Back to: Agricultural Science Primary 6
welcome back to class
In the last two lessons, we have been treating the importance of agriculture to us in the society. Agriculture is important to the growth of the economy. However it is also faced with challenges and problems. From planting to harvesting and consumption/commercialization, different constraints have made farming difficult for farmers in Nigeria.
In this week’s lesson, we will look at some of these challenge.
- The use of Crude Tools and Techniques.
At this day and age, farmers in Nigeria still rely on crude tools for farming and storage and this can inadvertently affect productivity. For instance, lack of proper irrigation tools makes it difficult to farm during the dry season and lack of mechanical tools such as tractors to substitute manual labor hinders productivity due to fatigue.
ACTIVITY
Can you compare the work of the two farmers in the pictures above?
- Unstable Government Policies
When the government makes policies and changes them often, or makes policies in agriculture without duly consulting the stakeholders. It affects cultivation and harvest and harvest of crop plants.
- Bad Roads
Bad roads creates huge problems in agriculture in the sense that, due to bad roads, many farmers in villages are unable to bring their farm produce to towns to sell. The one who do spend so much time and money on the road making their goods more expensive than it should. Some times some of the crops gets damaged.
ACTIVITY
- Mention some crude tools and techniques that farmers use
- How has bad road affected farmers and farm produce in your locality.
- Poor Storage Facility
Many farmers harvest a lot of farm produce especially in the villages, many don’t get to sell all their produce and since some of the crops are perishable and there are inadequate storage facilities these crops are damaged and wasted.
- Lack of Improved Seeds
Very few farmers have access to improved seeds. Scientists have worked hard to bring about seeds that are high yielding, better able to survive drought and climate changes and also resistant to pests and diseases.
- Land Tenure System
Since all agricultural systems depend on land, the ownership of, or access to, agricultural land becomes crucial in the consideration of factors which determine agricultural land-use systems. The land tenure system affects agricultural land use and prospects for improvement. If there are people who are willing to go into farming and they cannot find land on which to farm on, it poses a lot of problems in the whole process.
- Transportation Problem
Transport is regarded as an important factor involved in agricultural development all over the world. It is the only means by which food produced at farm sites is moved to different homes as well as markets. Transport creates a market for agricultural produce. So when farmers do not have readily available and affordable means of transporting their farm produce to markets it poses a lot of challenges.
EVALUATION
- Mention four factors that can be a problem to farming and farmers in Nigeria.
ASSIGNMENT
- Describe how farmers can overcome their challenges in.
- Poor storage facilities
- Transportation