IA 340 - CEA Commercial Crop Production

Offered Fall: No Offered Winter: Yes Offered Summer: No Offered Other: No

4 Credits
Hours (Lecture - Discussion - Lab): 2-0-4
Prerequisites: IA 220, IA 250.

This controlled environment agriculture (CEA) course builds upon students’ knowledge of and experience with indoor agriculture systems and growing in controlled environment settings developed in NMU’s IA AAS program. The focus will be on scaling up for commercial crop production by applying manufacturing production methods for resource use efficiency, developing a basic business plan, exploring innovative CEA commercial systems and automation. This will include hands-on experiences evaluating yields and plant health and nutritional quality for production crops. Exploration of cutting-edge industry research will include testing growth of non-traditional crops, organic nutrient management, and microbial amendments.