MODERN AGRICULTURE: FROM THE CRADLE TO THE TABLE

Welcome, how are you doing friend? I hope you are doing just fine. Today, we will be discussing on a very broad topic, although it is only an introduction, later we will dwell more on the details of this topic.
As much as I can, I will try to make this write up as simple and basic as possible, so that those of you who are not in the agricultural line can easily grasp the information am trying to pass across.

 Agriculture was defined as the rearing of animals and the cultivation of crops for human consumption. That was the basic definition of Agriculture, today with the advancements in technology, that definition might not be accepted in many places, because it is not detailed and encompassing enough. If am to redefine Agriculture, I will define it as ‘’the scientific application of modern techniques in the improvement and production of both plants and animals for human consumption and industrial uses’’. I intentionally added the term ‘’INDUSTRIAL USES’’ because today, not only do we engage in Agricultural ventures for human consumption, we also do that to produce raw materials for industries.

         BASIC DIVISIONS OF
  AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

When I talk about basic divisions, am talking about the elementary divisions and groups of Agricultural production, i.e. when we produce Agricultural products, they are either of these two classes:

- Plant production,

- Animal production.

    PLANT PRODUCTION
 Plant production entails the cultivation of crops both on large scale and small scale for human and industrial uses. I divide plant production into two:

- Cash crops,

- Consumption crops.

Cash crops: are those crops that are cultivated solely for the purpose of export or direct sales not for personal consumption. Examples of such crops include:

Coffee: scientific name: Coffea spp, it has many species some include Coffea arabica (accounts for about 75% of the world’s coffee production), Coffea liberica. Coffee is used as a beverage (drink as tea)

Cocoa: scientific name: Theobroma cacao. It is also used as a beverage and also used as a snack to make chocolates, body creams and other products.

Oil palm: scientific name: Elaeis guineensis. It is used to make palm oil, it is also used in industries and even for home consumption.

Rubber: scientific name: Hevea brasiliensis. It is used in industries to make plastics, car and motorcycle tyres etc.

- Consumption crops: they include the following groups of plants:

Cereals: include grains like

Rice, scientific name: Oryza sativa

Wheat, scientific name: Triticum aestivum

Barley, scientific name: Hordeum vulgare

Millet, scientific name: Panicum miliaceum L

Sorghum, scientific name: Sorghum bicolor etc.

Legumes: include

Beans scientific name: Phaseolus vulgaris

Soybean: scientific name: Vigna unguiculata

Other consumption crops include sugar cane, vegetables, roots and tubers etc.

      ANIMAL PRODUCTION

It entails rearing animals for the purpose of deriving meat, milk feathers, and bye-products: hooves hides and skins from them.

Different animals are reared for different reasons, in this part of the world, some of the animals popularly reared include

Poultry; they are domesticated birds (chickens reared for either milk or eggs and occasionally for their bye products like feathers

Birds reared for meat are called broilers, those reared for eggs are called layers. The most popular bird used in poultry is the domestic fowl Gallus domesticus. In subsequent publications, we will discuss better on poultry.

                            

RUMINANTS: Ruminants are animals that chew the cud (ruminate) when at rest. Domestically they include the large ruminants (cattle) and the small ruminants (sheep and goats).

Cattle: Bus indicus (humped/zebu cattle), Bus Taurus (humpless cattle) are large ruminants which are reared for meat and milk, there are cattle that are meat specific, cattle that are milk specific and the multipurpose cattle

Those that are milk specific include: Friesian Holstein, Brown Swiss, Jersey etc.

Meat specific: Local breeds: Muturu, White Fulani, N’dama etc.
 Foreign breeds: Beef master

Dual purpose: White Fulani.                            

Swine: scientific name: Sus scrofa. This entails producing pigs for meat and fats. There are various local and foreign breeds of pig which include West African dwarf, Landrace etc.

Fish production: the African catfish Clarias gariepinus is the most popular breed of fish raised in Nigeria, it is so because its fast growth and survivability

Micro livestocks: include rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, cane rat Thyronomys swinderianus, Honey bees Apis melifera, Snails: Achatina achatina they (microlivestocks) are raised for many reasons like meat fur (skin), honey, bee wax etc.

Companion/Security animals: these include dogs, Canis lupus, Horses, Equus caballus, Domestic Cats, Felis silvestris etc. which are kept either for sports, as pets or for security.

  MODERN TECHNIQUES IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Today, in agricultural production, we have two schools of thought:

- Inorganic farming

- Organic farming

Inorganic farming: it entails the use of conventional methods in Agricultural production, use of chemicals in combating pests, fumigation, conventional medications in treating diseases and even in vaccination.

Organic farming: this type of Agricultural technique, is beginning to gain ground due to increased human awareness hand on health and implications of chemicals on human health. Here, conventional chemicals, medications and drug usage are reduced if not totally avoided in Agricultural production.

As earlier said, Organic farming is still at its infant stage in this part of the world, but has great prospects to replace Inorganic farming in the nearest future.

With this brief overview/introduction on Agriculture in light of the 21^st century, I hope I have even if it is in a little way passed quality knowledge across to you. More still to come.

N.B

This write up is just a preamble and there will be more detailed sequels to each point discussed here very soon.