Agriculture Paper 2, May/June 2015

Candidates' Weakness

Candidates were unable to:

  • differentiate between land ownership by leasehold and land ownership by freehold;
  • state the ways in which rural-urban migration has hindered agricultural development in West Africa;
  • state the advantages and disadvantages of using biogas as a source of farm power;
  • list common storage structures and processing structures found on farmsteads in West Africa;
  • explain denitrification;
  • discuss the cultivation of Cowpea;
  • state the cultural methods of controlling crop pests;
  • describe alley cropping and ley farming;
  • calculate percentage unfertilized eggs, fertilized eggs, male and female chicks in an incubator;
  • - state the signs that indicate the approach of parturition in a cow;
  • - state the advantages of grafting;
  • -    state the reasons why the prices of most agricultural produce are unstable in West
    Africa;
    -    explain agricultural extension methods such as method demonstration and    
    agricultural shows;
    -    state the advantages of selection as a method of crop improvement.

    Based on the observed weaknesses the Chief Examiners recommended as follow:
  • Aspects of the syllabus such as farm mechanization/Agricultural engineering,  crop and animal improvement, agricultural extension amongst others should be emphasized by teachers; and
  • Only graduates of Agricultural Science/Agriculture should be allowed to teach the subject in Senior Secondary Schools in West Africa.