Dissertations- What subject/question would be helpful for farmers

[curlietailz]

We constantly see students posting questionairres on TFF asking for their opinions

I’m just wondering what subject or question , in the Environmental field would be “helpful” for farmers and agriculture ?

Students looking to do their final year/dissertation may be looking for some inspiration about now, to start their final year in September.

 

[topground]

Are food producers selling into a competitive market?
Does DEFRA provide value for taxpayers money?
How does Farm Assurance protect the public?
Where does food come from?
How thick are politicians?

 

[Jackov Altraids]

What is the comparative use of energy for field grown fruit, vegetable and meat compared to the total energy consumption of that grown indoors and how does that reflect on how far each can be transported and still have a lower footprint.

 

[SteveHants]

What is the comparative use of energy for field grown fruit, vegetable and meat compared to the total energy consumption of that grown indoors and how does that reflect on how far each can be transported and still have a lower footprint.

Steady on - a BSc thesis is not a PhD - ours are 6000 words (reduced from 8000 - a common word count for papers last year)

 

[Gone Shooting]

Is there anybody out there ?

 

[SteveHants]

And the answer is: whatever they are interested in finding out about.

It's their project, done under their own steam (with support).

This year I've got dissertations as diverse as: "Does breed/BCS/Litter size affect colostrum quality in sheep?", "Do the public have enough education about where their food comes from", "What are the most common issues faced by Welsh sheep farmers in preventing sheep scab?" "Do EBVs in dairy sires correlate to dairy cow outputs?" etc etc

 

[Swarfmonkey]

Steady on - a BSc thesis is not a PhD - ours are 6000 words (reduced from 8000 - a common word count for papers last year)

We had a word limit of 12,000 for my bachelors dissertation, so 6,000 seems mighty low to me. I wonder if you get students who are put off particularly interesting topics because they know they couldn't do them justice in 6,000 words?

 

[SteveHants]

We had a word limit of 12,000 for my bachelors dissertation, so 6,000 seems mighty low to me. I wonder if you get students who are put off particularly interesting topics because they know they couldn't do them justice in 6,000 words?

Depends - the average journal article is 8000 words, so I think its fine for a study.

I think it falls down if you want to do a lit review. My lit review by itself was 10,000 words for my MSc - add to that a thesis of 15-20,000 words.....

Science should be concise, after all.