This interdisciplinary graduate group provides students with knowledge and skills to implement, facilitate, and manage programs that enhance agricultural development, resource management, and rural life, particularly in developing and less-industrialized regions of the world. The program provides both breadth and depth components. The required breadth components provide students with an understanding of international development issues related to agriculture and the environment. These include the history and philosophy of development, leadership and management techniques, fundamentals of crop and livestock farming systems, and agricultural economics. The depth component is acquired through a student’s area of specialization. These may include agricultural and resource economics, agricultural engineering, agronomy, animal science, anthropology, aquaculture, avian sciences, community development, ecology, economics, entomology, environmental design, environmental toxicology, food science, gender, geography, horticulture, nutrition, plant pathology, plant biology, plant protection and pest management, political science, pomology, preventive veterinary medicine, range science, sociology, soil science, sustainable agriculture, vegetable crops, viticulture, and water science. In addition to the Master of Science, the program offers a Certificate in Development Practice. This program is available to registered students in any UC Davis graduate program and includes coursework in international development, energy production and use in developing countries, entrepreneurship, human nutrition, and a development practicum.

Graduate Program Requirements