Midlands State University

Faculty of Natural Resources management & Agriculture

Department of Agriculture Economics and Development
AGRO 207 BIOMETRY Course Outline
Introduction to Statistics: definition of population, random sample, variation, types of
data, quantitative & qualitative, continuous and discontinuous data, use of random
numbers in sampling, sampling methods ( simple random sample, stratified, cluster and
systematic sampling)
Descriptive Statistics: Graphical presentation of data, measures of central
tendency(mean, median, mode), measures of dispersion (range, variance, standard
deviation)
Probability Distributions: (Binomial, Poisson, Normal)
Hypothesis testing: testing procedure, basic assumptions for analysis of data, t-test for
comparison of means, t-test for paired observations
Categorical data: Chi-square Distribution, Chi-square goodness of fit , Chi-square test
for independence
Basic Experimental design Completely Randomized Design: why a completely
randomized design, mathematical model specification, analysis of variance,
interpretation of results.
References:
1. Curnow, R. N. , Hasted A. M. , Mead R. (1993) Statistical Methods in Agriculture
and Experimental Biology, Chapman Hall London
2. Lyman Ott R. (1993) An introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis, 4th
Edition , Belmont, California, Duxbury Press
3. Neter, J. , Wasserman, W. and Whitmore G. A. (1988) Applied Statistics. Allyn
and bacon, Boston
4. Petersen, R. G. (1985) Design and Analysis of Experiments, Mercer Decker Inc
New york
5. Rayner, A.A. (1967) Introduction to Biometry, University of Natal Press,
Pietermaritzberg RSA
6. Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf F.J. (1995) Biometry 3rd Edition, Freeman NewYork