69 questions. Try each one, then open the answer to check yourself and read the explanation.
Which of the following benefits of agriculture is of least importance to the peasant farmer?
Answer: C (Foreign exchange)
Foreign exchange matters to the country, not directly to a peasant family.
Farmers who plant improved maize would harvest
Answer: B (a high yield of maize)
Improved varieties are bred for high yield.
Which of the following land tenure systems allows the owner greatest freedom to dispose of the land as he wishes?
Answer: B (Free-hold)
A freeholder owns the land outright and can sell or give it away.
Which of the following is not a government agricultural programme?
Answer: D (West Africa Rice Development Agency.)
WARDA is an international research body, not a national government programme.
The practice of planting one type of annual crop each season is referred to as
Answer: C (mono-cropping)
Growing a single crop on the land in a season is mono-cropping.
The most important use of land for agricultural production is
Answer: A (grazing paddocks)
Grazing paddocks are directly used to produce livestock.
Which of the following biotic factors are usually used to control cassava mealybugs?
Answer: A (Parasites)
A tiny parasitic wasp lays its eggs in the mealybug and kills it.
The following are types of sedimentary rocks except
Answer: A (granite)
Granite is igneous.
A reddish coloured soil indicates the presence of
Answer: C (iron)
Iron oxides give soil a red colour.
The three most important physical factors that influence rock weathering are
Answer: B (particle size, hardness and degree of cementation)
Grain size, hardness and how well particles are cemented decide how fast rock breaks down.
Which of the following statements is not true about waterlogged soils?
Answer: C (Nitrosomonas yield best in such soils)
Nitrosomonas needs oxygen, which waterlogged soils lack.
Which of the following crops should be planted on a piece of land that has been repeatedly cropped with maize?
Answer: D (Cowpea.)
A legume like cowpea restores nitrogen and breaks the cereal pest cycle.
Sources of nitrogen to the soil include the following except
Answer: D (residues of burning activities.)
Burning drives nitrogen off as gas.
Which of the following statements about bush burning is false?
Answer: D (The heat generated increases the population of soil organisms.)
Heat kills soil organisms.
A farmer applied NPK 15:11:8 at planting. What is the percentage of potassium in the fertilizer?
Answer: A (23.53%)
Potassium's share of the nutrients = 8 ÷ (15 + 11 + 8) × 100 = 23.53%.
The following equipment can be used for irrigation except
Answer: C (knapsack sprayer)
Knapsack sprayers apply pesticides, not water.
Excessive drainage of soil water can be checked by the addition of adequate quantities of
Answer: D (compost manure)
Organic matter holds water in the soil.
Considering all costs, the cheapest source of energy for domestic use is
Answer: B (sunlight)
Sunlight is free.
The implement used for pulverising the soil is the
Answer: C (harrow)
The harrow breaks clods into fine soil.
An incubator is important in supplying
Answer: B (heat for embryo development)
It keeps eggs warm so embryos develop.
A farm surveying equipment made of steel and used for measuring short distances is called
Answer: B (measuring tape)
A steel tape measures short lengths; the chain is for long ones.
Which of the following statements about farmstead planning is false?
Answer: A (Administrative blocks should not be located close to the entrance of the farmstead)
The office should be near the entrance so visitors need not walk through the farm.
The term supplying in crop production means
Answer: C (replacing ungerminated seeds on seedbeds)
Supplying fills gaps where seeds did not germinate.
During photosynthesis, green plants convert carbon dioxide to
Answer: B (carbohydrate)
CO2 and water make sugars (carbohydrate).
Parboiling in the processing of rice
Answer: C (reduces the percentage of breakage)
Parboiled grains are harder and break less in milling.
The main reason for removing the barks of cassava tubers before processing the tuber is to
Answer: D (reduce the cyanide content of products.)
Much of the cyanide is in the peel.
Curing is carried out in the processing of
Answer: B (tobacco)
Tobacco leaves are cured (dried) by air, sun or fire.
Tomato plants are staked for the following reasons except to
Answer: D (improve the taste.)
Staking does not change taste.
A vegetatively propagated citrus plant will produce fruits earlier than the one established from seeds because
Answer: C (it is more advanced at the time of establishment)
Budwood comes from a mature tree, so it fruits sooner.
Swollen shoot disease of cocoa is caused by a
Answer: A (virus)
Cocoa swollen shoot is viral, spread by mealybugs.
Groundnut grows best on a
Answer: A (well-drained, light sandy-loam soil)
Pods form underground and need light, loose soil.
Which of the following characteristics is not true of a good pasture crop?
Answer: D (Poor digestibility.)
A good pasture is easy to digest.
The benefits of establishing forests do not include
Answer: D (shading of crops.)
Forests are not set up to shade field crops.
Floriculture is a subdivision of horticulture which deals with the cultivation of
Answer: C (ornamental plants)
Floriculture is growing flowers and ornamentals.
Which of the following insect pests causes defoliation in crops?
Answer: B (Grasshopper)
Grasshoppers eat leaves, stripping plants.
Which of the following pesticides effectively control maize stem borers?
Answer: A (Systemic insecticides)
Borers hide inside stems; systemic insecticides move into the plant and reach them.
Which of the following combinations of practices best controls groundnut rosette disease?
Answer: D (Early planting and spraying of insecticide.)
Early planting avoids aphid peaks; insecticide kills the aphid vector.
Determine the number of bottles of a herbicide required to spray 25 hectares of farmland, if one bottle is needed to prepare 100 litres and the diluted product is applied at a rate of 20 litres per hectare.
Answer: B (5 bottles)
25 × 20 = 500 litres; 500 ÷ 100 = 5 bottles.
The milk secreting organ in cattle is the
Answer: B (udder)
The udder secretes milk.
A developing embryo derives its nutrition from the mother
Answer: A (through the blood vessels located in the placenta)
Nutrients pass from the mother's blood through the placenta.
Birds store their food in the
Answer: A (crop)
The crop stores food.
The following are examples of natural mating methods except
Answer: D (block mating.)
Pen, flock and hand mating are recognised methods; "block mating" is not.
The milk collection vessel of the mammary gland is the
Answer: B (gland cistern)
Milk collects in the gland cistern.
Fertile eggs will be produced by breeders if the
Answer: B (cocks are always kept with the hens)
Eggs are only fertile if hens are mated by cocks.
The rabbit is able to utilize forages because
Answer: A (it has an enlarged caecum that digests fibre)
Microbes in the large caecum digest fibre.
If feed efficiency for egg production is defined as feed consumed per 10 eggs, what will be the feed efficiency for a layer that laid 230 eggs and consumed 26kg feed?
Answer: B (1.13)
230 eggs = 23 lots of 10; 26 ÷ 23 = 1.13 kg per 10 eggs.
When birds are fed on a ration deficient in riboflavin, which of the following symptoms will they show?
Answer: C (Curled-toe paralysis)
Riboflavin (B2) deficiency causes curled-toe paralysis in chicks.
Livestock are said to feed on the range when they eat
Answer: B (fresh herbage directly from the pasture)
Range feeding is grazing directly on pasture.
Liverfluke infestation causes disturbance in lipid digestion because it
Answer: B (blocks the bile duct and reduces secretion of bile)
Bile is needed to emulsify fat; flukes block the bile ducts.
A farmer noticed that one of his cows has high fever, blood-stained diarrhoea and often grinds its teeth. This shows that the cow is infected by
Answer: A (rinderpest)
Fever with bloody diarrhoea is typical of rinderpest.
Temperature is an important factor in fish ponds because it
Answer: A (affects the metabolic processes in fish)
Fish body processes run at the water temperature.
An illegal method of harvesting fish is by the use of
Answer: B (potassium cyanide)
Poisoning with cyanide is banned.
How can the offspring of a bull continue to be produced long after its death? By
Answer: A (using the preserved semen for artificial insemination)
Frozen semen can be used for years.
Which of the following factors of production has profit as its reward?
Answer: D (Management.)
Management (the entrepreneur) earns profit.
A farm business makes profit when
Answer: C (total revenue exceeds total cost)
Profit is revenue above cost.
Agricultural business is difficult to insure in West Africa mainly because
Answer: B (agricultural production is highly risky)
Weather, pests and disease make losses frequent and hard to insure.
A tractor with an expected life of 10 years was bought for Le 15.0m at the end of which it was to be sold for Le 1.0m. Its calculated depreciation is
Answer: A (Le 1.4m)
(15.0 − 1.0) ÷ 10 = Le 1.4m a year.
The aims and objectives of agricultural extension education do not include
Answer: B (educating farmers on governments' annual budgets)
Government budgets are not an extension topic.
The process which a farmer goes through from the time he hears about a new idea till he finally accepts it, is referred to as
Answer: D (adoption.)
Moving from awareness to acceptance is the adoption process.
(a)(i) Define agriculture. (ii) List six branches of agriculture.
(b) State five differences between commercial agriculture and subsistence agriculture.
(c) State three merits and three demerits of using animal power on the farm.
(a)(i) Agriculture is the science and art of growing crops and rearing animals for man's use, including processing and marketing of the products
(ii) Any six: crop science; animal science; soil science; agricultural economics; agricultural extension; agricultural engineering; fisheries; forestry; crop protection; home economics
(b) Any five (commercial vs subsistence): large vs small farms; high vs low capital; machines vs simple tools; hired skilled vs family labour; for sale/export vs family use; high vs low output; records kept vs rarely kept; specialised/monocropping vs mixed cropping
(c) Merits (any three): cheap to keep; pull heavy loads; give manure; can work on rough land; little technical skill needed; meat at end of working life. Demerits (any three): slow; get tired and sick; need feeding and care all year; cover small areas; may damage crops; need training
Use a table for the differences.
(a)(i) Explain the term farm surveying (ii) State four reasons why farm surveying is important
(b) Enumerate six problems facing agricultural development in West Africa.
(c) List four factors that may affect the efficiency of draught animals.
(a)(i) Farm surveying is measuring and mapping the size, shape, boundaries and features of farmland
(ii) Any four: gives the exact size and boundaries; helps plan layout of fields and buildings; helps estimate inputs; settles land disputes; needed for title documents and loans; shows slopes for drainage and erosion control
(b) Any six: land tenure; poor finance/credit; scarce inputs; poor storage and processing; poor transport; illiteracy and weak extension; pests and diseases; poor marketing; low mechanisation; inconsistent government policy; lack of rural amenities
(c) Any four: health of the animal; breed; age; nutrition/feeding; training; size and strength; temperament; weather; type and weight of the implement; management/handling
Define, then lists.
(a) Define the term soil
(b)(i) List the four components of soil (ii) State the percentage of each component by volume
(c) Describe the process involved in making compost using the pit method under the following headings: (i) materials; (ii) preparation; (iii) storage
(a) Soil is the loose, weathered upper layer of the earth's crust in which plants grow, made up of mineral matter, organic matter, water and air
(b) Mineral matter about 45%; organic matter about 5%; water about 25%; air about 25%
(c)(i) Materials: plant residues (grass, leaves, crop residues), animal dung/urine, kitchen waste, wood ash/lime, topsoil, water, poles or sticks
(ii) Preparation: dig a pit (e.g. 1–2 m wide, about 1 m deep) in a shady well-drained place; put coarse materials at the bottom; add layers of plant material, then dung, then a sprinkle of ash/lime and topsoil; water each layer; repeat to the top; insert a stick to check heat; turn the heap every few weeks; compost is ready in about 2–3 months when dark and crumbly
(iii) Storage: keep covered in a shaded place, protected from sun and rain to prevent loss of nutrients by drying and leaching; use soon
Give the four components with approximate volumes.
(a) Define soil erosion.
(b) List four factors that influence nutrient availability in the soil.
(c) Explain two roles of each of the following factors in soil formation: (i) climate; (ii) living organisms; (iii) topography;
(d) State four problems associated with overhead irrigation.
(a) Soil erosion is the wearing away and removal of the topsoil by water, wind or other agents
(b) Any four: soil pH; leaching; organic matter content; soil texture; soil moisture; soil micro-organisms; temperature and aeration; cation exchange capacity
(c)(i) Climate: rainfall supplies water for chemical weathering and leaching; temperature changes crack rocks and speed reactions
(ii) Living organisms: roots break rocks and add organic matter; animals and microbes mix soil and decompose remains into humus
(iii) Topography: steep slopes lose soil by erosion giving shallow soils; low-lying areas collect deposits and may be waterlogged, giving deep soils
(d) Any four: high cost of equipment and running; needs pumping/pressure; water lost by evaporation and drift in wind; wets leaves, encouraging fungal diseases; can wash off sprayed chemicals; may cause erosion or crusting; needs clean water free of debris
Two roles for each soil-forming factor.
(a)(i) Define crop rotation. (ii) Design a four-year crop rotation system using yam, cassava, maize and groundnut
(b) State four reasons why weeds are difficult to control.
(c) Mention two effects of diseases on crop production.
(a)(i) Crop rotation is the growing of different crops in a planned order on the same piece of land over a number of seasons
(ii) Example (four plots, crops move each year): Year 1 – yam (heavy feeder after fallow); Year 2 – maize; Year 3 – groundnut (legume restores nitrogen); Year 4 – cassava (tolerant of poorer soil); then back to yam. Other orders acceptable if a heavy feeder follows the legume or fallow and crops of the same family do not follow each other
(b) Any four: produce many seeds; seeds stay dormant in soil for years; spread by rhizomes, stolons and tubers; seeds dispersed easily; grow fast; resistant to herbicides; some look like crops; deep roots
(c) Any two: reduce yield; lower quality and market value; kill plants; increase cost of production; reduce viability of seeds
Show the rotation as a table of plots and years.
(a) Define crop improvement.
(b) Copy and complete the Punnett square (gametes TC, Tc, tC, tc on each side) based on Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment of Genes (Dihybrid inheritance), where T = Tall, C = Coloured, t = Dwarf, c = White, T and C dominant.
(c) Calculate the percentage of plants in 6(b) above that are: (i) Tall coloured; (ii) Tall white; (iii) Dwarf coloured; (iv) Dwarf white.
(a) Crop improvement is the development of better crop varieties (higher yield, quality, resistance) through introduction, selection, breeding and other methods
(b) Rows TC: TTCC, TTCc, TtCC, TtCc; Tc: TTCc, TTcc, TtCc, Ttcc; tC: TtCC, TtCc, ttCC, ttCc; tc: TtCc, Ttcc, ttCc, ttcc
(c) Ratio 9 : 3 : 3 : 1 out of 16: (i) tall coloured 9/16 = 56.25%; (ii) tall white 3/16 = 18.75%; (iii) dwarf coloured 3/16 = 18.75%; (iv) dwarf white 1/16 = 6.25%
Fill all 16 boxes, then count phenotypes.
(a) Name four breeds of rabbits.
(b) Give two reasons why oestrus detection is important in farm animals.
(c) State four functions of each of the following hormones in farm animals: (i) androgen; (ii) oestrogen.
(d)(i) List two viral diseases of poultry (ii) List two ecto-parasites of poultry.
(a) Any four: New Zealand White; Californian; Chinchilla; Flemish Giant; Dutch; Angora; Rex; local rabbit
(b) Any two: to mate/inseminate at the right time; increases conception rate; avoids wasting time and feed on open females; helps plan births; detects reproductive problems
(c)(i) Androgen (testosterone): male secondary sex characters; sperm production; sex drive (libido); muscle growth; development of accessory sex glands
(ii) Oestrogen: heat/oestrus behaviour; female secondary sex characters; development of mammary glands; prepares the uterus for pregnancy; growth of the reproductive tract
(d)(i) Any two: Newcastle disease; fowl pox; Gumboro (infectious bursal disease); Marek's disease; avian influenza; infectious bronchitis
(ii) Any two: lice; mites; fleas; ticks; bed bugs
Lists under each part.
(a) List four methods of identification in cattle production
(b) State three reasons for carrying out each of the following animal husbandary practices: (i) Culling of poultry; (ii) dehorning of cattle
(c) Mention the botanical names of four pasture legumes grown in West Africa
(d) State four ways of preserving harvested fish.
(a) Any four: ear tagging; branding; tattooing; ear notching; neck chains/collars; naming; photographs
(b)(i) Culling poultry (any three): remove poor layers to cut feed cost; remove sick birds to stop spread of disease; remove old/unproductive birds; reduce overcrowding; improve flock productivity
(ii) Dehorning (any three): prevents injury to other animals and handlers; easier handling; less space needed in pens and transport; reduces bruising of carcass and damage to hides
(c) Any four: Centrosema pubescens; Stylosanthes gracilis; Pueraria phaseoloides; Calopogonium mucunoides; Leucaena leucocephala; Desmodium spp.; Mucuna utilis
(d) Any four: smoking; sun drying; salting; freezing/chilling; canning; frying
Write botanical names correctly (genus capital, species small).
(a) Define: (i) demand; (ii) price elasticity of demand.
(b) Explain why the demand curve slopes downwards
(c) List four agents of agricultural marketing
(d) State two advantages and one disadvantage of each of the following agricultural extension teaching methods: (i) newspapers; (ii) television.
(a)(i) Demand is the quantity of a commodity consumers are willing and able to buy at a given price and time
(ii) Price elasticity of demand is the degree of responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price (% change in quantity ÷ % change in price)
(b) As price falls, more people can afford the commodity and existing buyers buy more (income and substitution effects; diminishing marginal utility), so quantity demanded rises as price falls – the curve slopes downward from left to right
(c) Any four: wholesalers; retailers; middlemen/brokers; cooperative societies; commodity boards; processors; exporters; producers
(d)(i) Newspapers – advantages: reach many people; permanent, can be kept for reference; cheap. Disadvantage: useless to illiterate farmers; may not reach rural areas
(ii) Television – advantages: shows pictures and steps clearly; reaches many people at once; attractive. Disadvantage: costly; needs electricity; no direct feedback
Define, explain the curve, then lists.
(a) List four factors that cause a change in supply of agricultural produce
(b) Distinguish between fixed cost and variable cost giving two examples in each case
(c) Explain the following agricultural extension teaching methods: (i) posters; (ii) field trips.
(a) Any four: price of the produce; cost of inputs; weather; technology; government policy (taxes, subsidies); prices of other products; pests and diseases; number of producers; storage and transport facilities
(b) Fixed costs do not change with the level of output (land rent, buildings, machinery depreciation, permanent staff salaries, insurance); variable costs change with output (seeds, fertilizer, feed, casual labour, fuel, chemicals)
(c)(i) Posters: large printed pictures with short messages displayed in public places to draw farmers' attention to a practice or event; cheap but need some literacy
(ii) Field trips: farmers are taken to visit research stations, demonstration plots or successful farms to see improved practices in action; learning by seeing
Two examples each for fixed and variable costs.