poweringag.org – We are happy to announce that the global initiative “Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development” (PAEGC) is launching a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in cooperation with TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. The 8-week course, which will run from Feb. 1 – Mar. 27, 2016, introduces challenges and solutions for sustainable energy use in the agriculture and food industry.
Background
Around one third of the energy used worldwide goes into the production and processing of food from field to table. Given the current energy system mix, the agrifood industry sector is however heavily dependent on fossil fuel inputs for production, transport, processing and distribution, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. With a continuously growing world population the need for food and for energy to produce it is increasing. At the same time millions of farmers and processors in developing countries and emerging economies lack access to clean energy technologies for irrigation, drying, cooling, storage and other processes.
How can these needs be met sustainably?
We have to produce more food with less energy, make energy use more efficient, and introduce and upscale more clean energy technologies.
About the Course
This MOOC will introduce participants to the Energy-Agriculture Nexus and introduces approaches for sustainably providing energy throughout all stages of agricultural value chains. Challenges but also solutions will be analyzed, concrete technologies will be examined focusing on their utility to promote access to clean energy. Participants will further be familiarized with relevant external influences such as market conditions, politics, and financing schemes of “powering agricultural” projects. Learning materials, developed by well-known experts, will be available as texts as well as videos on a week-by-week basis and are accompanied by assignments that will require the application of the newly learned skills.
“It is our goal to provide you with both, the theoretical background, as well as practical training. The MOOC will capacitate you to develop tailored sustainable solutions for specific agricultural projects independently.”
Prof. Dr. Ramchandra Bhandari, TH Köln, Course Instructor
Who can participate?
Everyone worldwide interested in the energy-agriculture nexus. Participation is free of charge.
Duration and Workload
Feb. 1 – Mar. 27, 2016 (8 weeks), with a minimum of 3–4 hours a week for reading course materials and collaborative online work.
Certificates
Participants will be awarded a personalized certificate issued by the PAEGC initiative and TH Köln for continuous contribution the course. The certificate policies will follow soon.
CVD 