The status of teaching plant nematology to undergraduate agronomy students in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay

Abstract

In recent decades ‘modern’ agriculture has expanded into large areas of Latin American countries. The intensification of land use, with monocropping or fixed rotation schemes, has contributed to an increase in yield losses due to plant-parasitic nematodes. Thus, proper training in nematology for agronomists has become crucial to sustain food, fiber and bioenergy production. Through responses to a questionnaire received from nematology professors (NP) in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, it has become clear that nematology teaching (NT) is unsatisfactory in many agronomy schools. Of major concern, detected by this survey 1) a relatively low degree of graduate education among NP, 2) little or no involvement of most NP in nematology research, 3) too little nematology training of the students, expressed in class-hours, in the compulsory coursework, and 4) several issues, raised by the NP, that hinder improvements in NT. In these circumstances, the authors believe that only a concerted action involving nematologists and scientific societies involved with plant protection in those countries will be able to improve NT for agronomy students in the short- to mid-term.