MULCHING

Mulching the the act of covering the topsoil with leafy. materials to
reduce the impact of heat, rainfall, etc on the soil. Mulching is a
very important farm practice. It should be done with dry leaves in
order to minimise the habitation of pests in such leaves.

ADVANTAGES OF MULCHING
1. It helps to conserve soil water.
2. It helps to conserve soil mineral content
3. It helps to add nutrient to the soil.
4. It can be used to protect seedlings in the nursery from adverse
weather condition.
5. It helps to conserve soil structure and texture.
6. It is used to check erosion.
7. It protects important soil living organisms from adverse conditions.







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POULTRY

Poultry can be used to refer to farm birds kept for agricultural
purposes. They include turkey, chicken, duck, guinea fowl, quial, etc.
Such birds are kept for three basic reasons:
* for meat
* for table eggs
* for young birds

There are three basic systems of keeping poultry birds, they are:
1 intensive system: this system involves keeping the birds in an
enclosed pen where their movement is restricted. This method is
capital intensive as all the food needs are to be provided. Moreover
spread of diseases can be very fast as the birds are close to each
other. However, this method is widely used in commercial animal
husbandry. In this system the birds can be protected from bad weather,
thieves, predators, etc.

2. Semi-intensive: this system involves the housing of birds in mobile
pens which have openings that can allow the birds to pick food
materials from the surrounding. This system is seldom practised. This
may be because the system is labour intensive and most of the food
requirements are to be provided.

3. Extensive system: this system involves allowing the birds to roam
freely around the environment with little or no restriction. In this
system little or no food is provided a the birds feed from their
environment. The spread of disease is not very fast as birds are
seperated fom each other. However, the birds are prone to theft,
predation, bad weather, etc.








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COWPEA

Botanical name: Vigna uniguiculata
LAND PREPARATION:
1. Land clearing
2. Stumping
3. Ploughing
4. Harrowing
5. Ridging

PESTS
1. Pod borers
2. Beans beetle
3. Leaf hoppers
CONTROL
1. Use insecticides
2. Early harvesting
3. Good store sanitation

DISEASES
1. Mosaic disease
2. Bacterial blight
3. Nematode disease
4. Damping off
CONTROL
1. Plant resistant varieties
2. Removal of infected plants
3. Soil disinfection with nematicides
4. Crop rotation

CASSAVA

Botanical name: Manihot spp
VARIETIES
Sweet cassava. M. palmata
Bitter cassava. M. Utilisima

LAND PREPARATION
1. Clearing
2. Stumping
3. Ploughing
4. Harrowing
5. Ridging

PESTS
1 Grasshopper
2 Sheep
3 Goat
4 Rodents
5 Green spidermite
6 Mealy-bug
CONTROL
1 use of traps
2 early planting
3 spray cassava cutting with Basudin 60EC

DISEASES
1. Leaf blight
2. Cassava mosaic
3. Leaf spot
CONTROL
1. Plant resistant varieties
2. Remove and destroy infected plant
3. Crop rotation
4. Farm sanitation
5. Use of healthy stem cuttings

YAM

Botanical name: Dioscorea spp.
VARIETIES
White yam. D. rotundata
Water yam. D. alata
Yellow yam. D. cayensis
Trifolia yam. D. dumentorium
Aeriel yam. D. bulbifera
Chinese yam. D. esculenta

LAND PREPARATION
1. Clear land
2. Ploughing
3. Harrowing
4. Ridging

PESTS
1. Nematodes
2. Yam tuber beetle
3. Yam shoot beetle
4. Rodents
5. Grasshopper
CONTROL
1. Apply insecticides
2. Use Aldrin dust
3. Practise crop rotation
4. Set traps
5. Use Agrocide 3 powder

DISEASES
1. Yam dry rot
2. Fungal leaf spot
3. Yam mosaic
CONTROL
1. Destroy all infected crops
2. Plant resistant varieties
3. Farm sanitation
4. Practice crop rotation