  • Work in an interdisciplinary environment.

Teaching Methods

  • In the classroom, face to face.

Use of ICT means

  • Basic software (windows, word, power point, the web, etc.).
  • Support of learning process through the electronic platform / e-class.

Teaching Organization

ActivitySemester workload
Lectures39
Independent Study86
Total125

Students Evaluation

Assessment Method:

  • Short Answer Questions.
  • Developmental Questions.

Recommended Bibliography

  1. Βιβλίο [102070951]: Ποιότητα και Ασφάλεια Τροφίμων και Ποτών, 2η Έκδοση, Τσάκνης Ιωάννης.
  2. Βιβλίο [94701965]: Διαχείριση Ποιότητας στις Επιχειρήσεις Γεωργίας, Τροφίμων και Ποτών, Καρυπίδης Φίλιππος, Κοντογεώργος Αχιλλέας, Τσελεμπής Δημήτριος.
  3. Παυλίδης, Σ., Οργάνωση και Διοίκηση Επιχειρήσεων, ΤΕΙ Καβάλας, 2016.
  4. Παπαναγιώτου Ε., Μηλιάδου Δ., Φωτόπουλος Χ., Βιολογική γεωργία, φυτική και ζωική παραγωγή, Δίκτυο Βιολογικής Γεωργίας (Εύδοξος).
  5. Επιτροπάκης, Τ., Βιολογική Γεωργία, Εκδόσεις Έμβρυο, Αθήνα, 2000.
  6. Barker, AV., Επιστήμη και Τεχνολογία βιολογικής γεωργίας, Εκδόσεις Έμβρυο, Αθήνα, 2010.
  7. Papadopoulos, S, Markopoulos, T. (2015). Factors Affecting the Implementation of Integrated Agriculture in Greece. ELSEVIER Procedia Economics and Finance 33 (2015) 269 – 276.
  8. Papadopoulos, S., Zafeiriou, E., Karelakis, C., Koutroumanidis, T. (2016). Investigating farmer’s perception for adopting alternative farming systems. Springer 2016. Contributions to Economics The First Decade of Living with the Global Crisis XII, ISBN: 978-3-319-24266-8. http://www.springer.com/978-3-319-24266-8.
  9. Papadopoulos, S., Zafeiriou, E., Karelakis, C., Koutroumanidis, T. (2016). Going sustainable or conventional? Evaluating the CAP’s impacts on the implementation of sustainable forms of agriculture-case of Greece. Land Use Policy 47 (2015) 90–97.
  10. Papadopoulos, S., Zafeiriou, E., Karelakis, C., Koutroumanidis, T. (2018). Organics or not? Prospects for Uptaking Organic Farming. New Medit 1/2018 DOI:10.30682/nm1801b.
  11. Papadopoulos, S., Markopoulos, T., Chousou, Ch., Natos, D., Mattas, K. Highlighting a Key Question for the Common Agricultural Policy: Adoption of Agriculture System Types. Int.J. Food System Dynamics 10 (3), 2019, 250-261.
  12. Markopoulos, T., Papadopoulos, S., Chousou, Ch., Natos, D., Mattas, K. CAP’s Impacts on the Selling Points of Agricultural Supplies and Local Economy. Springer 2020. Cooperative Management Sustainable Food Chain and Ecosystems ISBN 978-3-030-39608-4 ISBN 978-3-030-39609-1 (eBook)  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39609-1.