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TOPIC: FACTORS AFFECTING LAND AVAILABILITY FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
CONTENT: FACTORS AFFECTING LAND AVAILABILITY
Land availability is affected by so many factors, which include:
1. Land tenure system: land tenure is the system of land ownership including the rights and obligations governing its acquisition and disposal. The prevailing system of land ownership in Nigeria does not encourage prospective farmers to acquire large hectares of land because
the actual owners feel that their young ones are being robbed of their inheritance. In Nigeria, the land is mostly acquired through inheritance and shared among the beneficiaries, due to the fragmentation of land it becomes difficult to carry out large-scale farming.
Similarly, communal land tenure does not make land available for agriculture too. The land is jointly owned by the community. At times, the government holds such land in trust for the community and later releases such land for building industrial layout, thus making lands unavailable for agricultural activities.
2. POPULATION PRESSURE: In a country where the population is sparse, land availability to the farmers will be enough, but the reverse is the case where the population is high. social demands for land rise with the increase in population growth. Social amenities like civic hall, religious houses, markets, and so on demand heavily for land and reduces agricultural land.
3. THE SIZE OF USEFUL LAND IN A COUNTRY: The size of land ideal for agriculture will also affect its usage. In deserts, mountainous areas and savannahs, the size of land for agriculture will be small.
4. CLIMATIC FACTORS: The prevailing climatic factors like rainfall, and sunlight affect land availability. Climate renders the desert polar regions unsuitable for agriculture. Climate plays a major role in making land suitable for agricultural purposes. A land situated in an environment where the climate is very hot will not be useful for farming because the temperature of the environment will not make the plant survive. Also land in an environment that is too cold is not good for agricultural purposes
5. SOIL FACTORS: This refers to the type of soil particles available in a place. A soil with an equal proportion of sand, silt, and clay (i. e, loamy soil) will be best for agriculture, but sandy soil alone will not be ideal for agriculture. A land that is mainly clay is difficult to till and heavy to work on. Such land is not suitable for a wide varieties of crops.
6. CULTIVATION PRACTICES: The type of cultivation methods practiced in a place will affect land availability. Cultural methods like bush fallowing, shifting cultivation, and deforestation are not good.
7. CULTURAL PRACTICES: These include bush burning, shifting cultivation, bush fallowing, deforestation, etc, do not make land available for agriculture-they rather waste land.
8. TOPOGRAPHY: This simply refers to the shape of the land. The best land is plain or flat land because it exposes all portions of the land to rain and sunlight at equal proportions.
Valleys and hills encourage erosion, which is not good for agriculture unless terraces are constructed on them.
9. INFRASTRUCTURAL DEMANDS ON LAND: Where land is also being demanded for other factors like road construction, buildings, recreational centres, etc reduces land availability for agriculture.
10. GOVERNMENT POLICY
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