Skip to main content

Types of farming

(i) Shifting Cultivation: This is a traditional form of agriculture which is practised in the tropics and subtopics by societies which do not have permanent homes, but moves from one place to another.
(ii) Land rotation: This is a modified form of shifting cultivation. A farmer clears an area of bush, cultivates the land until its fertility decreases, allows it to lie fallow to regain its fertility and then returns to cultivate it again.
    Like shifting cultivation, land rotation is an uneconomical and wasteful farming practice. It cannot provide for the needs of a rapidly growing human population. Often, the land is not left to lie fallow long enough to allow it to regain its fertility before it is cultivated again. This eventually damages the soil and converts the land into into a barren desert. This form of farming is a major factor in the destruction of tropical forests.

(iii) Pastoral Farming: This is a traditional type of farming. Certain tribes keep only grazing livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats. They move with their livestock along the same routes at definite seasons of the year. These routes follow the rain so that the livestock get good grazing land. The routes also avoid areas infested with pests like tsetse flies. In this type of farming, overgrazing of poor pastures may lay the land bare and expose it to soil erosion.
(iv) Crop rotation: In most countries, crop rotation has replaced land rotation and shifting cultivation. Crops in a rotation plan are grown on a piece of land in a particular order and rotated through a three, four, five or six year period. A well closed crop rotation plan will allow the continuous use of land while maintaining soil fertility and controlling pests and diseases at the same time. This farming practice is, there important in the present world where agriculturally suitable land is scarce and the population is large and increasing all the time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Natural soil

 Natural soils are influenced by rainfall and temperature,heavy rain causes the soil to become leached. High temperatures increase the rate of decomposition of organic matter in the soil, thereby lowering its humus content. Thus, climatic conditions tend to produce poor soils in the tropics and rich soils in the temperate regions. Besides climate and vegetation, the parent rock material also contributes to the quality of the soil. For example volcanic rocks tend to produce fertile soils.    Laterite, a red soil which is a product of leaching, is commonly found in the tropics. It is composed mainly of iron and aluminium compounds,and poor in humus and essential plant nutrients, such as phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. The black and brown soil of the temperate grasslands are the world's richest soils, with a high mineral and humus content. The light coloured desert soils tend to be very rich in minerals but have a low humus content.    Mainly the soils ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

READING AND UNDERSTANDING

All reading is geared to understanding. There would be no point in reading if we did not understand what we are reading. However there are many different obstacles in the way of easy understanding of a passage. It is your task as a reader to actively seek to break down the barriers to understanding.    One block to understanding is caused by references in the passage to things that are outside it. Pronoun are the first examples of words that refer to people and objects. Sometimes, it is easy to follow the reference at other times, it is more difficult. Look at the opening sentence of the passage you've just read that begins this way  "She was waiting for us:small, dowdy, dirty..."  Who was waiting? Who was the person waiting for? (Perhaps you would also like to know why she was waiting.)Answers to these questions will surely help you to understand and thus follow the reference. The first thing to do is to ask questions like the ones we have just asked and to read t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Experiencing grief

Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. The more significant the loss, the more intense your grief will be. Grieving is a highly individual experience; there’s no right or wrong way to grieve. How you grieve depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style, your life experience, your faith, and how significant the loss was to you. Inevitably, the grieving process takes time. Healing happens gradually; it can’t be forced or hurried—and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving . Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. For others, the grieving process is measured in years. Whatever your grief experience, it’s important to be patient with yourself and allow the process to naturally unfold. Emotional symptoms of grief Shock and disbelief. Right after a loss, it can be hard to accept what happened. You may feel numb, have trouble believing that the loss really happen...
Post a Comment
Read more