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= Agriculture Practice in Nigeria = The Nigerian small-scale farmers are estimated to account for the cultivation of about 90 percent of the total cultivated land area in Nigeria, producing nearly 90 per cent of total Agricultural output (CTA, 1997).Nigeria is blessed with a land mass of about 98 million hectares, out of which 83 million

Hectares are suitable for cultivation but with only 30 to 34 million hectares presently under

Cultivation.

The Nigerian agriculture sector is an industry of perpetual toilage and indignity, plagued with

Drudgery, aged and ageing farming population. These small-holder farmers therefore remain

Impoverished, still depending on manual labour to carry out their various farming operations.

Nigeria however possesses tremendous agricultural potentials. These include a large array of

flora and fauna, naturally fertile and irrigable land and diverse agricultural climate, stretching

From the highly forested humid south to the savannah vegetation zones of the north. Rainfall

Intensity is highest in the southern coastal region, decreasing progressively into the dryer,

wind erosion-prone Sahel savannah region of the northern boundary limits.

It should however be pointed out that even with its diverse climate and soils, the country has

a huge agricultural potential if its soils and other natural endowments are well managed.

Subsistence Farming

Initially, most Nigerian farmer merely engage in subsistence farming to provide food for their family while very little is made available in the market.

Animal rearing
Agricultural practices in Nigeria also include the rearing of animals for meat production, poultry birds, diary animals and also animal that serves as beast of burden - aides in the transportation of goods and man.

Livestock farming is a very important aspect of agriculture in Nigeria, the Nigerian community depend mostly on meat from cows and chicken. meat in Nigeria is an important part of the Foods eaten in Nigeria, suffice it to say that Nigerians don't cook foods without meat or fish.

the kind of animals reared in Nigeria includes - Cow, Goat, Sheep, Cattle, Pig, Horse and several others while poultry birds includes chicken, turkey, duck, pigeons and others.

Historic crop rotation methods are mentioned in Roman literature, and referred to by several civilizations in Asia and on three major elements: sophisticated systems of crop rotation, highly developed irrigation techniques and the introduction of a large variety of crops which were studied and catalogued according to the season, type of land and amount of water they require.

Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar/different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.

Crop rotation gives various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. Crop rotation also mitigates the build-up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped, and can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants.

Crop rotation is one component of polyculture.

Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation is is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow. Of these cultivators, many use a practice of slash-and-burn as one element of their farming cycle. Others employ land clearing without any burning, and some cultivators are purely migratory and do not use any cyclical method on a given plot. Sometimes no slashing at all is needed where regrowth is purely of grasses, an outcome not uncommon when soils are near exhaustion and need to lie fallow. One land-clearing system of shifting agriculture is the slash-and-burn method, which leaves only stumps and large trees in the field after the standing vegetation has been cut down and burned, its ashes enriching the soil. Cultivation of the earth after clearing is usually accomplished by hoe or digging stick and not by plough.