New frontiers in the teaching of the agricultural enterprise: elements for a debate

Abstract

The ecological transition assigns a strategic role to farms in achieving the sustainable transformation of agricultural system. Therefore, teaching of agricultural economics must make these demands of civil society its own and rethink topics, decision-making tools, and teaching methods fostering the transition to sustainable agriculture. Main aim of this article is to discuss relevant teaching topics and useful decision support tools advancing in the concrete path of rethinking teaching of agricultural economics in distinct cycle of university studies. Five topics have been recognized as priorities for the rethinking of the teaching of agricultural economics: agricultural systems, equitable distribution of value, quality and value of agri-food products, territorial regeneration, protection and regeneration of natural resources. Subsequently, the focus of the paper is on the nature and role of decision support tools in university teaching. Finally, some considerations were extended to the opportunities offered by formal teaching in the context of informal teaching such as university-enterprise cooperation and in the context of the internationalization of degree courses supported by the Erasmus+ program. Further analysis is needed to evaluate how to rethink both single training courses, and global study programs in agricultural economics.