JSS 1 First Term Agricultural Science Lesson Note – Importance and Forms of Agriculture

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TOPIC: IMPORTANCE AND FORMS OF AGRICULTURE.

CONTENT: Types of agricultural practice in the localities

• Pastoral farming
• Arable farming
• Mixed farming
• Taungya farming
• Fish farming
• Shifting cultivation
• Land/bush fallowing
• Crop rotation

Sub – Topic 1:   Types of Agricultural Practice in the Localities

1. Pastoral farming

 This system involves the rearing of animals that feed on/graze forage crops (grasses and legumes), such as goats, sheep and cattle. Pastoral farming could take any of these three forms:

• Ranching
• Nomadic herding
• Ley farming

Ranching:  In this system, large numbers of animals are kept o a large expanse of enclosed land which may be under natural vegetation or planted pasture. The animals are allowed to move freely and graze within the confinement (Ranch). It is possible to adopt rotational grazing especially where the ranch is divided into sections/paddocks. An example of ranch in Nigeria is Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River state.

Advantages of Ranching

1. Pasture and water are available all through the year.
2. The animals are better managed and more protected from pests, diseases and death.

iii. Good quality animals are produced due to proper breeding programme.

Disadvantages

1. It is expensive to manage a ranch.
2. It will be difficult to give individual attention to each animal kept in the ranch.

• Outbreak of disease may wipe out the entire stock.

Ley farming: This is a system of farming which involves the planting of forage crops and food crops in alternation. The forage crops may include grasses, legumes and other plants acceptable to farm animals while the food crops may be maize, rice, cowpea etc. The pasture is grown for about 2-4 years and then the land is tilled and used to cultivate other crops. It is also known as rotational pasture.

Advantages of Ley farming

1. Food crops serves as food for the farmers and pasture grasses and legumes are used to feed animals.
2. Animal droppings serve as manure for the arable crops.

•  There is efficient use of land.

Disadvantages

1. High cost of fencing.
2. Overgrazing can lead to trampling and destruction of soil structure, thereby leading to erosion.

• It requires a lot of skills and techniques to succeed.

 

1. Arable farming (food crop farming): This involves cultivation of land for crops whose various parts are eaten as food either raw, cooked or processed such as maize, yam, soya-beans, potato, carrot, oil palm etc. Arable crops are usually annuals- they need to be planted each year.

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