CLASSIFICATION OF CROPS
Crops can be classified based on: Uses. Life Cycle. Morphology. CLASSIFICATION OF CROPS BASED ON THEIR USES In this classification, crops are divided into the following categories: Cereal crops: These crops belong to the grass family and they provide…
SOURCES OF FARM POWER
DEFINITION OF POWER Power is defined as the rate of doing work or the rate of expenditure of energy. Farm power can be obtained from the following sources: Human power. Animal power. Mechanical power. Electrical power. Solar power. Wind power.…
EFFECTS OF SOME FARMING PRACTICES ON THE SOIL
FARMING PRACTICES The following farming practices by farmers have various consequences or effects on the soil. a) Bush Burning: This involves the setting of fire on the bush to clear out the vegetation. Merits It releases minerals like potassium…
FUNCTIONS AND PROBLEMS OF FARM MANAGER
In agriculture, the farm manager is usually regarded as the entrepreneur whose duties include the organisation, administration, production and marketing of produce from the farm. The reward for management is profit. FUNCTIONS OFA FARM MANAGER The functions of a…
ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY
Environmental physiology refers to the effects of the environment on the growth and performance of farm animals. Normal growth and performance are enhanced when climatic factors like temperature, rainfall, wind, relative humidity, sunlight, etc are moderate. Excess or lack of…
TYPES AND CLASSIFICATION OF FARM ANIMALS
Farm animals refers to as a group of animals which are reared in the farm either for food or for commercial purposes. The various types of farm animals include Poultry (fowls). Pig. Cattle. Sheep. Goat. Rabbit. Snail. Ducks. Turkey…
APICULTURE OR BEE-KEEPING
Bee keeping (or apiculture, from latin apis, bee) is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans for the purpose of producing honey and wax. In other words, bee-keeping is the art and science of domesticating bees…
AGRO-FORESTRY PRACTICES IN NIGERIA
Agro-forestry is a collective name for land use system where woody perennial (trees, shrubs and palms) are deliberately planted on the same land management units as agricultural crops and or animals in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.…
FLORICULTURE
Floriculture is simply defined as the production and management of ornamental plants such as trees, shrubs and flowers. In other words, floriculture involves the growth, care, uses and marketing of some flowering plants, trees and shrubs. Beautiful trees or flowering…
DRAINAGE
Drainage is a process whereby excess water in the soil is removed artificially to promote good farming activities. In other words, drainage is the withdrawal of excess water from the soil while at the same time retaining adequate reserves to…
IRRIGATION
Irrigation is defined as the artificial or manmade application of water to soil or land for farming purposes. In other words, irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil to supplement insufficient rainfall. Irrigation is mainly practised in…
EDAPHIC FACTORS AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
1) Soil pH It affects the growth of plants. It also affects the availability of soil nutrients to plants. It affects the presence of soil microorganisms. It causes toxicity to plants and animals in the soil. 2) Soil Texture…
INTER-RELATIONSHIP AMONG LIVING THINGS
There are inter-relationship among living things in a particular environment. These inter-relationship include the following: 1) Competition Competition involves the interactions among two organisms of the same or different species in which one outgrows the other and survives while…
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
MEANING AND ELEMENTS/FACTORS OF CLIMATE Climate is defined as the average weather condition of a place, measured over a long period of time (over 35 years). Factors of Climate Factors or elements of climate include: Rainfall. Temperature. Wind. Relative…
DECLENSION
Declension (otherwise known as the inflection of nouns and pronouns) is the change in form of nouns and pronouns to indicate person, number, case; and gender. Specifically, noun declension refers to the change in spelling or appearance of a noun…
AGRO-ALLIED OR AGRO-BASED INDUSTRIES
Agro-allied industries also called Agrobased industries are industries which depend on agriculture for their raw materials in order to operate successfully. In other words, agro-based industries require the supply of agricultural raw materials in order to provide some finished products…
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are words that modify nouns or noun-equivalents and fellow adjectives. The italicised words below are some examples of adjectives: Professor Stefano is a seasoned scholar. He is prolific. He has produced many good works of art. Some people are…
AGRICULTURAL ECOLOGY
Agricultural ecology can simply be defined as the study of crop plants and farm animals in relation to their environment. Ecology is derived from a Greek word Oikos which means home or dwelling place. In other words, agricultural ecology can…
GOVERNMENT LAWS ON LAND USE IN NIGERIA
As a result of the problems and inadequacies of the land tenure system, the Federal Government of Nigeria, in 1978, during the reign of General Olusegun Obasanjo, promulgated a decree on land use in Nigeria. The decree was known as…
VOICE
Voice refers to the form which a transitive verb assumes to show whether it acts or is acted upon. This implies that the verb has two voices: active and passive. The active voice is used when the subject of the…
PERSON, MOOD AND NUMBER AS GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VERBS
PERSON Person is the form of the verb which designates the person speaking (i.e. first person; e.g. I am), the person spoken to (i.e. second person; e.g. You are) and the person or thing spoken of (i.e. third person; e.g.…
THE FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
The Future Perfect Tense Form This tense is formed with shall/will + perfect infinitive (without to): shall + have spoken = (We) shall have spoken. will + have read = (You) will have read. Functions The future perfect tense…
THE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Present Perfect Continuous Tense Form The present perfect continuous tense is formed by adding the present participle to the present perfect tense of the verb to be: has/have + been + – ing. Examples She has been sleeping. We…
THE FUTURE TENSE AND FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Future Tense Form The future tense is formed with shall/will + the bare infinitive: shall + sing = shall sing. will + dance = will dance. Usually, shall/will + bare infinitive is used for the first person singular and…
THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE AND PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Simple Past Tense Form The past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding ed to the infinitive form of the verb or by adding d to the regular verb if its infinitive form ends in e: But the…
THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Form The Present continuous tense is made up of the present tense of the auxiliary verb to be and the present participle. (i.e. to be + the infinitive + ing): I am singing (am + sing +ing = am singing).…
SEQUENCE OF TENSES
Sequence of Tenses informs us that the tense of a verb in the subordinate clause agrees in a logical sequence with the tense of a verb in the main clause. This implies that verbs in the main and subordinate clauses…
GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VERBS
Verbs have five grammatical properties: Tense. Person. Mood. Number. Voice. These properties (otherwise known as features or characteristics of verbs) are sometimes called Verb Inflections because they show the changes in form or spelling exhibited by verbs to indicate…
ADVERBS
Adverbs are words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, sentences, and sentence items, such as phrases and clauses, except nouns and nominals. Examples: Chinwe danced gracefully. Your food is almost/nearly ready. You acted too quickly. Lastly, we visited…
CONJUNCTIONAL IDIOMS
A conjunctional idiom is an idiom that performs the function of a conjunction. Usually, it appears as a compound conjunction or a conjunctional phrase. Some examples are: as long as (while). as if (as though). in that (because). for certain…
PREPOSITIONAL IDIOMS
Broadly speaking, prepositional idioms refer to the idiomatic use of prepositions after verbs, adjectives, verbal-nouns, etc, and with idiomatic phrases introduced by a preposition. Three striking differences exist between the idiomatic (prepositional idioms) and the unidiomatic uses of prepositions. The…
ADVERB IDIOMS
These function as adverbs and, as such, many of them can be replaced by simple adverbs. Some examples appear below: From the foregoing, it is evident that many adverb idioms begin with prepositions and end with nouns. But there are…
VERB IDIOMS
Verb idioms are variously referred to as group verbs, multi-word verbs or phrasal verbs, or action/being referent idioms. Some begin with verbs and end with adverb particles or prepositions [e.g. get at (reach), get off (escape), get through (succeed), hails…
NOUN IDIOMS
A noun idiom is a unique noun phrase with a unique meaning. It can be replaced by another noun phrase, usually a noun and its modifier(s), with a corresponding meaning. It normally begins with an article and ends with a…
NOUNS AND NOMINALS
The word “noun” is derived from the Latin word. “nomen”, which means name. Nouns are traditionally defined as names of persons, places, things, animals, days, months, associations, ideas, qualities, states, or actions. Examples Persons: John, Stephen, Innocent, Walter, Ngozi, Obi,…
DEFINITION OF PARTS OF SPEECH
Parts of speech are classes of words that perform different functions in the sentence. They are like members of a family, each member performing his assigned function for the smooth running of the entire family. And as every family has…
SYNTAX
Syntax, a very important branch of grammar, means the ordering or arrangement of words (from Greek syn “together” and taxis “arranging”) in a sentence and the grammatical rules governing this arrangement, the classification of sentences according to the class structure…
INTRODUCTION TO IDIOMS
An idiom is a group or sequence of words whose meaning cannot be deciphered logically through our knowledge of the constituent words in the group. It possesses a unique meaning and must be learnt as a whole. For instance, when…
INTRODUCTION TO VERBS AND VERBALS
When we talk of verbs and verbals in English, we loosely refer to finite and nonfinite verbs respectively. FINITE VERBS are of three kinds – transitive, intransitive and auxiliary. NON-FINITE (or INFINITE) VERBS are also of three kinds – gerunds,…
THE INFINITIVE
(Verb-noun, verb-adjective, and verb-adverb) Form The infinitive, derived from the Latin word infinitus, means infinity, unlimited, without end. It is, therefore, the form of the verb which is not limited by number or person. Although the infinitive form is…
RULES GOVERNING THE CONVERSION OF DIRECT SPEECH TO INDIRECT SPEECH
Seven cardinal principles (or changes) governing the conversion of direct speech to the indirect speech are: Verb changes. Pronoun changes. Adverb changes. Adjective changes. Structural changes. Punctuation/mechanical changes. Vocative changes. VERB CHANGES a) If the reporting verb in the…
SENTENCE PARTS
THE SUBJECT AND THE PREDICATE Notably, every sentence may be divided grammatically into two broad parts: Subject and Predicate. The subject may be a noun or a noun-equivalent, a noun phrase or a noun clause. The predicate embraces the verb…
THE GERUND
THE GERUND (a verb-noun: verb in appearance but noun in action) Form The gerund ends in -ing. (e.g. singing, swimming, teaching). It is the present. participial form of a verb employed as a noun in a sentence. Functions…
PHRASES AND CLAUSES
A Phrase is a group of words that contains neither a subject nor a predicate. It is used as a single part of speech. We have different kinds of phrases: noun phrase (which acts as a noun), adjective phrase (which…
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
Direct Speech refers to the actual words that come out of the mouth of the speaker without any alteration whatsoever. In writing, the direct speech is marked off by quotation marks. E.g. “I am not a fool, ” he retorted.…
LAND TENURE SYSTEM IN NIGERIA
Land tenure is defined as the system of land ownership or acquisition by individual, family, community or government agency either for temporary or permanent use. The land tenure system in West Africa varies with tribes, communities and states. It can…
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA
Commercial activities involves the buying, selling and distribution of goods and services in Nigeria. It involves trading, transportation and communication within and outside the country. Types of Commercial Activities The types of Commercial activities in Nigeria include the followings:…
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech refer to the connotative use of language. When a writer departs from (or moves beyond) the literal meanings (or denotations) of words for the sake of emphasis or vividness, we say that he is employing figures of…
SKIN
The entire surface of the body is covered by skin. In man, the skin is about 1 to 2mm thick except the skin of the palm and soles with thickness of about 6mm. The skin is the most extensive organ…
ROLES OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN AGRICULTURE
Meaning and characteristics of NonGovernmental Organisations in Agriculture. They are established by private agencies or corporate bodies concerned with the development of agriculture all over the world. They are not owned or controlled by the government. They are privately –…
Study Guide
