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Agricultural Science Notes

Pre-planting, Planting and Post-planting Operations

CONTENT

  • Pre-planting Operations
  • Planting Operations
  • Post-planting Operations

Cultural Practices: Cultural practices are the various activities carried out on the farm before, during and after planting to ensure proper growth and establishment of crops.Cultural practices are classified into:  pre-planting, planting, post-planting operations.

Pre-planting operations  are the operations carried out before planting, while planting is the sowing of seeds and  post-posting operations  include thinning, supplying, irrigation, manuring, mulching and weeding.

PRE-PLANTING OPERATIONS

A.        Landclearing: this is the removal of pre-existing vegetation on the farm land. It is carried out by cutting the vegetation and grasses with cutlass or hoes; and trees fell with axes. It can also be done mechanically with the aid of bulldozers and tree pullers.

B.        Stumping: This is the removal of stumps by digging them out manually using cutlasses and axes. It can also be done mechanically by using bulldozer. Stumps are the left over cut trees on the farm left on the soil surface.

C.        Farm layout: Farm layout is a judicious way of using the farmland where the plots are 

divided into sections and each section is used to give maximum yield.

D.        Land preparation: this is ensuring the soil is put in the best condition and state suited to the crop needs. The process of preparing the soil involves carring out tillage, making beds, making heaps, making ridges, leveling soil after stumping etc.

Tillage is the breaking or turning of the soil with a simple tool or farm machine after the land has been cleared in preparation for planting crops. It can bedone manually with a hoe or mechanically with a tractor – driven plough.

Ploughing is cutting through the soil and making it into lumps or clods of soil. It is called primary tillage. While secondary tillage (harrowing) is the use of harrow to break down the large clods of soil into fine particles and making it ready for ridging. Other implements used in carrying out tillage are spring tine cultivator, mould board plough etc.

Importance of tillage

  1. It loosens the soil and allows air and water to reach the roots of plants.
  2. It allows easy penetration of roots into the soil
  3. Plant nutrients are brought to the reach of the plant root
  4. Tillage helps to destroy pest by exposing them to the sun
  5. It ensures proper mixture of manure and fertilizer with the soil

Ridginginvolves the making of ridges on the farm, sometimes heaps are also made to serve the purpose of ridges on slopes ridges are made across, with the ridges made at intervals to check erosion, ridges also help to provide water for plant use and aids root penetration and establishment of crops.

EVALUATION

  1. What is land clearing?
  2. Define stumping.
  3. Define tillage and state three importance of tillage.
  4. What is ridging?
  5. Differentiate between primary and secondary tillage.

PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION

  1. Clear the school farm using cutlass and till the land
  2. Do the layout.
  3. Make ten ridges in preparation for maize cultivation.
  4. State three importance of tillage
  5. Differentiate between primary and secondary tillage.

PLANTING OPERATIONS – DISTANCE, DATE, SEED RATE, NURSERY AND NURSERY PRACTICE

CONTENT

  • Definition of planting operation
  • Planting method
  • Basic considerations in planting operation
  • Nursery and Nursery operation

PLANTING OPERATION: These are the operations carried out when inserting the planting materials (cutting or seeds) into the soil. When seeds are sown in the soil, they develop root and shoots, this is called germinationand the young plants that emerge are called seedlings.

A seed when planted undergoes the following processes.

  1. Germination: the process whereby the embryo of a seed resumes growth under favourable conditions.
  2. Emergence: this refers to the appearance of a seedling above soil level.

Conditions necessary for germination of seeds are

  1. Adequate moisture
  2. Viable seed (living embryo)
  3. Optimum temperature
  4. Adequate air

Methods of sowing

  1. In-situ (directly into the field/farm land)
  2. Nursery

In-situ planting/sowing is sowing directly in the field on flats (plain land) ridges or garden beds e.g. of crops sown in-situ are maize, okra, cowpea, millet etc.

Sowing/Planting methods

  1. Drilling: sowing a seed by drilling with stick or knife, followed by dropping seeds and covering them.
  2. Broadcasting: sowing of seeds by spreading it broadly on prepared seed bed
  3. Dibbling: sowing of seeds up the bed at the planting point only and placing the seeds at the correct depth.

BASIC CONSIDERATIONS IN PLANTING OPERATIONS

  1. Planting space/distance
  2. Planting time
  3. Planting depth
  4. Number of seed
  5. Viability of seed

Planting space: This is the space between a sown or planted seed and the next. It is the distance between two plants stand on the field. Planting is usually in rows and the distance between plants on the same row is called within row spacing (intra row spacing)while the distance between plants in two adjacent rows is called between row spacing (inter row spacing).

Planting time:This is the time of planting or sowing seeds in which the crop can thrive or perform well. This is largely dependent on rainfall.

Planting depth: This is the distance of the sown seed in the soil from the soil surface

Number of seeds: This is the amount of seeds sown per hole per planting point (position)

Seed viability: This is the life in the seed or deadness of the seed.

NURSERY AND NURSERY OPERATIONS

Nursery is a special place prepared for raising seedlings which are later taken to the field for proper planting (transplanting).

Seedlings are grown in nursery beds, seed trays or boxes, basket or polythene bags may be used as boxes. E.g. of such crops are cocoa, kola, tomatoes, citrus etc.

Why seeds are raised in nurseries:

  1. The seeds are tiny hence cannot be handled easily and sown as required
  2. The seedlings are weak and may not survive in field. They require protection from sunlight and rainfall.
  3. They are better protected from pest in the nursery
  4. So as to select the healthiest or seedling with best vigor for transplanting.

EVALUATION

  1. What is germination?
  2. Define sowing in-situ
  3. What is planting space?
  4. Mention two reasons why seeds are raised in the nursery.
  5. State three conditions for seed germination.

POST -PLANTING OPERATIONS

CONTENT

  • Definition of post planting operations
  • Post planting operations

Post planting operations are the operations carried out after planting. It creates a good condition and proper maintenance for plants growth.

Post planting operations include the following:

  1. Thinning
  2. Supplying
  3. Irrigation/ watering
  4. Use of manure and fertilizer
  5. Mulching
  6. Weeding
  7. Harvesting
  8. Processing
  9. Storage, etc

Thinning

is the removal of excess, weak or not well positioned seedlings from a seedbed after the viable seeds have germinated

Advantages of Thinning

  1. It helps to avoid over crowding
  2. Proper aeration is ensured leading to high yield

Supplyingis the replanting of propagative materials where they fail to germinate. Supplying should be done as soon as possible.

Advantages of supplying

  1. Correct plant population can be maintained
  2. The farmer can achieve uniform maturity

Irrigation(watering)is the artificial watering of farmland especially during dry season.

Advantages of irrigation

  1. It makes the soil temperature moderate for plant growth
  2. It enables a good nutrient supply to plant

Manuring/fertilizer application is the addition of organic manure such as poultry droppings, cow dung and green manure or inorganic manure (made from chemicals) to the soil to maintain soil fertility. Manure can be in form of:

  1. Animal and plant refuse (organic manure)
    1. Chemical manure (inorganic manure).

Types of Organic Manure

  1. Green manure: This involves growing of a crop usually a legume and just before flowering it is ploughed into the top soil to rot down
  2. Farmyard manure: This consists of faeces or excreta, urine and other waste products of domesticated animals. Animals dropping are usually mixed with straw.
  3. Compost: Plant and animal remains and ashes heaped together and allowed to decay properly by ensuring that there is plenty of air in its making.It is then spread on the farmland to incorporate nutrients into the soil.

Inorganic Manure (Fertilizer)

These are chemical substances which are usually prepared in the farm, they are made in form of liquid, powder, granules, pellets or crystals Fertilizers should be added to the soil only when the soil shows that some important minerals are lacking commercial fertilizers usually contain macro nutrients or elements which are removed in large amount by crops. Fertilizers therefore usually contain nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

Examples of Nitrogen fertilizers are ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate urea, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate etc. 

Examples of phosphate fertilizers are single super phosphate fertilizers are single super phosphate, triple super phosphate. Examples of potash fertilizer are potassium nitrate, sulphate of potash.

Care should be taken when applying in-organic fertilizer because it can burn the plant if it comes in contact with it.

Ways of applying fertilizer

  1. Broadcasting
  2. Localized placement in the row or in a circle around the plant (side placement)
  3. Spraying
  4. Foliar fertilizer application

Advantage of manuring/fertilizer application

  1. It supplies the plants with essential nutrients.
  2. It maintains good soil structure

Mulchingis the covering of the surface of the soil with a layer of clean dry vegetative part of plant such as grasses or leaves.

Advantages of mulching

  1. It conserves soil moisture.
  2. It regulates the soil temperature.
  3. It reduces weed and prevent erosion.
  4. It adds humus to the soil.

Weedingis the removal of unwanted plants (weeds) from the farm. It can be done with the aid of cutlass and hoes or by spraying herbicide. It is done for the following reasons:

  1. To avoid competition for nutrients, moisture, sunlight and space between crops and weed.
  2. To prevent the buildup of pest and pathogens.

Harvesting is the removal of ripe or matured useful part of a crop is known as harvesting. Commonly harvested parts of a plant are tubers, leaves, fruits, seeds, roots etc.Harvesting tools like cutlass, hoe, knife, sickle etc are usually used for harvesting and in mechanized farms, harvesters are used.

Effects of timely versus late harvesting

Delayed harvesting can lead to a total loss of products, although some crops like maize can be left on the field to get dry before harvesting, others like tomatoes and other perishables must be harvested immediately they are due for harvest. Delayed harvesting can lead to pest attack on crops or rottening of products.

Post-harvesting operations

After harvesting, processing of the produce is required in order to make the produce more acceptable and to prevent spoilage. In some farm products, processing starts from the farm site, e.g. melon, groundnut, cassava etc.Melon is usually extracted from its pod and pulp on the farm, also groundnut is detached on the farm, at times, peeling of cassava starts from the farm. Extraction of cocoa beans from its pods, fermentation and drying of beans in most cases take place on the farm.

Other forms of processing like milling, de-husking etc which cannot be done on the farm are done in factories where machines have been installed for that purpose.

Storage

After crops have been processed to usage forms, storage which is the keeping of farm products for future use is done. Methods of storage are: usage of barns, cribs, silos, refrigerators, baskets, sacks etc.

EVALUATION

  1. What is thinning?
  2. List two weeding tools.
  3. State two reasons for weeding.
  4. Why is supplying important?
  5. What is manure?
  6. State the two main types of manure.
  7. List three types of organic manure.
  8. State three ways of applying chemical fertilizers.

GENERAL EVALUATION/REVISION QUESTIONS

  1. What are cultural practices?
  2. Distinguishing between the categories of cultural practices.

FIELD WORK ON LAND PREPARATION

Demonstration of all practices taught on the farm site using simple farm tools.

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

  1. Primary tillage is otherwise known as ____A. harrowing B. ploughing C. ridging

D. stumping

  • Secondary tillage is otherwise known as ____ A. harrowing B.ploughing C.mulching  D. stumping
    • The operation that follows harrowing is ____ A. ridging B. stumping C. clearing

D. layout

  • Stumping is carried out with the following except____ A.gun B. cutlass C. bulldozer

D. axe

  • Which of these operations comes first? A. Tillage B. Ridges C. Stumping D. Harvesting
    • Which of these operations involve the removal of left over parts of plants in the soil?

A. tillage B. Stumping C. Harrowing D. Ridging

  • Which farm operation involves the breaking or turning of the soil? A. Stumping

B. Ridging C. Tillage D. Harrowing

  • Which of these farm operations involves the division of plots for farm work? A.Ridging B. Harrowing C. Tillage D. Farm layout
    • ____ allows easy penetration of roots into the soil A. Harrowing B. Tillage C. Stumping D. Land clearing
    • One of the following is not a basic consideration in planting operation A. plating space B. planting depth C. planting time D. seed pod
    • The distance between two sown seeds/plants is ___A. Planting space B. Time

C. Planting depth D. Planting seed

  1. Some seeds are raised in the nursery because A. The seedlings are weak B. The seedling are green C. The seedlings lovethe nursery D. So that they can get enough sunshine
    1. This is the distance of the sown seed in the soil A.    Planting time B. Planting Depth

C. Spacing D. Number of seeds

  1. The covering of soil surface with vegetative material is known as A. Weeding

B. Thinning C. Mulching D. Supplying

  1. This is the removal of unwanted plants on the farm A. Weeding B. Thinning C. Mulching D. Supplying
    1. This is the removal of excess and weak seedling from the seed bed A. Weeding

B. Thinning C. Supplying D. Mulching

  1. Correct planting population can be maintained by ____ A. Thinning B. Supplying

C. Weeding D. Mulching

  1. Which of these is not an organic manure? A. Compost B. Farmyard manure C. Green manure D. Ammonium nitrate
    1. The growing of crops (legumes) and ploughing of the same into the soil as soon as it flowers is called? A.Compost B. Farmyard manuringC.Green manuringD. Yellow manuring
    1. Which of these manure is faeces or dropping of animals usually used in making.

A.Compost B. Farm yard manure C. Green manure D. In organic manure

THEORY

  1. What are cultural practices?
  2. Write short note on the following: A.  Land clearing  B.  tillage
  3. Write short note on the following: A. planting distanceB. planting depth,C. seed viability.

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