Agroecology as Key: New Paradigms, New Professionals

Abstract

The input-dependent productive model has achieved considerable increases in crop productivity per unit area, despite this, it is currently being questioned due to the ecological and sociocultural problems it is generating. This makes the disciplinary field of the agronomist demand a new way of intervening in the rural environment, the agroecological paradigm being an alternative capable of overcoming the limitations of the current hegemonic model. In the present work, a diagnostic investigation was carried out that sought to investigate the conceptions and positions in relation to the inclusion of the agroecological paradigm in the professional training of the Agricultural Engineer of the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine (FAV) of the National University of Río Cuarto (UNRC). The results obtained allow us to affirm that there is a good predisposition on the part of teachers and students to incorporate more environmentally friendly paradigms in the curriculum. Likewise, it was found that in almost half of the subjects of the degree, topics related to agroecology are already discussed, although only in some is it made explicit in the programs. The ministerial resolutions that regulate the profile of the graduate and the minimum contents, although they have a marked commercial intention, do not present limitations for the incorporation of agroecology.