Category: Agriculture

The much wider gap between performance of tropical livestock species and those of the temperate climate demand a critical review and consideration by learners and practitioners of animal production. A foundation course in animal production, such as this, requires students to be acquainted with the existence of the performance gap which has often been attributed to genetic, environmental, and genetic-environment interaction variables. The essence of familiarization with this challenge may stimulate the desire to finding ways of meeting domestic demands and reducing the performance gap. The identity and measures of…

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The concept of fitness of farm animal body extends from ability to survive now and withstand environmental demands in future, to ability to produce sufficiently to justify cost of domestication. Homesostatis, Physiological, Biological and Genetic adaptations are concepts in understanding the means by which animal cope with their environment. The concept of energy balance forms the central pivot which tilts the environmental stress in different directions for animal to respond. Meanwhile, effective responses of animals to environmental stress often result in depressed productivity even in attempt to apply mechanism a…

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Generally heat stress result in increase in the blood volume and a decline in red blood count. However, longtime heat stress at moderate level leads to haemo-concentration as a result of heat loss. Heat loss also creates an acid surplus due to formation of lactate, metabolic or respiratory acidiosis which may exhaust the bicarbonate buffer system of the blood resulting in a fall of Pᴴ. The increase in blood volume also leads to a drop in total protein concentration.  The decline in tyroxine secretion is accompanied by increase in ACTH…

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With regards to Animal Energy Balance, since mammals and avian that form bulk of farm animals are homeotherms and hence maintain a constant body temperature, they possess means for producing and losing heat during extreme cold or heat muscular activities form the animal heat gain. Hear Production: Animal produce heat when transforming chemical energy of food into work. Under normal circumstances a grazing animal while in the sun may gain heat directly or indirectly from solar radiation. The added solar heat and metabolic heat generated from food and muscular activities…

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Temporary acclimatization has to do with adaptation to or tolerance to, a short duration of heat stress rather than to more moderate continuous heat stress. Temporary acclimatization effect of the heat stress. The wide changes in heat stress between the day and night in three dry zone and between seasons of the year readily prepare animal to acclimatize and adapt easily. Permanent acclimatization to climate stress may be due to changes in the behavior of the animal or to changes in physiological relations that may or may not be inherited.…

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Let us have a critical look at the measures of improving field crops production using Nigeria as a case study. Therefore below are some of the basic measures of improving field crops production. Development of Infrastructure To achieve accelerated development in food crops production in Nigeria there is need to have a market orientation approach toward production process. Without selling their produce, farmers cannot usually raise enough cash necessary for farm maintenance and improvement , whether in form of a new plough, seed or fertilizer, extra labor or insecticide nor…

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There are many crops widely grown in Africa, that are introduced from other regions of the world into Africa. The most notable among them include the following: Cereals Rice ——— Oryzasativa Wheat ——— Triticumaestivum Grain legumes Groundnuts ——— Arachis HypogaeaCommonbean——- Phaseolus VulgarisFieldPea ——— Pisumspp. Roots and tubers Cassava ——– Manihot esculanta Cocoyam ——— Colocasia esculenta Water yam ——— Dioscorea alata Tannia ——– Xanthosoma sagittifolium Sweet potato ——— Ipomoea batatas Oil-seed Sesame ———- Sesamum Indicum Fiber crops Cotton ——— Gossypium Barbadense Hirsutum Sisil ——— Agave sisalana Sugar crops Sugar cane ———…

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When looking at the trends in crop production both Nationally and Globally, then it is only right to say that Agricultural growth contributes directly to food security. It also supports poverty reduction and acts as an engine of overall economic growth in much of the developing world. The success of the agricultural sector has not been shared uniformly across regions and countries, however, and it is unclear whether this success can be sustained much less extended to those left behind. Now let us look at the trends in crop production…

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Today we are going to discuss about the complete classification of crops. All crops are classified into different groups. Basically there are two major classification of crops plants which include: Botanical classification which is based on the morphological similarity of plants parts Economic classification is based on their uses 1) Botanical Classification This classification is based upon similarity of plant parts. Field crops belong to the spermatophyte division of the plant kingdom, in which reproduction is carried on by seeds. Within this division the common crop plants belong to the…

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The following are the complete list of the most important crops that are indigenous to Africa along with their common names and botanical names and where they originated from. But first, let me try to explain briefly about the indigenous crops of Africa. During the colonial era, the process of discarding indigenous crops gained further momentum, as the official focus shifted to those familiar crops of mercantile interest, such as cane, chocolate, coffee, cotton, and other durable, transportable, and valuable crops of that sort. Indeed, during those times subsistence crops…

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