a. State the roles of government of West African countries in agricultural development on (i) Agricultural finance. (ii) Agricultural education (iii) Agricultural extension services (iv) Agricultural policies and programmes services
b. State structural differences between disc plough and disc harrow
c. State the effects of the frequent use of disc plough on the soil.
Explanation
a. (i) Agricultural finance
- provision of subsidies to farmers
- provision of credit facilities/loans to farmers
- provision of agricultural insurance
- provisions of an agricultural credit guarantee scheme to bank on agricultural loans (ii) Agricultural education
- provision of training for youths in agriculture
- establishment of agricultural research institutes
- establishment of agricultural institutions such as universities and college of agriculture (iii) Agricultural extension services
- employment of agricultural extension workers
- facilitates training of farmers on new techniques of farming from research institutes. (iv) Agricultural policies and programmme
- Implementation of agricultural policies and programmes
- establishment of agricultural programmes e.g OFN, farm settlement schemes
- formulation of agricultural policies/regulations
b.
| Disc plough | Disc harrow |
|
- Discs are larger |
-Discs are smaller |
|
- Discs are spaced far apart |
- Discs are spaced close together |
|
- Discs are fewer |
- Disc are many |
|
- A common shaft connects discs to form a single gang |
- A common shaft connects discs to form a gang with one pair or two pairs of gangs working in the same direction or opposite direction |
|
- presence of furrow wheel |
- Absence of furrow wheel |
|
- presence of scrapper |
- Absence of scrapper |
c. - Destruction of soil structure
- Decreases soil aeration
- Causes poor drainage
- Formation of clouds/lumps
- Exposes soil to erosion
- Increases percolation or leaching