Principles of Crop Production, Husbandry & Post-Harvest Technology
Classification of crops, site selection, land preparation, nursery practices, planting methods, cultural practices (weeding, thinning, supplying, pricking out, staking, mulching), pest and disease management, harvesting, and post-harvest storage.
In the cocoa belt of Sefwi Wiawso and Enchi, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) trains farmers on nursery raising of hybrid cocoa varieties, systematic pruning, mistletoe removal, and fermentation on plantain leaves to ensure high-grade export cocoa.
Key Syllabus Learning Objectives
- 1Classify major Ghanaian agricultural crops by life cycle and commercial use
- 2Outline site selection parameters and explain nursery management practices including hardening off
- 3Describe routine field cultural practices (thinning, supplying, mulching, staking, earthing up) and explain their physiological benefits
- 4Analyze causes of post-harvest food losses and evaluate traditional and modern storage methods (cribs, silos, PICS bags)
Nursery Operations & Transplanting of Vegetable Seedlings
- Seedbed Preparation: Fine tilth soil enriched with well-rotted farmyard manure, solarized or sterilized with hot water to kill fungal spores (damping-off pathogens).
- Pricking Out: Transferring crowded seedlings at the 2-leaf stage into seedling trays or nursery polybags to encourage robust root systems.
- Hardening Off: Reducing watering frequency and gradually removing protective shade 7 to 14 days before transplanting to condition seedling cell walls for harsh outdoor field conditions.
- Transplanting rules: Best performed late in the afternoon (3:00 - 5:00 PM) or on an overcast cloudy day to minimize transpiration shock.
Commercial tomato growers at Akomadan in the Ashanti Region raise hybrid seedlings in polybags under shade nets before transplanting onto drip-irrigated field beds.
Hardening off prepares nursery seedlings for outdoor weather extremes, dramatically increasing transplant survival rates.
Post-Harvest Grain Storage & PICS Hermetic Technology
- Traditional Crib Storage: Slatted wooden cribs with wire mesh and conical rat guards placed on supporting stilts allow continuous natural air drying of maize cobs.
- Hermetic Storage (PICS Bags): Multi-layer polyethylene bags sealed airtight. Insects, larvae, and fungi rapidly consume available oxygen, raising CO₂ levels and suffocating pests without hazardous chemical pesticides.
Maize and cowpea farmers in Tamale and Techiman store grain safely for over 12 months using triple-layer PICS bags to protect against cowpea bruchids.
Hermetic storage preserves dried grains by depriving storage pests of oxygen, eliminating the need for toxic synthetic insecticides.
- Always specify the time of day for transplanting seedlings: "Late in the afternoon or on a cloudy day" is the standard WAEC answer.
- Distinguish between thinning (removing excess seedlings) and supplying (replanting empty stands).
- Name two reasons for staking crops: Keeps fruit off the damp soil (preventing fungal rot) and maximizes sunlight capture for photosynthesis.
- Transplanting seedlings at midday under blazing sunlight (causes severe transpiration shock and seedling mortality).
- Storing damp grains in airtight silos (promotes fungal mold growth and fatal aflatoxin contamination).
- Using green fresh grass as mulch without drying (can sprout as weeds or ferment and generate damaging heat).
- Can I classify maize, cassava, cocoa, and tomato by life cycle?
- Can I describe the procedure of "hardening off" and explain its necessity?
- Can I list 4 cultural practices carried out after transplanting and explain their purposes?
- Can I explain the working principle of a PICS bag in post-harvest grain storage?
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10 WAEC-standard multiple choice questions with instant explanations.
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