The department decided to develop the discipline of cultivation in a way to involve the protection and improvement of soil fertility, as well as the proper use of these skills in practice. Within the teaching activity of the department, students attain skills of analysing the natural, environmental, material, energy-related and time needs of cultivation interventions, as well as the processes in relation to these interventions. Furthermore, the teaching activity includes physical, chemical and biological processes acting on the wider environment, thereby providing modern cultivation knowledge to students and making sure that the practical skills needed for environmental and soil protection are attained.
From 2000, within the frame of the education reforms, the department launched new subjects in accordance with the prevailing new needs. The new subjects involved Computerised modelling, Land use, Regional management, Planning and evaluation of experiments, Agricultural decision support systems, Cultivation and regional development, Land use and regional planning, Environmentally protective land use and Alternative soil use both in BSc and MSc courses.
The sphere of activity of the Institute was further extended with subjects such as Agrophysics, Agrometeorology, Climatology, Electrotechnics, Knowledge of goods, Basic technological skills, Basic technical and food industry studies, History of Agricultural development, Social politics, EU studies, Settlement management studies and Regional development.
The Interdisciplinary Doctoral School for Agricultural and Natural Sciences was established in 1999, which was later renamed to Kerpely Kálmán Doctoral School and it was accredited for regional studies, as well as crop sciences and horticultural sciences for another five years (MAB, 2nd October 2009). Several teachers and researchers are active as founding members of the doctoral school.