DEPARTMENT OF CROPS SCIENCE
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY
LECTURE NOTE:
Course Title: Cereals, Legumes, Roots/Tubers and Oil Seeds
Course Code: CPS 301
BY
ABDULLAHI HAMISU MOHAMMED
1
Introduction
Arable crops are commercially grown plant crops usually grown as a
“monoculture”. Arable crops explicitly refers to cereals, oil crops, bean crops, and
root crops.
Cereal Crops
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grains. Cereals are the world’s largest
crops and therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, maize, sorghum,
millet, barley, oats, etc.
Most cereals are annuals. Producing one crop from each planting season, though
rice is sometimes grown as a perennials.
Cereals were domesticated in the Neolithic some 8,000 years ago. Wheat and barley
were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, rice was domesticated East–Asia and
sorghum and millet were domesticated in West Africa. Maize was domesticated by
indigenous people of the America in Southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago.
In the 20th century, cereal productivity was greatly increased by the Green
Revolution. This increase in production has accompanied a growing international
trade with some countries producing large portions of the cereal supply for other
countries.
RICE (oryza sativa)
Origin/distribution/climatic requirement
Origin – China
Other lit – India and Burman 1000 – 750BC
Distribution
Rice is the world’s leading food crop cultivated over an area of about 155m ha with
a production of about 596m tonnes (paddy).
In terms of area and production it is second to wheat. Rice provide about 22% of the
world’s supply of calories and 17% of the protein.
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Among the rice growing countries, India has the largest area (44.8m ha) followed
by China and Indonesia. In term of production, India ranks second with 131m
tonnes of paddy next to China (200m tonnes of paddy).
In regards to average yield per ha, Egypt ranks first followed by U.S.A. Average
rice yield of India is only 2,929kg/ha.
The leading countries producing rice crop are Japan, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Philippines.
In Nigeria Kebbi state is consider to be the top rice producing state which nearly 4m
metric tonnes cultivate annually, Borno, Kano, Jigawa, Niger and Kaduna are the
other top producing state in the north, Benue located on the middle belt is also a
major rice producing areas. Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River, Ekiti, are also leading rice
producing state in the south.
Despite being Africa’s top rice producer and one of the world’s leading producer,
only slightly more than half of the rice consumed in Nigeria is produced locally
resulting in a supply deficit of approximately 3million metric tonnes. Nigeria for
example is the world’s third largest importer of milled rice, importing about 2m
metric tons of rice into the country, indicating a need to improve rice production
across the country to meet domestic demand.
The drain on the foreign reserve led the Nigerian government to ban rice import in
October 1985. As well as banning rice import other government policies since 1974
were aimed at encouraging and boosting local rice production. Specific programmes
include the National Accelerated Food Production Project (NAFPP) set up in 1974;
the World Bank-Assisted Development Programmes (1975); Operation Feed the
Nation (OFN) (1976), the River Basin Development Authority (RBD’s) 1977, the
Back to Land Programme (BLP) and the Directorate of Food, Road and Rural
Infrastructures (DFRRI) both introduce in 1988 and more recently the National
Land Development Authority (NLDA) 1995 and NIASAL scheme.
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Inspite all these programmes, local rice production has not kept up with the
domestic consumption demands on Nigerian populace and consequently rice is still
being imported (Singh et al, 1997).
Nigeria has a potential land area for rice production of between 4.6m – 4.9m ha,
only 1.7m ha or 35% of the Nigeria total land mass is cropped for rice.
Climatic Requirement of Rice
Rice grow best in hot and humid climate with high rainfall and long period of
sunshine.
Temperature – the ideal temperature for rice grown is between 70 oF and 99oF
(21oC and 37oC).
Soil Temperature above 99oC (37oC) can harm the crop
Nighttime lows must stay at 60oF (15oC) or higher for at least three months
each year.
Rainfall
Rice need water more than any other crop
The best growing condition are in areas with 69 to 118inch (175 and 300cm)
of rainfall per year.
Soil
Clay or clay loam are best for rice because they hold water well (high WHC)
Rice can grow in many difference type of soil, including alkaline and acidic
soil.
