This course deals with the fundamental dimensions of regional development planning in developing countries based on the experiences, both good and bad, of international agencies such as the United Nations. Some strategies for regional development will also be introduced, while the main agenda will be on how to empower the local people for sustainable rural development.

Statistics and GIS for Agricultural Environment

This course will cover basics of data processing in agricultural and environmental sciences, which is composed of two parts. The first part will cover statistical analysis and interpretation of data using numerical and graphical summaries. It will provide statistical skills to interpret the meanings of the result using statistical software R. The second part will explore the options for GIS using and related technology. It will provide basic skills to create the spatial and attribute database on the digital map using GIS.

Environmental Soil Science

The purpose of this course is to understand the nutrient dynamics in forest and woodland ecosystems as well as changes that occur after disturbances such as wildfires or clear-cutting (Shima).
Basic knowledge of water and solute transport in soils are provided. Water quality concerning soil suspensions and functions of paddy fields to regional environments are also presented.

Environmental Irrigation System

Optimal irrigation and drainage are required to create an ideal water environment for the growth of plants and crops. Topics covered in this course will be the theory of soil water movement in the field, such as rainfall and irrigation, evapotranspiration, and drainage. Furthermore, nutrient dynamics in soil will be lectured together with agricultural benefits and negative impacts on the environment.

Forest Ecology

Students will learn to understand the structure, function, and changes in forest ecosystems, which will enable them to understand the maintenance mechanisms in these ecosystems. The ecological properties of natural forests, secondary forests, artificial forests, and plant communities in semi-arid zones are analyzed, followed by a discussion of their conservation regimes.

Hydrology is the study of the earth's waters - their movement, chemistry, and distribution. This course provides basic knowledge of hydrological cycle and basic techniques of hydrological analysis. Students study statistical analysis of hydrological processes, estimation of flood discharge, and rainfall-runoff models. Some issues related with hydrological environment, like climate change, environmental flow, and impact of socio-economic development on water environment, are also discussed.

Environmental Hydraulics

This course will focus on applied hydraulics for open channel flows, overland flood flows as well as geophysical currents in lakes, stratified flows in reservoirs and tidal/density currents in estuarine/coastal areas. Nutrients, contaminants and sediment transports due to convection and diffusion are combined with hydrological fluxes toward the modeling for basic ecosystem and synoptic watershed dynamics.

Sustainability of Energy and Resources

The objective of this course is to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of material and natural resource cycles for the construction of a sustainable society. A structured approach is used to introduce concepts such as sustainability of resources, minimization and reuse of waste, energy conversion processes with minimal environmental impact and technologies for the use of biomass as an energy source through the natural circulation of carbon dioxide.

Solid Waste Management

This course provides a basic understanding of the solid waste management and planning. The basic concept relevant to solid waste management, the definition and the classification of solid waste, and the outlines of technology and system for waste management will be lectured. This lecture also includes exercises for waste planning by using the decision support tool "Strategic Solid Waste Management Supporting Software (SSWMSS)" developed in Okayama University.

Aquacultural Ecology

This course will provide the basis knowledge of ecological principles and functions that operate within an ecosystem, the interaction between environmental components, between aquatic organisms as well as between environments factors and aquatic organisms. Further, it can be improve the utilization of natural resource in sustainable way.

This course outlines the current p­ractice of feeding a­nd raising food-producing animals in Japan and other developed countries. Emphasis will be placed on nutritional regulation of growth and health, including comparative physiology and biochemistry, and microbiology associated with food, feed and gut. The goal of this class is to study ways to improve the management of livestock production based on a sound understanding of the relationship between animals, feed resources and the environment.

Animal Reproduction

This course will provide a basic understanding of the mechanisms controlling the male and female reproductive functions of mammals. Fundamental concepts for the application of techniques to improve the reproductive efficiency of domestic animals, including rectal palpation, hormonal treatments for estrous synchronization, artificial insemination and embryo transfer will be presented.

Crop Production

This course will introduce the cultivation methods for high-quality and high-yielding crops, which have been developed through numerous experiments and hands-on experiences of farmers over a long period of time. Using the rice plant as a model, the relationship between cultivation methods and crop characteristics such as physiology, morphology and productivity will be explained.

Horticultural Crop Production

This course will provide the basic knowledge of horticulture including developmental physiology, nutritional physiology, reproductive physiology, breeding and biotechnology. And its application for horticultural crop production, utilization, propagation and improvement will be introduced. Moreover, the course will provide students with the opportunity to study an advanced level the techniques used for the horticultural crop production; identify important trends and developments within the horticultural industry; apply research methodology and information technology to horticultural practice.

Plant Genetics and Breeding

This course provides basic plant genetics needed in breeding and breeding methods for efficient crop production and sustainable agriculture in 21st century. It also explains the methods to expand the genetic diversity and genome dynamics for breeding and lectures basic molecular breeding.

Integrated Pest Management

This course deals with the fundamentals of plant protection, phytopathology, entomology and weed science. Integrated pest management (IPM), which involves the reduction of synthetic pesticides, will not succeed if either basic biological knowledge or a variety of technologies is deficient. Therefore, a basic knowledge of ecology, physiology and biochemistry of agricultural and forestry pests will be introduced in this course.