Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
11 - Cropping
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In all cropping activities there are four main operations:
(i) preparing the seed-bed;
(ii) growing (planting, seeding, watering, weeding, fertilising, spraying, protecting, pruning);
(iii) harvesting;
(iv) marketing (which can include processing, sorting, packing and transport).
Also, there are some production, harvesting and marketing decisions which are common to all cropproduction activities. These include:
which crops, and combination of crops?
which variety of crops?
what husbandry practice for each crop?
what cropping system should be followed (sole, rotation or intercropping)?
how to maintain soil fertility?
how best to ensure timeliness of operation of such practices as sowing, weeding, disease control, spraying and harvesting?
how to use labour and equipment for maximum efficiency?
where and when to get casual labour?
how to obtain the best technology to get most profits in intensive, risky and disease-prone production systems?
where and how to sell the produce?
what to do with the produce if prices are low (frequently storage is not possible and losses from insects and pests - including two-legged ones - can be high)?
what will be the likely price at harvest?
whether to plant all the crop at the same time, or to stagger plantings?
Generally, four types of cropping activities can be recognised. These occur when the crop
(i) grows quickly (3-4months) from planting to harvest, e.g. many soft vegetables such as tomatoes or beans. Often, two or more such crops can be grown on the same area ofland within I year.
(ii) takes 4-7 months to grow - most ofthe commonly cultivated grain crops (such as maize, sorghum and millet) are in this group.
(iii) has about a 12 month growing season (yams and cassava are examples).
(iv) takes 2-3 years to produce the first harvest, maybe 5-6 years after that to reach full production, and continues to produce for 20 or 30 years. Tree crops such as fruits, oil palms and nut trees belong here.
We will discuss crops in four sections - rotations, mixed cropping, harvesting and marketing, and tree crops.
Rotations
The main management objective of most farm families is to produce enough of the various crops which can be safely grown, to give an adequate, varied and palatable year-round diet for the family. Labour comes mostly from family sources, and there are times in the cropping cycle when family labour is inadequate for doing all the crop-husbandry jobs properly.
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- Information
- The Economics of Tropical Farm Management , pp. 95 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985