Observation

a) This question was attempted by many candidates and the performance was average. However, some candidates were not specific in their answers on government’s role in pest and disease control with some of them writing provision of ‘chemicals’ instead of ‘agro-chemicals’. Furthermore, candidates mixed up solutions to other agricultural problems with those of given agricultural problems.

b) Candidate’s performance was above average in this question although some candidates focused only on the communal land tenure system thereby losing some marks.

c) The performance of candidates in this question was below average. Majority of the candidates could only list the tractor as a farm machinery but were unable to list farm implements. They were listing simple farm tools like cutlass, hoe, shovel etc as farm implements.

The expected answers include:

1. (a) Roles of government in agricultural development

(i) Pest and disease control

- Provision of drugs and vaccines that are used to protect farm animals against diseases and parasites
- Provision of agrochemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbicides which are used to protect crops from pests, diseases and weeds
- Provision of veterinary services to control diseases of farm animals
- Provision of quarantine services at airports, seaports and border posts to prevent the introduction of foreign pests and diseases
- Provision of crop protection services
- Training/education/enlightenment of farmers on pest and disease control
- Provision of subsidy on agrochemicals
- Establishment of research institutes for the prevention and control of pests and diseases

(ii) Marketing of agricultural produce

- Purchase of excess farm produce during peak seasons to stabilize the price of farm produce
- Fixes the guaranteed minimum price for agricultural produce
- Establishment of strategic grain reserves by constructing silos in various locations for storage of excess farm produce for release during periods of scarcity
- Provision of processing facilities such as rice mills, oil mills and cassava mills to improve the quality of farm produce
- Establishment of markets for agricultural produce
- Provision of rural roads for the evacuation of farm produce
- Provision of storage facilities
- Establishment of marketing/commodity boards which help in the marketing of agricultural produce
- Facilitate/encourage export of agricultural produce
- Low taxation on agricultural produce
- Establishment of commodity exchange commission

(b) General problems of land tenure system in agricultural development in West Africa

- May be difficult to use land as collateral in obtaining loans
- Farm planning and introduction of better farming systems are made difficult
- Large scale farming is not possible due to excessive fragmentation of land
- Production remains at the subsistence level
- Much time is spent travelling from one piece of land to another
- Interested framers from outside a community cannot easily acquire land
- Ownership of land is not permanent, so economic crops cannot be grown
- Land may belong to individuals who have no interest in agriculture
- Dispute/litigation on land ownership
- High cost of land acquisition

(c) Listing of farm machinery and implements

Farm machinery

- Tractor
- Combine harvester
- Sheller
- Dryer
- Bulldozer
- Tree puller
- Incubator
- Milking machine
- Mist blower
- Power tiller
- Motorized knapsack sprayer
- Lawn mower
- Motorized slasher

Farm implements - Plough
- Harrow
- Mower/slasher
- Knapsack sprayer
- Baler
- Rotavator
- Ridger
- Boom sprayer
- Fertilizer spreader
- Cultivator
- Harvester (tractor mounted)
- Planter/seed drill/broadcaster