Plant Protection

Hello, I am Research Assistant Cansu Öksel. The history of the Faculty of Agriculture, where the Plant Protection Department is also located, dates back to the academic year of 1997-1998. We have been actively accepting and graduating students since 1997 and 98. General engineering courses are taught to our 1st and 2nd year students. Specific courses related to our department are taught to our 3rd and 4th grade students. For example, profession-oriented courses such as Virology, Mycology, Bacteriology, Acrology, Nematology are taught to our 3rd grade students. Our 4th grade students are now taught more specific and vocational courses such as Plant Bacteria Diseases, Plant Fungal Diseases, Vegetable Pests, Fruit Pests. Our department is divided into two different departments: Entomology and Phytopathology. There are laboratories belonging to these departments. We have 7 laboratories. In these laboratories, we have two entomology and phytopathology student practice laboratories as well as laboratories such as toxicology laboratory, economic entomology laboratory, biological control laboratory, bacteriology and herbology laboratories, mycology, virology and acrology laboratories. In addition, we have 2 insect growing rooms for growing insects and 2 plant growing rooms for growing plants. In these laboratories, both specific studies of the departments and the practical application of the theoretical knowledge taught to students in professional sense are carried out. Before our students graduate, they spend an internship period of 30 working days. Before starting this internship period, we hold meetings with our students. So what is the topic of these meetings? In these meetings, we give information to our students about their internship places. In addition, we ask our students who have had internship experience to help them convey their experiences to our colleagues who will do internship. In addition to this, the positive and negative things in the places where the internship was done before are evaluated in our department. Habits, positive or negative aspects are evaluated. With this evaluation made by our fellow students, we are trying to arrange internship places where our students can improve themselves and add positive things to themselves professionally. Our department has Erasmus agreements with countries such as Italy, Greece, Hungary and Bulgaria. Within the scope of these agreements, our students can apply to the Erasmus program and benefit from this opportunity. In our department, we have a community which is called the plant protection community. Our students form this community themselves. The president and vice president are chosen by our students who are registered in the community. In our community, our students are involved in activities that can improve themselves both socially and professionally. During the technical trips made within the community, our students have the opportunity to observe diseases and pests. In addition, the community has a photography contest organized every year to raise awareness. In this way, it is aimed to increase the awareness of our students towards nature. Also, depending on this community, our students attend various congresses and seminars every year. In these congresses they attend, besides developing networks with people from different universities, they also develop their ability to express themselves academically with their oral or poster presentations.
Before our students graduate, we organize career days for our students. Within the scope of these career days, we also ask our graduates of the Department of Plant Protection to invite our graduates working in different fields such as the provincial directorate of agriculture, private pharmaceutical companies, research laboratories, and academics to give a short interview about their careers. This allows our students to have an idea of what job opportunities they might pursue after graduation or what path they should follow to find a job after graduation. This is an activity we organize 4-5 times before graduation every year, and it is an activity that we find to be very useful with the feedback from our students. In addition, our students who will graduate have job opportunities in any provincial directorate of agriculture or chambers of agriculture, agricultural credit cooperatives, drug dealers or pharmaceutical companies affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. They also have the opportunity to become an academic. I think the students who will come to our department should definitely love nature. Why is that? Because our job is with the land, the producers, the farmers. We don't always sit in a room as you can see right now, or always lecture the students. In addition to these, we are always actively on the field. Why is that? We are constantly on the field to contribute to production, to support the farmer, and to solve any problems we encounter. We collect examples for this; We collect disease samples, collect pest samples, collect weed samples, bring them to the laboratory and conduct experiments. How can we find a solution for a disease, pest or alien weed? If you are also interested in this field, if you want to contribute to production, if you asks how can I move the production further, I think our department is very suitable for you. I strongly recommend that students who think like this come to our department. Tekirdağ is very nice because of its geographical location, being by the sea, not having a dense population and not being a crowded city. Tekirdağ is an economical city where you can live comfortably. In addition, the university has incredible opportunities that it offers us. Our buildings are really new. Many areas have been created in our university where you can spend time socially. In addition, our university has the structure to train our incoming students in the best way, whether it is academic staff or infrastructure. That is why our university is a very well equipped, very beautiful university. As Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, we would like to see all of our willing students here next year. I hope we can meet face to face together and reflect this active energy to you and achieve great things. I wish you all success in advance.