Entrepreneurship and Quality for the Agri-food System
What is the objective of the course? What is it?
What does it train you for?
What does it train you for?
The Master's Degree Course in Entrepreneurship and Quality for the Agri-food System aims to train professionals aimed at enhancing entrepreneurial skills and enhancing quality requirements; in particular, in reference to the awareness that Sicily is characterized by a strong potential for the production of foods with high organoleptic, hygienic-sanitary, but also cultural, historical and environmental requirements.
The professional that the course prepares must be able to operate in a global economic system, to start business and supply chain initiatives with a view to sustainability, through the various forms of coordination of production, organizational and logistics activities.
The course also responds to the need to train professionals in quality certification and food safety, for the enhancement of agricultural and livestock production, fresh and processed, and the organization of quality agri-food supply chains.
The Course of Study is divided into two curricula: Business Management and Quality Enhancement and Management of the Livestock Business.
What do you learn?
The Master's Degree provides the skills needed to obtain high-quality and safe agri-food products.
To this end, the courses focus on techniques for qualifying food production "in the field": in herbaceous, horticultural and arboreal crops and in livestock production.
Skills related to "post-harvest" are also provided, on the technological processes of food transformation and those aimed at eliminating fungal and microbiological risks.
Qualitative enhancement is addressed through skills related to quality certifications and food safety, combined with knowledge of marketing and business management, logistics and food packaging, within the framework of EU agricultural policies.
What can you do with it?
The graduate in Entrepreneurship and Quality for the Agri-food System can work in the field of adopting quality management systems (QMS) or as an auditor for certification bodies.
In the distribution and Producer Organizations (PO), and within agro-industry companies, he/she can be responsible for procurement and quality, marketing and logistics organization.
He/she can work within public administration and research bodies, in national and international institutions (FAO, European Commission, etc.).
With the professional qualification, he/she can register with the Order of Agronomists and Forestry Doctors (Section A), and work as a freelancer in the following fields (taken from the Order of Agronomists and Forestry Doctors CONAF):
Consultancy on cultivation and breeding programs, to the feed industry and breeders.
Prevention and treatment of diseases of cultivated plants.
Genetic research.
Quality control of agricultural products and agri-food transformation processes, including quality certification.
Economic assessments and management of company accounting.
Design and management of construction works for rural buildings, agri-food plants and structures for agritourism.
Execution of cadastral, topographic and cartographic works.
Consulting on land reclamation and irrigation works.