Overview
Plant protection is a branch of agricultural science that studies biology and ecology of harmful organisms of agricultural crops, and develops methods to control and to prevent the damage to crops and losses of yield.
Plant protection involves many disciplines, requiring knowledge of the biology of pests, principals of crop production, biotechnology, pesticide toxicology, and environmental science. Besides, plant protection is an integrated approach based on biological control strategies, population dynamics and a molecular and genetic understanding of plant-pathogen, plant-insect and plant-weed interactions in order to minimize damaging species' impacts upon natural environments.
Department of plant protection was established in 1982 by admitting students at B.Sc. level. The department has been offering Master of Science in Agricultural Entomology since 1995 and Plant Pathology since 2002. Our PhD program in Plant Pathology is offered since 2013.
Our research activities are mainly in the areas of toxicology of pesticides Insect physiology, biological control of pests, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), fungal molecular systematic and phytopathology, plant- microbe interaction and plant viruses and virus-vector relationships.
Academic Programs
Undergraduate Programs: Undergraduate students must take 20 credits in general courses, 35 credits in basic courses, 35 credits in common core courses, 32 credits in major-specific courses and 18 credits in elective courses (total 140 credits) to obtain B.Sc. in Plant Protection. You can downoad the curriculum for undergraduate program from here and the course description from here.
Graduate Programs: This Department offers two majors in MSc level:
- Agricultural Entomology: To obtain M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Entomology, graduate students must take at least 31credits, 24 credits from the major-specific courses, 2 credits are the seminars and 6 credits are the thesis. You can download the description of the graduate courses in this major from here.
- Plant Pathology: The program consists of at least 31 credits, 25 credits of which are course work and 6 credits thesis. You can download the description of the graduate courses in this major from here.
