{"id":1460,"date":"2018-11-01T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T10:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/2018\/11\/01\/crop-selection\/"},"modified":"2018-11-01T10:40:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T10:40:13","slug":"crop-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/2018\/11\/01\/crop-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"Crop Selection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Proper Crop Selection is a Factor in Successful Crop Farming. It is a requisite that must be undertaken before actually starting a farming venture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Even without a predetermined location and site of a farm, the crop to be grown can be decided based mainly on its marketability and profitability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In addition to the purpose of farming, the major factors to be considered in crop selection include the following:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">1.Prevailing farm conditions. An environmental scanning should first be conducted on the biotic factors and topographic features.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>biotic factors refer to living organisms including ruminant animals, insect and other pests, disease pathogens and weeds, as well as organisms having beneficial effects.<\/li>\n<li>topographic features of the land like elevation, slope, and terrain as well as the physical and chemical properties of the soil such as texture, colour, organic matter content, pH and fertility levels will determine the crops that are naturally suited.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Also, the various climatic factors and a stable supply of water within the farm will allow wide possibilities in crop selection.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">This means know your farm first then select the right crop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">2.Crop or varietal adaptability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">The crop(s) and the variety (ies) to be grown should be selected based on their adaptability to the prevailing conditions in the farm. A useful guide is to identify the crops growing in the farm and in the neighbourhood<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">3. Marketability and profitability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Those who want to engage in cash crop farming or ensure financial sustainability, crop selection must consider marketability and profitability. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">4. Resistance to pests and diseases. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Regardless of the purpose of farming, it is important to be able to select a crop and variety with wide resistance to important pests and diseases. The use of susceptible varieties may result to high cost of production or, worst, total crop failure. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">5. Available technology<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">The technology for the growing of the crop must have been well established or easy to learn and apply. Likewise, certain crops are preferred because technical assistance is available. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">6. Farming system<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">Crop selection is affected by the system of farming employed, that is, whether purely crop farming or integrated with livestock animals. Likewise, the particular crop species to be grown will depend on the crop production practices. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">7. Security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">In the absence of security personnel or where there is no fence that will exclude intruders, crop selection may be done in favour of those which are not susceptible of thievery. This will avoid such crops as vegetables and fruit crops which can be easily harvested for food and for cash.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proper Crop Selection is a Factor in Successful Crop Farming. It is a requisite that must be undertaken before actually starting a farming venture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northerncape.gov.za\/daerl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}