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Expert Training 7


Information about training programme

  • Title of training: Economic Botany
  • Description of project: A series of lectures, demonstrations and practicals giving a foundation in the genetical principles underlying domestication and the systematics of the major groups of crop-plants, with particular emphasis on tropical examples. Students will appreciate not only the botany of cultivated plants, their structure, evolution, and systematics, but also the relevance of these studies to the economies of both temperate and tropical countries. Material will be used from the herbarium collections of economic plants and the Hortus Botanicus and commercially available products.
  • Duration of training: 3 weeks

Type of training

  1. Practical experiences
    • Identification of major botanical economic plants and their products
    • Writing a term paper
    • Oral presentation
  2. Lectures
    • Lecture-demonstrations on specific topics, including e.g., origins of agriculture, food and other economic crops arranged to commodity groups (like roots, cereals, pulses, fruits, beverages, oils & fats, timbers & firewood crops, fibres & latex, pharmaceuticals, herbs & spices, and ornamentals).
  3. Seminars
    • Participants prepare a short paper on an economic plant of their choice and give a presentation on this subject at the end of the course in a mini symposium.

Contact information of mentor / supervisor

  • Name of mentor / supervisor: Prof. D.J. Mabberley
  • Institution / Organisation: The National Herbarium of the Netherlands
  • EDIT partner number: 6
  • Unit / Department / Laboratory: PITA
  • Address: Van Steenis building, Einsteinweg 2, Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Indicative time period when mentor is not available: Prof. D.J. Mabberley is not available from O ctober to August. He is only available in September.

Target audience: for trainees at PhD or Postdoc level.

Individual training based on face-to-face and group discussions and self-activation in practicals. The content is shaped to the advanced courses organized by NHN in this matter, which usually have 1-2 lectures a day followed by a full day practicals and demonstrations.