Environment and natural resources: dry climates and their world distribution, climatic factors and their effect on crop production, soils of the dry zones, water resources, conservation and development; crops under moisture stress: crop-water relations, plant adaptations to moisture stress, crop introduction and breeding for drought-prone areas; land use and farming systems: agricultural systems in dry regions and their evolution, sustainable agriculture in dry regions; soil and crop management: soil fertility, mineral plant nutrition and fertilizer use, irrigation: principles and practice; the maintenance of a permanent irrigation agriculture, tillage, plant population and planting geometries, crop sequences and associations; crop protection: weeds and theircontrol, insects and other plant pests, plant deseases.