Agricultural, Cultural Practices and Farming System – JSS2 Agricultural Science Lesson Note (First Term)

Cultural practices are the activities carried out on the farm before, during and after the planting of crops.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. define cultural practices;
2. list the pre-planting, planting and post-planting operations;
3. explain each operation in one line;
4. define mixed farming, monocropping, sole cropping and mixed cropping;
5. state the difference between sole cropping and mixed cropping.

What are the three groups of cultural practices?

Cultural practices are grouped into three: pre-planting, planting and post-planting operations.

What are the pre-planting operations?

Pre-planting operations are the activities done on the land before planting, and there are six of them.

1. Choice of site: selecting land with fertile soil, good drainage and easy access to water and roads.
2. Clearing of land: removing trees, bushes and grasses with cutlasses, axes or machines.
3. Stumping: removing tree stumps and roots left in the soil after clearing.
4. Ploughing: turning and breaking the soil to loosen it and bury weeds.
5. Harrowing: breaking big soil lumps into fine soil after ploughing.
6. Ridging: heaping soil into rows (ridges), as done for yam, cassava and sweet potato.

What are the planting operations?

Planting operations are the activities done while the crop is being established, and there are six of them.

1. Planting or sowing: putting seeds or planting materials, such as yam setts and cassava stems, into the soil.
2. Transplanting: moving young seedlings from the nursery to the main field, as with tomato and pepper.
3. Nursery practices: raising seedlings in a small, well-kept place before moving them to the field.
4. Thinning: removing extra or weak seedlings so that healthy ones are left at the right distance.
5. Spacing: the distance left between plants and between rows.
6. Depth: how deep the seed is placed in the soil. Small seeds go in shallow and large seeds go deeper.

What are the post-planting operations?

Post-planting operations are the activities done after planting until the crop is harvested and kept, and there are ten of them.

1. Thinning: removing extra seedlings after germination (also listed under planting operations).
2. Supplying: replacing seeds that did not germinate or seedlings that died.
3. Mulching: covering the soil with dry grass or leaves to keep it moist and reduce weeds.
4. Manure application: adding manure or fertiliser to give the crop nutrients.
5. Watering: giving water to crops when rain is not enough.
6. Weeding: removing unwanted plants that compete with the crop.
7. Pest and disease control: protecting crops from insects, rodents and diseases.
8. Harvesting: gathering the crop when it is mature.
9. Processing: changing harvested produce into a more useful form, such as cassava into garri.
10. Storage: keeping produce safe from pests and rot, as with yam in a barn and grains in a silo.

What is a farming system?

A farming system is the way a farmer grows crops or keeps livestock on the land.

There are four farming systems in this lesson: mixed farming, monocropping, sole cropping and mixed cropping.

Mixed farming

• Meaning: a system in which a farmer carries out different agricultural practices together, such as growing cash crops and keeping livestock.
• Aim: to increase income through different sources and to balance land and labour demands across the year.
• Advantage: animal droppings can be used as manure for the crops.
• Advantage: crop remains can be used as feed for the animals.

Monocropping

• Meaning: growing a single crop year after year on the same land, without rotation through other crops.
• Examples: corn (maize), soybeans and wheat are common crops grown this way.
• Disadvantage: the soil loses the same nutrients every year and pests of that crop can build up.

Sole cropping

• Meaning: growing one crop alone, in pure stand, either as a single crop or as a sequence of single crops within the year.
• Example: a field planted with maize only.
• Advantage: it is easy to manage, weed and harvest.

Mixed cropping

• Meaning: sowing two or three crops together on the same land, one being the main crop and the others the subsidiaries.
• Example: maize planted together with cassava on one farm.
• Advantage: if one crop fails, the farmer still has the other crops.
• Disadvantage: it is harder to use machines for planting and harvesting.

What is the difference between sole cropping and mixed cropping?

Sole cropping grows one crop alone on a piece of land, while mixed cropping grows two or three crops together on the same land.

What is the difference between monocropping and sole cropping?

Monocropping repeats the same crop on the same land every year, while sole cropping means only one crop is in the field at a time.

Evaluation

1. What are cultural practices?
2. List the six pre-planting operations.
3. Name four post-planting operations.
4. What is mixed farming?
5. Explain the difference between sole cropping and mixed cropping.

Assignment

Write out the six planting operations. Then define monocropping and name the three crops given as examples in this lesson.