The course will adopt a hybrid approach, intertwining online sessions with in-person, live components hosted in the Netherlands. Further specifics regarding this arrangement will be provided shortly. To summarize, here are the overarching subject matters to be explored throughout the course:

• Introduction and Sector Overview:
  Overview of Seed, Potato, and Horticulture Sector. Their value chains, and
  major stakeholders.

• Applying systems thinking and understanding sector transformation: Applying systems thinking concepts and tools, and learning about the driver, dynamics, and impacts of sector transformation.

• Production and Value Chains: Studying current production practices, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. Understanding the value chains in these sectors, with a focus on efficiency, value addition, and stakeholder roles. Also, a focus on Community Based conservation approach with focus on Community Seed Banks.

• Sector Services: Participatory Plant breeding, Quality Assurance and certification services, Seed Technology Services, Varietal deployment, and Citizen Science approach. Markets with focus on Local Seed Businesses.

• Sector Coordination and regulation: Exploring Sector Coordination and Regulation, focusing on systems thinking, food systems, stakeholder dynamics, seed policies, genetic resource agreements, intellectual property rights, seed regulatory reforms, and the principles and practice of effective multi-stakeholder partnerships in the seed sector.

Implementation in practice

While technical solutions for improving production systems are abundant, in practice many bottlenecks in the horticultural sector are grounded in national policies and are context specific. This therefore calls for appropriate management of improved production and market systems, along with supportive and enabling policies and institutions. In this view, special attention will be given to the role of stakeholders throughout the value chain.

Course setting

The training is job-oriented, experience-based and highly interactive. As a participant in this course, you receive an extensive training where theory is merged with practice. The course topics will be addressed through lectures, discussions, group work, case studies, excursions and field trips. Each of the components of the course has been specially designed to give you sufficient insight in the dynamics of the horticultural sector. And more importantly, this course provides a unique opportunity to learn from a wealth of international experience available among your peers around the world, the course facilitators and invited lectures and shared experiences with other horticulture enthusiasts.

This course is taught in a blended format: partially online and partially in person in The Netherlands

Our courses are currently taught blended and follow this format:

• Online pre-course assignments to ensure that you have acquired pre-required knowledge, understand the technical requirements of the online / hybrid learning.

• Interactive plenary sessions where we share content, facilitate exchanging experiences, challenge each otherthrough debates and discussion. During those interactive sessions we work witha number of online tools like Mentimeter, Jam Board and Mural.

• Group work either online, offline and face-2-face where you with other participants work jointly to answer specific questions and / or complete an assignment. During the face-2-face part of the course, the content and skills acquired during the online/hybrid part will be applied to a concrete case. Using backcasting each group will be guided and challenged to find innovate solutions for the identified problems, which will be presented at the end of the course.

• Individual assignments where you will read literature, watch videos, do exercises and take quizzes. These assignments are an essential part of the learning and most of them count for getting the certificate. They are meant to introduce or deepen knowledge and make the link between theory and your own situation.

• We offer coaching trajectories where we support you one-on-one or in small groups to review your individual learning paths in the course and help with any basic questions you may have.

The course is taught in partially online and the face-to-face part will take place in The Netherlands

Online platforms: Zoom and TalentLMS

Internet connection is important for the completion of the course. Not sure about the connection in your area? Send training.cdi@wur.nl an e-mail about your situation.

We use Zoom as a the virtual classroom for the online part.

Our learning system is TalentLMS. Everything you need — our course programme, assignments, background information are in this system. TalentLMS is easy to operate, can also be accessed by your phone and has an on-and offline functionality. To access TalentLMS you will receive a temporary WUR account.

We organise a technical check-in before the course starts, to test your facilities and get familiar with the tools.

Course planning and certificates

The course workload is approximately 16-20 hours a week (2-2.5 workdays).

The exact programme of your course will be available 2-3 weeks before the start of the course. If you’ve successfully completed your course we send you a digital certificate.

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