"Agronomic practices regulate soil productivity "-explain it
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Answer:
Agronomic practices are a vital part of farming systems. These are practices that farmers incorporate to improve soil quality, enhance water usage, manage crops and improve the environment. Agronomic practices focus on better fertilizer management as a way of improving agricultural practices.
Mulching:- This is the placement of materials such as dry grasses, saw dust, leaves, wood shavings etc over the soil surface. Mulching conserve soil moisture, regulates soil temperature, provides erosion control, suppresses weed growth, serves as vegetative cover, improves soil condition and increases soil fertility.
The ultimate goal of any farmer is to get maximum yield per unit area. To obtain high yield, effective crop
management practices, appeared to be of paramount value. Crop production in Nigeria is faced with many
challenges among which are: untimely planting, incorrect plant spacing, wrong method of planting, poor sowing
depth, delayed weeding, ineffective pests and diseases control, inappropriate use of fertilizers, untimely
harvesting and above all usage of low yielding varieties of seeds. Such poor crop management practices
become reflected in reduced crop growth and yield which invariably make farming to be physically strenuous
and economically unrewarding in nature. In Nigeria, however, crop production is lagging behind in terms of
yield per hectare due to the problems associated with poor crop management practices. This is justifiable
considering the report by OLAM on sesame production in Jigawa State in which the average seed yield of
sesame on farmer’s field was put at 0.6t/ha as opposed to 1.25t/ha that is practically obtainable on well-managed
farms. The low yield on farmer’s field could be ascribed to failure of the farmers to adopt and practice the
recommended agronomic practices that govern the production of the crop. Each crop has an established cultural
practice that guides its production developed by crop scientists through a series of experimentations, and for the
inherent yield potential of that crop to be fully expressed, such management practices must be properly adopted.
Therefore, it is important to sensitize farmers and create awareness on the benefits associated with effective crop
management practices so as to ensure sustainable food security and economic viability of the peasant farmers
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