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Master UdL
Introduction
Society needs technicians and researchers to make the best use of
natural resources for agriculture and in the transformation of foods, plant fibers, and other
useful plant and animal products. Historically, technicians had to perform the necessary farming
operations to obtain new varieties of plants or races of animals, to obtain greater yields, and to
transform products obtained directly from Nature. They had to process new products through various
agricultural industries, for the purpose of obtaining higher productivity and a greater economic
benefit. But, based on the conclusions to modernize and to diversify the curricula and the research
programs of the European Community (Final report of 5th Conference of International Group for
Agriculture and Related Sciences in Europe (Weinestepham, Germany) in 2001) (Perspectives for
Higher Education in the Sciences applied to Agriculture, Food and Nature), a change is absolutely
necessary to maintain the paradigm of the role of Agriculture in the development of the Humanity.
We must change from an Agriculture of High Production to an Agriculture of Maintenance, developing
security of food and protection of the environment. This change requires the initiation of a new
and more careful education and agrarian investigation in the following principle fields:
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