Week 2

Topic: Factors of Production

This refers to resources needed for the production of goods and services. These are inputs unused for
production of agricultural production.

Factors of Production

1. Land
2. Water
3. Labour
4. Capital
5. Farm management

Land

This is the upper-most layer of the earth crust where agricultural purpose depends on the type of
farming. Small area of land is required for subsistence whie large area is for commercial agriculture.

Characteristics of Land

1. Land is fixed and immovable.

2. Land is a free gift of nature
3. The reward forand is rent
4. Land is abundant but scarce in some area
5. Land will remain physically indestructible and forever
6. Location determines the value
7. Land is unique i.e no two lands are exactly alike in at least a geographical location
8. Land is used as collateral

Uses Of Land

Land is used for two major purposes

S/N Agricultural Uses Non-Agricultural Uses

1. Crop farming Road construction

 2. Livestock farming Amusement park

3. School of Agriculture Hotel management

4. Ministry of agriculture Railway construction

5. Factories for food production like Building of bridges

tomatoes industry, cereal industry etc.

Method of Land Improvement

Land can be improved through the following way:

1. Fallowing: Allowing lands to rest to regain soul nutrients

2. Addition of manure or fertilizer to increase its fertility
3. Weeding: Cleaning bushes to remove unwanted plants
4. Irrigation: The artificial application of water to soil to supplement insufficient rain
5. Use of healthy seeds.

Week 3

Topic: Water

Water is very important for both livestock and crops. It forms a large part of all plant tissues as well as
being a essential component of all animal body cell.

Absence of rainfall for a long time and availability of water could lead to complete loss for the farmer as
crops may wither and dry up just as livestock can drop dead in just few days of water. Water is one of
the most limiting factors in all farming activities.

Sources of Water

The sources of water for agriculture include:

1. Rainfall
2. Rivers
3. Dams stream
4. Lakes
5. Boreholes
6. Springs
7. Ponds
8. Reservoirs etc
Uses Of Water

1. Water is important for seed germination

2. It is needed for photosynthesis
3. It is used in preparing the food for farm animals
4. It provides medium for the transfer of nutrients to other parts of the plant for utilisation
5. Farm animals cannot do without water.

Week 4

Topic: Capital

Capitals are human made goods which are used in the production of other goods. It is any form of
wealth that is set aside for the production of further wealth. Money is needed for the acquisition of
other inputs, buying of machines and equipment and also for facilities and payment of salaries.

Characteristics of Capital

1. Capital is a man made source of production.

2. The reward for capital is interest.
3. It has economic value.
4. It is limited in supply.
5. Capital may be in fixed form or working form.

Sources of Capital

1. Personal savings: This is the usually the cheapest form of finance and easy to secure because
there is no collateral needed.
2. Friends and family: farmers can also approach people they know for more funding. This could be
in exchange for either interest payment or share of ownership.
3. Agricultural banks: The most common source of funding is bank lending. Farmers can approach
federal government established agricultural banks for loan facilities. The bonus here is that the
farmer gets to retain ownership and control of the farm/business.
4. Loan from commercial banks: Commercial banks also give loans to livestock farmers and the
government also encourages these banks to set aside part of their funds for agagricultural
projects.
5. Grants and other funding: Grants provide a good finance source for specific undertaking. They
usually do not require payment but they have specific qualification and series of commitment
and conditions that are agreed before the fund flows.
6. Micro finance scheme: These small banks give loans to small scale farmers who have maintained
accounts with the banks. Savings and loan payment could be on weekly or monthly basis.

Importance/Uses of Capital
 1. Capital supplies various equipment used in farming such as tractors, ploughs, harvesters,
poultry,cages etc.
2. It provides money used in hiring labor, buying seedlings, fertilizer and insecticide.
3. It provides equipment for storage, processing, transportation of harvested crops.
4. Money is required to buy vaccines and drugs to treat sick farm animals.

Week 5

Topic: Labour

Labor is all human efforts put into production. This could be mental or physical, scientific or artistic,
skilled or unskilled.

Characteristics of Labor

1. It is a human factor of production.

2. It is mobile.
3. It cost money.
4. The reward of labor is wages or salaries.
5. The reward is negotiable.
6. It is an active factor of production whose quality can be improved through training.

Types of Labor

1. Professional labor: This is the labor with the highest level of based education and managerial
skill. For example the farm manager also known as the entrepreneur.
2. Skilled labor: This is the part of the labor force with training and knowledge to operate complex
task to perform their task.
3. Semi skilled labor: This part of the labor force requires less training but has basic skills to
operate simple machine.
4. Unskilled labor: Thisis the farm workers who work with their hands. They have low education
and their work requires no special skill or training and experience.

Forms of Labor available to farmers

1. Family labor: This is the labor provided by the farmer, his wife/wives and his children.
2. Personal labor: This is the labor provided by the owner of the farm.
3. Communal labor: This is the labor provided by neighbors, friends and the community.
4. Hired or paid labor: This is the labor that gets paid for either on daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Importance of Labor

1. It provides the human skills that are necessary in planning and management of agricultural
production.
 2. It uses other factor factors of production and their efficiency.
3. It provides human power used for soil tillage and other manual labor on the farm.
4. It aids the growth and development.
5. It is an active factor of production that gives major input on the farm.

Week 6

Topic: Farm Management/Entrepreneur

Farm management is defined as the way and means of organizing all the factors of productionandthe
application of technical knowledge and skills for ultimate productivity. It is often referred to as
entrepreneurship. The reward is profit and loss.

Importance of Farm Management

1. It arranges for the provision of finance for undertaking the product.

2. It is responsible for decision making at every stages of the production process.
3. It undertakes the hiring, organizing and training of labor.
4. It secures land for crop production and rearing of animals
5. It secures loan for expansion.
6. The management arranges for the marketing of the farm proceeds.
7. It bears risk.
8. It arranges for harvesting and storage of farm produce.
9. It keeps inventory of farm equipment, building and materials.
10. It makes plans for the future.

Farm Manager

A farm manager is a person who organised and coordinates all other factors of production.

Functions of a Farm Manager

1. Organization
a. Serving land for farming
b. Determines what to produce
c. Determines scale of production
d. Procures loan for expansion
e. Employs staff for the farm
2. Administration
a. Supervises the work in the farm
b. Directs staff on day-to-day activities
c. Arranges for staff welfare
d. Rewards and disciples staff when necessary
 e. Arranges work roaster
3. Production
a. Helps in purchase of farm inputs
b. Ensures the health of animals and crops
c. Ensures adequate supply of feed
d. Makes arrangements for general farm security
e. Ensures modern farming techniques are adhered to
f. Combines resources to yield optimum profit
4. Marketing
a. Determines the prices of goods
b. Determines the best marketing channels
c. Determines when to sell to make profit
d. Determines the quantity of goods for sale
e. Arranges storage and warehousing of unsold produce
f. Monitors marketing trend in order to decide on commodities to produce in his farm.
5. Evaluation
a. Keeps the general records of the farm
b. Supervises account in order to determine fraud
c. Sets target and objectives
d. Assesses the staffing conditions
e. Develops new strategies for further development of the farm.

Probles of Farm Management

1. Inadequate capital
2. Inadequate information
3. Government policies
4. Problems of marketing
5. Inadequate farm inputs
6. Transportation problems
7. Problems of administration
8. Staffing problems.

WEEK 8

SIMPLE FARM TOOLS

SIMPLE FARM TOOLS

Simple Farm Tools: They are devices or implements or equipment used by farmers on the farm land to make their
work easy.
Since man learnt to cultivate the soil, different forms of hand tools have been used. At the first stage they were
crude but now they have been modified to suit the farm operation. There are now a wide variety of farm tools for
breaking and turning the soil, for weeding, for burying the vegetation and other soil materials in the soil.

The different simple farm tools are;

- Hoe - Cutlass or machetes - Spade - Shovel - Hand trowel - Hand fork

- Rake - Digger or Garden fork - Axe & Pick axe - Sickle - Mattock - Garden shears
- Secateurs - Budding knife -File - Watering can - Wheel barrow - Head pan

USES OF EACH OF THE FARM TOOLS

HOE: It consists of a wooden handle and a metal blade. Hoes are used for tilling the soil and making
ridges mounds, nursery beds and excavating (digging holes of) irrigation channels. It is also used for
weeding and removal of roots.

DIAGRAM

CUTLASSES ORMACHETES: They are used for bush clearing, weeding, harvesting cereal and root crops,
stem cutting of trees and shrubs making planting holes, preparing stem cuttings and slaughtering of
animals.

DIAGRAM

SPADE: It is used for digging planting holes, drains, foundations and trenches, turning the soil, removing
rubbish and stones etc.

DIAGRAM

SHOVEL: It is similar to spade except that it has a thinner hollow blade. Shovel is used for parking soil,
manure, rubbish. It is also used for rough levelling, loading materials into wheelbarrows and trucks.

DIAGRAM

HAND TROWEL: It is used for transplanting seedlings, digging small holes on nursery beds, mixing
manure and fertilizer with soil.

DIAGRAM
HAND FORK: It is used for light weeding and light tillage and loosening the top soil.

DIAGRAM

RAKE: It is used for levelling ridges and soil surfaces, for breaking down lumps of soil into finer particles,
for removing stones and rubbish from plant beds.

DIAGRAM

DIGGER OR GARDEN FORK: It is used for loosening the soil, turning manure during composting, carrying
loose materials and spreading manure.

DIAGRAM

AXE AND PICK AXE: The axe is used for cutting down trees, chopping wood, for splitting logs, cutting
roots and for stumping operations. The pick axe is used for breaking up heavy soil, removing large
stones from the ground, digging out trees stumps and roots.

DIAGRAM

SICKLE: It is used for harvesting cereal crops like rice, wheat, millet and for cutting forage for livestock.

DIAGRAM

MATTOCK: It is used for stumping removal of roots and tree stumps.

DIAGRAM

GARDEN SHEARS: The shear resembles a large pair of scissors but has a wooden or metal handles. They
are used for trimming hedges and shrubs.

DIAGRAM

SECATEUR: It is used for light pruning of fruit and trimming border plants.
DIAGRAM

BUDDING KNIFE: It is used for cutting, budding and grafting operation.

DIAGRAM

FILE: It is used for sharpening blunt farm tools like machetes, hoes etc.

DIAGRAM

WATERING CAN: A container made of galvanized iron or plastic with a sprinkler. It is used for watering
seed boxes, potted plants, nursery beds, seedlings freshly transplanted.

DIAGRAM

WHEEL BARROW: A large metal or wooden container with one wheel at its front and two handles at the
rear, and two legs below. It is used mostly on school gardens and large commercial farms for
transplanting farm materials like harvested crops, fertilizers and manures, farm tools and debris.

DIAGRAM

HEAD PAN: A container made of galvanized metal and fitted with two short handles. It is used for
transporting small quantities of crops, farm inputs and seedlings in the farm.

DIAGRAM

GENERAL MAINTENANCE OF FARM TOOLS

MAINTENANCE: The act of maintaining farm tools i.e. the regular check and repair of farm tools.

1. Tools should be used for the right job for which they are made.
2. Tools should be cleaned immediately after use and stored away from sun and rain.
3. Tools with cutting edge should be sharpened regularly using sharping stone or file.
4. Handles of hoes, pick axe and mattocks should be regularly checked to ensure that the blades or
heads are secure, and the handle should be replaced when damaged.
5. Store tools in a cool dry place.
 6. Tighten bolts and nuts before working.
7. Lubricate the moving parts to reduce friction.
8. Damaged tools should be repaired.
9. Tools should be washed and dried after use.
10. Wooden parts should be painted with oil paints to protect from termite attack while metal parts
should be oiled to avoid rusting.

WEEK 9

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT THROUGH AGRICULTURE

Economic empowerment in agriculture is the process by which an individual or group of individuals are
given the opportunity or power to make money by engaging in one agricultural activity or the other so
as to earn a living.

For example, the federal or state government can decide to train some youths on some specific areas of
agriculture like crop production, fish farming, snail farming, or general animal production and then give
them loans without collateral after the training to start their own farm. With this the government have
empowered the youth economically because if the business is well managed, the youth can pay back the
loan and then continue to earn his living through it.

Thus economic empowerment entails putting money in one’s hand so as to be able to earn a living.The
World Bank Group is a leading financier of agriculture

WAYS OF ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

1. Livestock production
2. Crop production
3. Sales of farm produce
4. Rendering of other Agricultural services such as
Skill acquisition
Educating farmers.
Provide basic amenities to the farmers in the rural area.
Provision of good roads network to link the rural and major markets in the cities.
Encourage and empower the youth to speak up.
Provide basic and affordable farming implements.

BENEFITS/ IMPORTANCE

1. It can help reduce poverty,

2. Increasing productivity,
3. Employment
4. It raises incomes and improve food security for 80% of the world's poor, who live in rural areas
and work mainly in farming.
 CHALLENGES

 Land Tenancy:
 Size of Holdings and Fragmentation of Fields:
 Labour:
 Capital:
 Mechanization and Equipment's:
 Transportation Facilities:
 Marketing Facilities:

SOME EMPOWERMENT PROJECT BY THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT

1. Federal ministry of agricultural empowerment loans 2022-2023.

2. The LIFE programmes
3. FG to launch $2bn smallholder farmer empowerment project.
4. Nigeria plans women, youth empowerment through poultry agriculture in 2022.
5. Farmer empowerment through agricultural technology and information.

WEEK 10

FIELD TRIP/ EXCURSION TO AN ESTABLISHED FARM

TYPES OF AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES / FARMING SYSTEM

1. MIXED FARMING – Farmer grows crops and rear animals on the same land
2. BUSH FALLOWING OR SHIFTING CULTIVATION – The land is cultivation for some years left for 6
to 12 years to regain fertility
3. PASTORAL FARMING (NOMADIC, LEY AND RANCHING)

PASTORAL FARMING

It is the rearing of grazing livestock like cattle, sheep and goats. The animals are not restricted in
buildings but allowed to roam and graze in fields.

TYPES OF PASTORAL FARMING

1. Nomadic herding
2. Ley farming
3. Ranching
NOMADIC HERDING

The nomads are found in the Fulani tribes of Northern Nigeria and they walk with their grazing animals,
especially cattle from one place to another of green pastures and water for their animals. During the dry
season they take their cattle too the south region and take them back to the North during the rainy
season.

LEY FARMING (Rotational pasture)

PASTURE – A land covered with grass that is suitable for feeding animals.

Ley farming combines pasture (grass) with crop production. The pasture is grow for about 4 years, then
the land is tilled and used to cultivate other crops. Therefore it is called rotational pasture.

RANCHING

It deals with rearing the animals on a large expanse of fenced land as in Obudu cattle ranch. The animals
graze on the pasture crops as well as natural vegetation in the ranch. The animals are also given
supplements in form of concentrates, vitamins and mineral supplements.

Advantages of nomadic herding

1. It ensures a constant food supply for the animals without the farmer laboring to establish
pasture.
2. A variety of palatable pasture is provided as the animal move from place to place.

Disadvantages of Nomadic herding

1. There is high incidence of pests and diseases

2. Breeding (production of young ones) is uncontrolled, therefore leads to the production of poor
quality animals.
3. The animals and the herdsmen are exposed to attack by wild animals and thieves.
4. There is high death rate of young animals born during period of inadequate pasture.
5. They often destroy crops along their route; and this causes problems for the herdsmen.

Advantages of Ley farming

1. Animals droppings serves as manure

2. Crop residues are used for feeding the animals

Disadvantages

1. Over-grazing can lead to trampling and destruction of soil structure, thereby leading to erosion
2. High cost of fencing
Advantages of Ranching

1. The animals are better managed and more protected from pests diseases and death
2. Pasture is available all through the year
3. Pasture animals produce more milk

Disadvantages of Ranching

1. High cost of fencing the pasture and providing buildings

2. It requires a large area of land
3. It requires trained personnel to manage the ranch