Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation. Agronomy has come to encompass work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. It is the application of a combination of sciences like biology, chemistry, economics, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Agronomists of today are involved with many issues, including producing food, creating healthier food, managing the environmental impact of agriculture, and extracting energy from plants. Agronomists often specialize in areas such as crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, plant physiology, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and insect and pest control.
Daniel Aliddeki, a trainer at St. Jude Family Projects, discusses the biofertilizer production undertaken in the field learning site to address the lack of microorganisms typical in some organic fertilizers. For St. Jude’s Family Projects, biofertilizers also provides balanced soil microorganisms and through chelation makes the soil nutrients more bioavailable to the plants.
Kabuga Experito, a trainer at St. Jude Family Projects, discusses its Banana Agronomy Project in Central Uganda, which tries to help small scale farmers improve the productivity of their banana farming. He covers the importance of banana as food in Uganda, and the production requirements and constraints.
