This specialization prepares students to produce, manage, and market plants grown as crops or in landscapes. The aim is to enable graduates to perform competitively in their chosen profession and to have a sufficiently broad educational background to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by changing situations.<br>The specialization involves the study of Hawaii's unique soils and important insects and diseases that affect plants in the tropical environment. This specialization also familiarizes you with business skills such as management, personnel administration, marketing and accounting.<br>Our graduates with this degree have enjoyed stimulating and rewarding careers with public or private botanical gardens, in golf course management, in landscape installation and management, or in commercial production of food and ornamental crops. Some graduates have become field and laboratory research technicians, and agricultural educators in secondary schools.<br>Many have become field technicians with the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, and many of the agriculture inspectors you see at the Honolulu International Airport are Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences graduates with this degree option.<br>Students selecting this specialization need to take Botany 101 and 101L (or their equivalent) or Biology 172 and 172L (or their equivalent) and Chemistry 15l and 151L and 152 and 152L (or their equivalent) to fulfill the Natural Science requirement of the UH core. These courses are considered prerequisite to courses in the major.