SSC 103 NOTE

AGRICULTURE
1. Agriculture – This is one of the major activities primary sector of the economy of any
nation. It is a sector concerned with the acquisition of resources from the natural
environment. It is involved in systematically producing resources from land and water
bodies. Other activities in the primary sector level include lumbering, fishing, hunting,
mining and quarrying. These activities yield raw materials for subsequent processes in
the secondary sector. The primary sector is more dominant in developing countries.

Agriculture is may be simply regarded as the overall processes involved in the

growing/cultivation and rearing/ domestication of animals for man use. Agriculture yield fibre
and raw materials which are useful in the industrial sector. Agriculture employs about 51% of
people globally. However, this is unevenly distributed between the developed and developing
nations. In developing nations for instance, Agriculture employs about 65% of the population.
The major concern of geography with agriculture is with the spatial distribution of agricultural
activities in a particular country, region and the world generally.
Types or Systems of Agriculture
There are different systems of agriculture which include: (i) peasant agriculture (ii)
plantation agriculture (iii) Intensive agriculture
Peasant agriculture: This is a subsistence form of agriculture engaged by farmers to primarily
meet the food requirement of his/her immediate family. The farmer occasionally exposes some
for sale at the local market whenever there is surplus. The peasant agriculture is characterized
by small form holding, it is not capitalistic, the use of simple implements like hoes and cutlasses
are common. This system does not likely employ the use fertilizer but whenever the fertility of
the soil at a particular farms site gets depleted or diminished, the farmer relocates to another
farm site. Such a system of agriculture is practicable where there is low population density.
The agricultural system employs mixed cropping (planting different types of crops on the some
field). Crops involved are yam, cassava, okro and so on.
Plantation agriculture: This is a capital-intensive agriculture. It is a commercialized form of
agriculture involving the use of machine tools improved seedling and artificial plant nutrient
(fertilizer). It also involves huge investment in the provision of buildings (staff quarters),
construction of access road, provision of electricity and water for the use of staff and purchase
of up to date farm inputs (tractors). It may also involve the growing of any crops on a large
scale. It is also practiced in the forest region in Nigeria. Crops involved are cocoa, oil palm and
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rubber plantation among others. For example Nigeria was the world largest and exporter of
cocoa been in 1990 with the sale of 135,000 tons which accounted for about 7.1% of the world
trade. However, a drastic reduction in the output of Cocoa is presently being experienced in
Nigeria due to increasing rate of rural-urban migration, deforestation and urbanization among
other anthropogenic activities.
Intensive agriculture: In this type of agriculture, peasant farming is intensively done. Such
farming involves the use of irrigation and application of fertilizers to boost productivity per
plots of farm land. The system is commonly practiced where there is high population density.
It is commonly found in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and other state capitals.
Pastoral farming: This type of farming involves rearing or domesticating animals for man
uses for instance cattle may be kept for beef, cheese, or meat while poultry may be kept for
chicken, egg, sheep may be kept for their made and wool.
Mixed Farming: This is the act of combining the growing of crops and rearing/keeping of
animals on the same farm land. However the farm land is usually partitioned into regions for
animals (cattle, Poultry and so on) as well as act for planting various arable crops. The
proportion of land used for crops may somehow be influenced by the degree of fertility of the
soil. Where the soil fertility is low more animals can be kept. The main advantage of mixed
farming is the opportunity of readily using animals waste to improve soil fertility in form of
farm yard manure while the arable crops can also be ready made meals for the animals. It is
extensively being practiced in Western European countries, New Zealand, Den mark and North
America.
Market gardening: This farming system involves the growing of vegetables and small fruits
(tomatoes, pumpkins etc) especially near urban areas as main market for the highly perishable
products. The term “market gardening” is used in Great Britain while Truck farming is used in
USA. It is common in most European countries and the state capital and other large towns in
Nigeria.
Orchard Farming: This farming system is devoted to the raising of fruit trees. Although, this
is common in Mediterranean climate; it is also typical of any other place(s) where the growth
of oranges, lime, Grapes, Apricot, peaches, pineapples and bananas is/are given prominence.
Mechanized Agriculture: This system of farming involves the use of machine (tractors,
harvesters, for various farming operations (plowing, sowing and harvesting). All of these are
done with machine. It is very common in developed world e.g. Canada and USA.
Nomadic herding: This system of farming involves cattle rearing system where a cattle
rearers move with their herds of cattle from one place to another in search of pasture. This
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system is common in the dry land, such as Sahara desert, Saudi-Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Central Asia and China. It is also practised in South West Africa and along the southern
boundary of the turrid region in Europe and Asia. The system involves frequent change of
habitation in search of animal fodder, fruits, nuts, edible roots. Sometimes, the migration is
seasonal for instance, where it involves movement from mountain top to valley in summer and
winter respectively; it is then regarded as Transhumance.
Livestock ranching: This is commonly found in the Prarries of western U.S.A, central
Mexican belt from Venezuela to Argentina, South Africa, temperate grass land of Australia
and New Zealand. Cattle rearing are done in relatively rainy parts of these areas. However,
sheep are raced in areas receiving less amount of rainfall while, goats and camel are rare in low
rainfall and warmer region.
Commercial dairy farming: Dairy farming is specifically concerned with the act of racing
cattle not mainly for their beef but for their dairy products (Milk, cheese, cream, butter). These
are largely found in the western shores of France, the U.K. and Ireland, the great lake region
and North-west in U.S.A., South Eastern Australia and New Zealand. These areas receive
rainfall throughout the year and produce good quality and nourishing grass.
Commercial grain farming: The extensive cultivation of grains done in various parts of the
world. It is commonly found the great plain of North America, Argentina and the Europe and
Middle-east.
Commercial Plantation: This is commonly found in S. East Asia Indonesia, Malaysia. The
(Phillipine) also in Sri-lanka, West Africa, South and Central U.S.A. and Central America. The
main crops include Tea, coffee, rubber, cocoa, coconut and sugarcane. This is a labour-
intensive type of farming.
Mediterranean Agriculture: It is practiced in the European countries bordering the
Mediterranean sea (Spain, France, Italy, former Republic of Yugoslavia federation), along the
western edges of the continent (central California, central Chad, temperate region between 300
and 400 N and S. of the hemisphere). It is also found in S. Africa, South western and Southern
Australia. This region is the source of high quality citrus fruit (grape, olive, oranges, lemon and
pineapple).
Livestock Ranching: This is the act of rearing animals for their meet. Ranching is common in
areas not favourable climatically and where the vegetation does not support dairy farming.
Such areas include Sub tropical regions of Queensland (Australia), the great plains of USA and
Tropical regions Such as the savanna region of northern Nigeria.

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Shifting cultivation: This is a subsistence method of farming where a piece of land is put
under continuous usage until the fertility of the soil is depleted. The initially cultivated site is
then abandoned for another site where farming activities continue. This is to allow the soil
regain its lost fertility. The system can only be practiced where there is low population density.
It is a wasteful, unscientific and inefficient method of forming the use of crude implements
also predominates. The system is practiced in forested high land of South America, Africa,
India and South China.
Intensive subsistence cultivation: It is practiced in all types of land forms especially wherever
there is pressure on land available for crop production. It is also practiced where there is
relatively high amount of rainfall. It is commonly practiced in South East Asia mainly in the
monsoon region with red alluvia soil.
Factors affecting Agriculture
Climate: This is one of the major elements affecting agriculture it goes a long way in
determining the regional agricultural pattern across the globe. Every plant has specific
tolerance threshold beyond which the plant will not perform well or even survive. Climate
elements especially rain fall and temperature are more influential. For instance cocoa is a crop
that performs well where annual rainfall range between 1250mm and 2000mm and where
temperature is about 270C.
Edaphic factors – This talks about the condition of the soil. This is the condition of the soil;
the soil offers physical support for crop. Beside the structure, composition and fertility of the
soil determine the yield of any crop. A naturally fertile soil has the inherent ability to positively
enhance crop performance and vice versa. Continuous cultivation on a fertile land could lead
to depletion of soil fertility. When such situation arises, the fertility of the soil could be
artificially improved by the application of manure or fertilizer.
Topography:- The relief or topography of a place also has influence on the type of crop grown
in an area. The low lands are generally more suitable for crops like wheat, millet, cassava,
maize etc while crops like tea and coffee thrive best on elevated land.
Biotic Factor: The influences of other organism like weed, pest and diseases greatly influence
the performance of crops where they are effectively controlled the yield per acre are usually
impressive and vice versa.

Agricultural regions of Nigeria

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 These are regions or parts of the country associated withthe cultivation of specific types
of crops and operation of a particular type of agricultural practices. This usually occurs as a
result of a number of favourable factor For instance, cocoa and kolanut are more pronounced
in the forest zone found in the south western part of Nigeria especially Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Ogun
and part Edo State. Rubber is associated with arrears including Sapele, Ugheli, Benin, Akure,
Calabar in Delta,Edo, Ondo and Cross-River state respectively. The oil palm regions include
Aba, Owerri, Port-Harcourt, Benin and Okiti Pupa. Also, some crops are associated in the
Savannah region of the country. For instance, ground nut is associated with Zaria, Kaduna,
Kano and Katsina, Cotton is associated with Zaria, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi Benni seed is
associated with Makurdi. Other crops like yam, cocoyam, cassava and grain crops are
associated with the middle region.
Crops in Nigeria may also be categorized as food crops. Food crops are crops primarily
grown for consumption they include maize guinea corn and other cereal, yam, cocoyam,
cassava among others. Cash crops are mainly grown for sale they include cocoa, rubber, oil
palm which are more into the forest region while cotton and groundnut are found in savanna.
Food crops are crops primarily grown for consumption they include maize guinea corn and
other cereal, yam, cocoyam, cassava among others.
Cassava has presently assumed a status of cash crops in Nigeria. It presently account
for over 45% of Nigeria agriculture G.D.P; this due to its ability to survive on a wide variety
of soil. (Read more on the agricultural region of Nigeria).

Role of agriculture
Agriculture has made several contributions to the economy of any nation. This will be
discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.
The provision of employment: Agriculture is still the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria,
West Africa and other developing nation. In Nigeria today, agriculture employs about 65 % of
the economically active population.
Provision of foreign exchange: Agriculture has been the main source of foreign exchange in
Nigeria right from the pre-colonial days till the end of the first decades after independence.
Before, the discovery of the petroleum in Nigeria, agriculture has been responsible for about
80% of the foreign exchange earnings. The Gambia obtains virtually all their earning from
agriculture with groundnut accounting for about 90% the Despite reduction in the contribution
of agriculture to foreign exchange earnings; Nigeria was the world largest exporter of cocoa
bean in 1990 with the sale of 135,000 tons which accounted for about 7.1% of the world trade.
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Other importance of Agriculture includes
Provision of raw materials for industry:
Provision of food:
Source of government revenue:
Provision of markets for manufactured goods:
Contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP):
Problems of Agriculture
The problems confronting agriculture includes the following:
(i) Land tenure system; the communal system of land tenure does not encourage
agricultural productivity, as interested farmers who are not rightful owners of that land
could be prevented or restricted to very limited farm size.
(ii) Smallness of farm size is an offshoot of land tenure systems; where only smaller pieces
of land are allotted to some family members. The resultant land fragmentation
discourages the mechanization and its potentialities for high productivity.
(iii) The use of simple or crude implements like hoes and cutlasses is still popular. This
limits productivity.
(iv) Inaccessibility to basic farm inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds and pesticides in
the right proportion constitutes a problem that slows down productivity.
(v) Poor transport net-work; the roads connecting most of the farming communities are in
deplorable state. This negatively affects effective conveyance of farm input to farms
and farm output to urban market to command better sales for better income for the
farmers. In accessibility to good storage facilities have been responsible for spatio-
temporal variation in the prices of agricultural produce. This is because agricultural
produced are disposed off at almost give away price during the harvesting season and
becomes very expensive thereafter.
(vi) Climatic problem; most Nigerian farmer are over dependent on climate especially
rainfall, such that, when there is a delay in its arrival as a result of prolonged drought,
productivity is seriously affected; especially because, irrigation is not popular.
Other problems of agriculture are:
Lack of adequate credit facilities for farmers, inadequate farm labour, inadequate
research extension services, inadequate farm labour and poor marketing facilities,
among others.

Environmental Impacts of Agriculture

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 Agriculture as the foremost occupation employing about three-quarter of the human
population makes tremendous impact on the environment. Although, the impacts were not very
noticeable in the primitive age due to low population; but in this modern age, the effects on the
environment have been more noticeable due to increasing population.
As a result of the increasing level of urbanization and industrialization at regional,
national and global level, increasing demand for food has intensified the level of agricultural
activities and has led to the following environmental impacts:
(i) Agriculture has been responsible for the modification of natural vegetation; agriculture
as an anthropogenic activity has tremendously contributed to deforestation and
modification of natural vegetation. This is because, it involves the initial removal of
natural forest through the slash and burn method commonly practiced in developing
world and the removal of vegetation through tractors and bulldozers in developed
worlds where mechanized agriculture are common. This has been responsible for the
loss of some exotic tree species.
(ii) Deforestation has led to exposure of the land to various agents of denudation; this has
a tendency to cause leaching of the soil and also promotes soil erosion.
(iii) Over cultivation and over grazing have exposed the soil to agents of denudation which
in turns promotes water erosion in form of excessive run-off could cause flooding of
nearby stream(s).
(iv) Agriculture through continuous cropping, monoculture and over cultivation has been
responsible for loss of soil fertility thereby exposing the soil to various agents of
denudation.
(v) Agriculture through the use of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals has
contributed to the pollution of water bodies with dangerous consequences on man
health and the environment.
(vi) There is also the danger of extinction of some valuable/exotic species of plants or
animals not encouraged by farmers (Ecological disturbance).