Agricultural Practices

Agricultural Practices: Agricultural practices involve all the activities carried out on the farm before, during and after planting of crops. They are grouped into: pre-planting, planting and post-planting operation. 

 

3.1       Pre-Planting Operations: These are the operations that are being carried out on a farm land before planting and they include:

3.1.1   Choice of Site: this is the process by which a farmer chooses and marks out a particular portion of his or her land area to be used for cultivation. In most traditional villages, lands are always inherited from their ancestors so it is always their personal lands.

 

3.1.2   Clearing of land: this is a process of removing grasses, cutting down the trees, weeds and bush materials from the land site which the farmer have chooses for his farming. There are two main ways by which a land can be cleared and they can be done by:

 

Cutting down:  is the process of removing the bush with the use of a cutlass or an axe Thou it takes time and requires more labor, it is the popular way by which farmers clear their land before planting.

 

Burning:  is the process of setting the bush on fire in order to kill the grasses and thereby making them appear weak which can easily be removed during tilling of the land.

 

3.1.3    Stumping: this is the process of removing the leftover and remaining roots and sticks/woods on the farm after clearing. This is done on school farms or government farms because of its labor consuming operations where crop rotation systems are practiced. It can be done manually with cutlass, digging mattock and axe or mechanically by using stumper, root cutter or bulldozer. 

 

3.1.4   Plotting: after removing the leftover roots and sticks and making the site look clean(stumping), the land is then being divided and marked out by the farmer into blocks and then into plots. This is done so that the crops will be arranged and look good after planting, it also makes it easy for record keeping and monitoring. Moving lanes/farm roads for passage of vehicles and legs are also being mapped out.

Ridging: after a piece of land is cleared for cultivation, stumped for it to look neat, and plotted it should first of all be tilled or dug. This can be done with the simple hoe or mechanically by using a tractor-driven moldboard plough, disc plough, or tined implement. By ridging, the rich surface soil is brought together and this increases the depth of the surface soil, manure can be buried more easily in a ridge than in a heap, and supply of water is assured to the plant roots. This method also makes mechanized farm operations easier.

3.1.6   Seed Selection: after preparing the selected land for cultivation, the next thing is for you to select the seeds that you will want to cultivate. Only good, viable and matured seeds should be selected and planted. This is to ensure good yield and production from the crops after planting.

 

3.1.7   Nursery and Nursery Practices: a nursery is a place where plant seeds are propagated and grown to useable size before they can be transplanted to their permanent site. Crops like oranges, vegetables (fluted pumpkin-ugu), tomatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruits etc are usually sowed using their seeds into a mapped out area done by the farmer where he/she can be able to monitor them, water them and take good care of them until they get up to a size where the farmer can then take them to their permanent site.

3.2.                  Planting Operations

 

Planting operations are those activities that are usually done during planting. They are:
1. Seed treatment

2. Spacing and

3. Planting

 

3.2.1   Seed Treatment: some seeds like cucumber seeds, water melon seeds, rice seeds etc are always treated to prevent them from seed-borne diseases that may destroy the seeds especially if they are imported into the country from outside. If you buy a new cucumber seed, water melon seed, maize seed etc, you will find out that the color of the seed changes from its natural color to something new like a treated maize will change from normal white or yellow color to red, a treated cucumber seed will change from its normal white color to blue etc. those are the physical signs that shows that the seed have been treated.

 

3.2.2   Spacing: While planting, a certain space is required between the crops usually 30cm inter (between) and intra (besides) spacing. This is done to avoid overcrowding of the crops and also to maintain the crops in an arranged form for easy recording and accounting. Spacing helps the crops to have allowance to grow well and produce well.

 

3.2.3   Planting: planting is the process of putting a seed, bulb, or plant in the ground so that it can grow.

3.3.      Post-Planting Operations

These are the activities that are done after planting. They are:

3.3.1   Thinning: this is the removal of extra or unwanted seedlings from a stand when all the viable seeds have germinated.

 

3.3.2   Supplying: this is the process of replacing an un-germinated seed. If you plant a seed that didn’t germinate, you will have to uproot some germinated seeds from the excess ones (thinning) and go and plant it at that place that didn’t germinate, that process is called supplying.

 

3.3.3    Mulching:  mulching id a method of covering the top soil with leaves, grasses etc, which is of a great importance to the soil because it helps to reduce the rate of the excess movement of water into the soil directly, it reduces weed outbreak in the farm through transpiration and when the grasses decay they usually form humus which increases the water-holding capacity of the soil.

3.3.4    Manure/ Fertilizer Application: this is the method of adding extra manure or fertilizer to the crops because of the fact that an additional manure or fertilizer helps the plant growth and development. The nutrients need to be supplied in balanced amount at the right time and under the right conditions in order to be very effective.

 

Methods of fertilizer application

1. Broadcasting: this means throwing or casting the material as uniformly as possible over a works area. It can be done by hand or mechanically, and this method is mostly employed where crops are not arranged in rows but in dense stands.

 

2. The placement method: this means placing small amounts of fertilizer near every plant. Etc.

 

3.3.5   Harvesting:  This is the act of removing and gathering matured crops from the farm to avoid spoilage. The time of harvesting is determined by the degree of maturity. With cereals and pulses, a distinction should be made between maturity of stalks (straw), ears or seedpods and seeds, for all that affects successive operations, particularly storage and preservation.

3.4       Effects of Timely Harvesting Against Late Harvesting

   EARLY HARVEST                                               LATE HARVEST

1. Gain still maintains its weight                            the grain losses its test weight.

2. Grain still has its Moisture content                    the grain losses its moisture

4. Reduces spoilage of crops in the field            there is always increased spoilage of crops in the field. Etc

3.5       Post-Harvest Operations

What are post-harvest operations? Post harvest operations are those activities that are being carried out immediately after harvest which include processes like: gathering, spraying, cooling, cleaning, sorting, packing, shading and storing.

Proper post-harvest operations are required to be carried out as it determines the final quality of the crops because if a crop was properly taken care of through the post-harvest operations procedure and stored accordingly, they tend to last longer and maintain its nutritional quality than when it is not properly being taken care of from the beginning.

Main elements of the post-harvest system

3.5.1   Processing of crops into useable forms: processing of crops includes those things and steps that you take to ensure that that crop can be suitable for consumption for example: processing of garri, from harvesting, peeling, grinding, drying, frying and storing. All these are the processes that a cassava tuber will pass through before it can be processed into garri which is then good for consumption. 

3.5.2   Storage: this is the act of keeping the remains and excess of crops for protection and prevention for future uses. Some of the facilities that are used for storage include: barns, silos, cribs, rhombus, paddock, fish pond etc.

3.5.3   Marketing: marketing is the process of advertising crops or products to create awareness for people to buy them.

3.5.4   Transport: this is the process of taking the crops from the farm to the consumers. Much care is needed in transporting a really mature harvest, in order to prevent detached grain from falling on the road before reaching the storage or threshing place. 

3.5.5   Post-harvest losses

Losses can be defined as the reduction of harvested foodstuffs which may affect either quantity or quality of the food products. In order to prevent post-harvest losses, there are some measures which must be taken like: Sorting the food products, cleaning the food product, Packaging of the food products, Good refrigerated storage, quick cooling of the food products and finally Good transportation & distribution of the food products.

SUMMARY

Agricultural practices involve all the activities carried out on the farm before, during and after planting of crops. They are grouped into: pre-planting, planting and post-planting operation. A nursery is a place where plant seeds are propagated and grown to useable size before they can be transplanted to their permanent site. Crops like oranges, vegetables (fluted pumpkin-ugu), tomatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruits etc are usually sowed using their seeds into a mapped out area done by the farmer where he/she can be able to monitor them, water them and take good care of them until they get up to a size where the farmer can then take them to their permanent site.

 

Manure/ Fertilizer Application are the method of adding extra manure or fertilizer to the crops because of the fact that an additional manure or fertilizer helps the plant growth and development. The nutrients need to be supplied in balanced amount at the right time and under the right conditions in order to be very effective.

Harvesting is the act of removing and gathering matured crops from the farm to avoid spoilage. The time of harvesting is determined by the degree of maturity. With cereals and pulses, a distinction should be made between maturity of stalks (straw), ears or seedpods and seeds, for all that affects successive operations, particularly storage and preservation.