Cultural Practices – Pre-planting Operations

Back to: AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE JSS2

 

Welcome to class!

Last class, we discussed Farm Structures.
In today’s class, we will be talking about Cultural Practices Pre-Planting Operations. We will be discussing the different pre-planting operations carried out before sowing. Enjoy the class!

 

CULTURAL PRACTICES PRE-PLANTING OPERATIONS

Cultural practices in agriculture are all the activities carried out on the farm before, during and after planting of the crop.

what are Pre-planting operations?

These are operations carried out before sowing. They include choosing of site, clearing, stumping, plotting, ploughing, harrowing, and ridging.

These are the farming activities carried out before planting is done. These activities are carried out to prepare and make the soil conducive for the crop to be planted. Pre-planting operations in sequence are: the selection of the site, surveying of the soil and land measurement, clearing, stumping, field plotting or farm layout, tilling or ridging, ploughing, harrowing, nursery and nursery practices.

• Choice of site during pre-planting operation

The choice of a farm site is a part of the activities before planting.
This is guarded by:

(a) The nature of the land (Topography): This is, whether the land is hilly or level. A fairly level land should be chosen to reduce the cost of land preparation and erosion control problem.
(b) The type of soil: This should be considered in the choice of farm site or location. This is because the soil is the medium for plants growth and poor soil will produce poor yield.

(c) Availability of inputs such as labour and planting materials: The workers to be employed that will work on the farm must be available in the area where the farm is to be located. Crop planting materials should also be available. The ease of transporting farm produce and sale also guard the choice of a farm site.

• Clearing of site during pre-planting operation

The farm site is cleared by means of hand tools such as the cutlass or equipment mechanical such as bulldozer. The equipment used depends on the nature of the vegetation in the area. In the rain forest belt, cutlass may be required for brushing the undergrowth while axe, motor saw or chain saw are used to fell the trees. The trees are chopped into pieces. On a large scale, bulldozer may be used to remove forest vegetation. Burning can be carried out on the under growths and plants, especially in the rain forest area. This helps to add ash which contains mineral used by the soil alkaline.

 

• How to carry out Stumping during pre-planting operation

This is the removal of plant stumps and roots from the soil, it is a tedious operation. The practice is usually, avoided in small scale private farms. Where crop rotation system is practised, stumping is done. This is usually in school farms, government farms and corporate farms such as cutlass, axe, pickaxe, mechanical stumper and bulldozer are used in stumping

 

• Plotting or laying out of the farm during pre-planting operation

The act of dividing the farmland into sections is called plotting or laying out. This is usually based on the report of the soil survey. Soil survey shows the nature of the land (Topography). soil types nutrients status, soil and water conservation methods to be sued on the land. It also shows where to locate the various farmstead.

 

In our next class, we will be talking about Cultural Practices – Planting Operations. We do hope you enjoyed the class?

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