Farm Inputs: Land size, Soil and Slope

Crops require the right soil. Image credit voanewsamerica.com

Land size

Size of the land is significant in farming because where land is short and farming land is small, traditional farmers have to practice intensive subsistence farming.
Subsistence farming is the growing of crops mainly for home consumption with very little or no surplus for sale.
Under modern systems, small farm sizes lead to activities like market gardening, horticulture and silviculture.
Silviculture is the growing and cultivation of trees.
Agriculture occurs on land and therefore without this input the activity ceases.
Where land is plentiful and farms are large, then commercial farming plantation agriculture, shifting cultivation and normadism may be undertaken.

Soil

The soil characteristics are the most important.
These include: i. Porosity (is a measure of how much of a rock/soil is open space). This space can be between soil grains or within cracks or cavities of the rock.
ii. Permeability (is a measure of the ease with which a fluid (water in this case) can move through a porous rock or soil),
iii. Structure (soil structure, refers to the arrangement of soil and how it separates into units called soil aggregates. An aggregate possesses solids and pore space),
iv. Tilth (Soil tilth is its physical condition, especially in relation to its suitability for planting or growing a crop)
v. Water retention capacity (is the maximum amount of water that a given soil can hold)
vi. pH value (determines acidity or alkalinity of the soil) and humus content
Sandy soils are good for root crops and legumes such as groundnuts and potatoes.
Loams are excellent for maize and tobacco.
Clay soils are good for cotton, sugar cane and wheat.
Acidic soils require application of lime fertilisers as inputs to neutralize the acidity of the soils.
Alkaline soils need acidic fertilisers.
Crops like tea naturally need acidic soils whilst soils with a tendency to waterlog must be used for crops like rice, otherwise draining through ditches must be done to successfully grow other crops.

Slope

This is crucial as it determines the drainage of the soil as well as utilization of machinery.
On steep slopes the gradient is naturally high, it may be necessary to form ridges or terraces in-order to reduce the erosion of the soils and retain water long enough for it to penetrate to the plants roots.
This factor has led to the sub-division of crops into lowland crops for example maize, wheat and tobacco and hillside crops such as tea and coffee.
Machinery can work without problems on slopes of up to 11°, although the optimum 12° to 5°.

To access more topics go to the O Level Geography Notes page

Farm Inputs: Land size, Soil and Slope- Updated 2024