Agricultural mathematics is also called farm biometrics, farm algebra, or agro-mathematics. It refers to the application of mathematical models and concepts to farm management. On the other hand, it involves the use of measurements and calculations to monitor, track, and evaluate the well-being of farm animals and crops. This integration of mathematical parameters to determine the well-being of farm animals, and crops as well as optimize farm operational management is called farm biometrics.
Agricultural Mathematics plays a crucial role in agricultural industries, directly or indirectly, on the farm for various purposes, such as measuring and converting farm area, analyzing Soil, and feed, applying fertilizer, analyzing and applying herbicides, managing finances, and planning irrigation.
Advanced technology in agriculture depends largely on mathematical calculation for calibration, helping farmers develop problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking skills.
Agricultural science teachers, students, prospective farmers, and farmers need to acquire sound knowledge of Mathematics to excel in their daily life activities and think analytically and reasonably. Unfortunately, many agricultural science students are not interested in agricultural mathematics, which negatively impacts their ability to solve farm management problems. Various mathematical models are of paramount importance in agriculture for solving agricultural problems. Key mathematics branches such as algebra, percentage, measurement, differential equations, discount, linear programming, probability, and statistics.
Application of Mathematical Model or Farm Biometric in Agriculture.
Agricultural mathematics or farm biometrics is applied to the following in agricultural enterprises. They are:
- Crop Irrigation: mathematics modeling is crucial in determining irrigation requirements such as the cost of irrigation materials, the gradient of the farm, and the water requirements. Efficient operation of irrigation systems such as furrows, basins, sprinklers, drip, and others, requires precise determination for maximum efficiency. Irrigation equipment calibration such as nozzle pressure, and water distribution rate is achieved through mathematical determination.
- Fertilizer Application and Composition: effective fertilizer application requires sound knowledge of mathematics. The knowledge of mathematics is vital in determining the amount and cost, application rate based on the size of land, and the mixture rate required for effective application. Manufacturing fertilizers such as nitrogenous, potassium, superphosphate, magnesium oxide, urea, muriate of potash, and more require a sound knowledge of mathematical models for determining the active ingredient. Liquid fertilizer application rate require some technical skills for effective operation. The nozzle, pressure rate, and the amount of water required per hectare and knapsack require effective operation.
- Pest and Disease Control: Pest and disease are serious menace in agriculture and eliminating these organisms in the farm requires mathematics skills for effective operation. Calculation is needed to determine the amount of the active ingredient required in manufacturing these plant protection drugs. The knowledge of mathematics is vital in determining the rate of application, and mixture ratio of insecticide, fungicides, viracide, and other drugs for effectiveness. Equipment calibration, the nozzle, pressure rate, cost, and the amount of water required per hectare and knapsack require effective operation.
- Soil Analysis: Soil analysis involves determining the availability of nutrients in the soil in terms of quantity and quality. These processes enable farmers to know the types of nutrients available in the soil for plant growth, enhance productivity, and types of fertilizers to apply for adequate yield. The knowledge of mathematics is required in determining the soil pH level, moisture content, and nutrient availability in the soil. This information helps farmers to determine the type of crop to be cultivated on the field, the nutrient deficiency in the farm, nutrient composition for effective growth, ratio, and rate required per crop for optimal performance.
- Units Conversion for Measurement: farming requires a lot of measurements such as the size of the land, planting distance, animal spacing, pen sizes, wall height, and many other operations in the farm that require measurement and conversion for effective operation. Accurate unit conversion between feet, meters, acres, and hectares, requires a sound knowledge of mathematics. Large areas of farmland to be used for farming activities require adequate measurement for effective planning. This measurement can be in length, breadth, and height, For instance, the area of land is usually used to determine the size of farmland using units or measurements such as plots, acres, and hectares. These units or measurements require conversion from decimal to meter, meter to decimal, and other necessary measurements to know the determined plant population, size of the farmland, and building in the farm.
- Crop Propagation: The propagation of crops requires a lot of measurement, from land survey to marketing, the knowledge of mathematics is paramount in crop propagation for tasks such as the size of the farm to be utilized for cultivation, number of mounds or heap, ridge dimension, seed rate, and plant population require mathematical models for effective production. Similarly, mathematical models are utilized to estimate, the growth stage of crops, leave perimeter, and crop yields from the estimated size of the land.
- Farm Financial Management: farming is a business that requires profit. It involves keeping a lot of records such as profit and loss accounts, and more. Farmers require Mathematical techniques to manage farm records and calculate profit and Loss to maintain economic transparency on the farm. More so, mathematical models help farmers to allocate resources, and determine the amount of labor, input to purchase, and other expenses to maximize profit. The mathematical model helps farmers estimate the projected crop yields with expenditure to avoid a deficit. Effective farm management enables farmers to be economically stable running their farms at a loss.
- Feed Formulation and Feeding: feed formulation, compounding, and animal feeding require a sound knowledge of mathematics for appropriate feed formulation. Farm animals require balanced nutrition for optimum growth and reproduction. The proportion of minerals, protein, vitamins, fat and oil, carbohydrates, and water in feed requires a sound knowledge of mathematics. Farmers need a sound understanding of mathematics to determine the amount of active ingredient required in compounding or formulating, determine feed quantities, and assess nutritional content for specific quantities of feed. The quantity of nutrients essential in compounding feed additives also requires good mathematical skills for effective formulation.
- Agricultural Marketing: marketing of agricultural commodities requires the movement of goods and agricultural products from the point of production to the final consumer. Marketing processes such as transportation, grading, storage, processing, and packaging require mathematics knowledge. The mathematical model is needed to forecast cost, and pricing, and determine the cost of demand and supply and transportation of agricultural products.
- Construction of Farm building and storage structure: the construction of farm building and storage structures such as silos, rhombus, storage containers, and modern storage facilities require a sound knowledge of geometry. The knowledge of geometry can be used to decide structural dimensions and proportions for the effective construction of farm structures and buildings for the effective storage of crops. Moreover, mathematical modeling can be used to allocate materials according to the proportion of work such as the quantity of sand to cement, nails, roofing, and other materials required for farm structures and buildings.
- Land Survey: A knowledge of mathematics is needed to determine the contour lines, shape, and size of a farm of land using geometry and other mathematical models to decide the boundary of land.
- Agricultural Experimentation: The knowledge of mathematical modeling is important in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting numerical data involved in agricultural experimentation. During the experiment, data are collected, analyzed, and interpreted to arrive at verifiable evidence. These results influence decision-making in the development of the agriculture industry. The result of the data is useful in estimating, and planning household income. Statistics such as the measure of center tendency, measure of dispersion, and influential and non-influential statistics are useful in data analysis.
- Agricultural Engineering: Mathematics modeling is applied in the field of agriculture engineering for measuring, designing, and optimizing farm machines, implements, and tools needed for efficient farming operations. Calculation is also needed to determine the strength of materials to be used in farm machines and implement manufacturing.
Course Content of Agricultural Mathematics / Farm Biometrics.
The course content of agricultural mathematics or farm biometrics is outlined by the National University Commission. Cmass (NUC, 2023) are: Definition and application of Agricultural Mathematics/ farm biometrics, basic concepts in agriculture Mathematics such as measurement, seed rate, percentage, area, volume simultaneous and geometry, graphs and application of mathematical to agriculture. This has been broken down into the following.
- Definition and application of Agricultural Mathematics /Farm Biometrics.
- Basic agricultural mathematics concepts include measurement, seed rate, and more.
- Basic mathematical operations involving whole numbers, fractions, decimals, ratios, percentages, and estimating
- Uses of Unit measurement in agriculture i.e. Uses agricultural units for measure, such as mudu, gallons, liters, plant populations, and acres
- Simple calculations i.e. conversions, triangles, perimeters, area, volume, and land measurement.
- Crop production calculations i.e. field operation calculations leading to, seed rate per acre, hectare, plant population per acre, hectare, man-days per hour, days, week, and more, fuel consumption, cost per acre, hectare, and more.
- Livestock production calculations i.e. Performed calculations leading to farm building, farm structure, sizing of materials, animal population per pen, and cost for livestock operations. calculate feed rations formulation using the Pearson square method and algebraic equations
- Application of Mathematical models such as algebra, graph, dynamics, simultaneous equations, linear programming, probability, and mechanics.
Read also: Basic agricultural mathematics concepts.