SUBJECT: AGRIC SCIENCE
CLASS: GRADE 7
WEEK: NINE
TOPIC: CLASSES AND USES
OF CROPS
SUBTOPIC: CLASSIFICATION
OF CROPS
Plants
differ in many ways. Based on these differences, crop plants thus have been
classified or group based on their life span, mode of production, morphology
and usage.
CLASSIFICATION OF CROPS
BASED ON LIFE SPAN
i. Ephemeral crops: Ephemeral
crops are crops that grow and complete their life cycle many times before the
end of one year. They are short live. Example is balsam plant.
ii. Annual crops: Annual
crops are crops that complete their life cycles within one year. They are short
lived. Examples maize, millet, guinea corn( sorghum), etc.
iii. Biennial crops: Biennial
crops are crops that complete their
life cycles in two years. Examples onions, garlic, etc.
iv. Perennial Crops: These
crops stay in the field for more than two years (from three years upwards).
These groups of crop are long lived. Examples includes; mango, cocoa, oil palm,
coconut palm, cashew, etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF CROPS
BASED ON PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM CROPS
People
derive a lot of benefits from crops. Based on these benefits, crop plants have
been classified into:
i. Food Crops: These
are crops that provide major sources of food because of their high nutrients
contents. Examples include
cereals
( maize, rice, sorghum, wheat, millet, barley, oats, rye, etc.),
legumes/pulses
( cowpea, groundnut, soybean, pigeon pea, bambara groundnut, mung bean,
garden pea, green beans, French beans, etc.),
tubers (
yam, sweat potatoes, irish potatoes, etc.),
fruits ( mango, pawpaw, guava, cashew, star apple, avocado pea, local pear, sour sop, oranges, sweet sop, apples, etc.)
vegetables (
fluted pumpkin, water leaf, lettuce, cabbage, amaranthus, pumpkin, carrot,
melon, water melon, cucumbers, tomato, pepper, garden egg, etc.). They are
edible plants which are consumed for the nourishment of the body.
ii. Oil Crops: Oil
crops are crops that yield good quantities of edible oils. They are of two
types viz: Major crops and minor oil crops.
Major
oil crops are those that yield large quantities of oil as their main products.
Examples are: oil palm, coconut palm, groundnuts, etc. Minor oil crops are
those crops that yield low quantities of edible oil along with other major
products e.g. soybean, sunflower, bread-fruit, cocoa (cocoa butter), corn, etc.
Oils from these crops are used for cooking, frying, baking, etc.
iii. Spice Crops: Some
crops have characteristic aroma and flavor when they are added to food. These
crops are called spice crops. Examples include lemon grass, vanilla turmeric,
monodora myrishca (ehuru) mint basil, ginger, onions, garlic.
iv. Latex Crops: These
are tapping crops or plants that produce whitish gummy liquid (milky sap) when
cut. The white gummy liquid is called latex. Examples of plants include rubber,
acalypha, etc. They are process through a method known as tapping.
v. Beverages and Stimulant Crops: These
are crops that produce beverages and stimulants. Examples of stimulants include
coffee, tea, kola, pepper, etc. Example of beverage crop is cocoa.
vi. Fibre Crops: Fibre
crops are those crops that yield high quantities of fibre. There are three
kinds of fibre viz: leaf fibre, stem fibre and fruit fibre. Leaf fibre crops are crops and fruits
whose fibres are located in the leaf examples sisal hemp. Stem fibre crops have their fibres located in the stem examples
kenaf while fruit fibre crops have
their fibres located in the fruit. Examples include cotton, silk, cotton tree.
vii. Sugar crops: Sugar
crops are crops that provide good sources of sugar. Examples are sugarcane,
sugar beets and date palm.
ASSIGNMENT:
1.
Classify crops.
2.
Classify crops based on life span.
3.
Classify crops based on products derived from crops.
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