CSEC Agri Science P1s Solutions-1

CSEC AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE SA MAY/JUNE 2021 PAPER 1
Agricultural marketing includes all the services involved in

moving an agricultural product from the farm to the
consumer.
Biodiversity is all the diverse ecosystems and the

organisms in them. It may be referred to as the diversity of
all species in a habitat, or sum of all species in a habitat.
The functions of the WTC are:

• To facilitate international trade through removal of tari
as well as non-tari barriers.
• To ensure optimum utilization of world resources.
• To provide technical assistance and training for
developing countries.
• To establish a rule-based trading regime in which
nations cannot place arbitrary restrictions on trade.
Conventional farming is farming that traditionally makes

use of synthetic or inorganic resources. Conventional
farming is also called industrial agriculture.
Synthetic or inorganic resources include synthetic or

inorganic chemicals such as chemical fertilizers, chemical
pesticides and chemical herbicides. These are chemicals
arti cially made or synthesized in factories. These
resources also include genetically-modi ed organisms
(GMOs). These are crops and livestock whose genes ave
been deliberately manipulated for some purpose e.g.
improved production or disease resistance. Another
synthetic resource used in agriculture is concentrated
animal feeds. These are manufactured feeds high in
nutrients. Other synthetic resources include heavy
irrigation (use of a lot of water to wet plants, such as by
using large sprinkler systems), and intensive tillage (use of
a lot of e ort and equipment in preparing land for planting)
Conventional farming is the opposite of organic farming;

conventional farming heavily uses synthetic resources,
while organic farming avoids the use of synthetic
resources.
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A
The main objective of food safety is to protect consumers

of food products from food-borne diseases or injuries
related to food consumption. Food-borne illnesses are a
major threat to food businesses and a ect everyone all
over the world as a result of inadequate food safety
Environmental bene ts of organic farming:

• Organic farming maintains ecological balance and
biodiversity; this preserves the variety of species in the
environment and maintains the balance between the
species.
• No synthetic chemicals are used in organic farming,
therefore the impact of these chemicals on the
environment is lessened.
• Organic farming helps to preserve soil fertility and
reduces or prevents soil erosion.
Economic bene ts of organic farming:
• The farmer gets increased income because he can
charge higher prices for his produce and many people
are willing to pay the higher prices for organic produce.
The yield of tomato remains constant regardless of rainfall. This suggests the use of an undercover system. Normally
crop production varies with rainfall. However in systems such as hydroponics and other undercover agricultural
systems, also called protected agricultural systems, there is no such relationship because carefully controlled irrigation
provides adequate water for the crops, regardless of rainfall.
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At some point, two forces of demand and supply are brought into balance or equilibrium, i.e. the demand and supply
become balanced. The equilibrium point is the point at which demand and supply are balanced. In terms of supply and
demand curves, it is where the demand curve intersects with the supply curve. The equilibrium quantity is the quantity
at which demand and supply are balanced. In terms of supply and demand curves, it is the quantity at the point where
the 2 curves intersect. The equilibrium price is the price at which demand and supply are balanced. In terms of supply
and demand curves, it is the price at the point where the 2 curves intersect.
If quantity demanded and quantity supplied are in a 3-column table that shows both supply and demand for the same
set of prices as shown in the above table, the equilibrium price will be the price at which demand and supply are the
same. In this case, that is $2.00
C
Inventory is a list of items or goods held in stock by a

business.
Depreciation is aa reduction in the value of an asset over

time, due in particular to wear and tear. In an agricultural
business, assets that depreciate include machinery such
as rotovators. Depreciation is a xed cost. A xed cost is
a cost that does not vary with the level of production or
sales. A machine depreciates in value even if its is never
used. As a xed cost or xed expenditure, it is a part of
budgeting.
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Answer: B
Composting refers to the process by which organic matter

(leaves, soft stems, rejected fruits and vegetables) is
decomposed to form compost manure that is added to
plants to provide nutrients for growth. When making
compost, several essential components are needed and
each one has a speci c function. Adding water to
maintain moist conditions and turning the pile to improve
aeration will speed the process.
Factors other than price that change demand for the

commodity cause the commodity’s demand curve to shift
left or right. If a factor causes increased demand, the
curve shifts right. If a factor causes decreased demand,
the curve shifts left. This causes the demand curve to shift
left.
During lent, the demand for sh increases. The demand

curve D1 therefore shifts left to D.
Answer: D
Demand is the quantity of a product that consumers are

willing to buy at a certain price at a particular time.
Demand is directly related to price. A decrease in price will
lead to an increase in demand.An increase in price will
lead to a decrease in demand.Demand is one of a
commodity’s two market forces (forces that determine
sales of the commodity). The other is supply.
Supply is the quantity of a product that vendors put on the

market for sale at certain price at a particular time.
Supply is directly related to price. A decrease in price will
lead to a decrease in supply. An increase in price will lead
to an increase in supply. Supply is one of a commodity’s
two market forces (forces that determine sales of the
commodity). The other is demand.
When supply is greater than demand, this leaves an

amount of the commodity that is not sold because there is
more of the commodity than is demanded. This is called a
surplus, or glut. When supply is less than demand, this
causes the commodity to run out and leaves some
consumers unable to get it because there is no more
available. This is called a shortfall.
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The price of a commodity in a perfect market is

determined by interaction of the two market forces that
a ect sales of the commodity: demand for the commodity
and supply of the commodity. The price of the commodity
is determined by the demand for it in relation to the
conditions of its supply at a particular time. At some point,
demand and supply are brought into balance or
equilibrium. The point at which this happens is the called
the equilibrium point, the quantity at which this point is
reached is called the equilibrium quantity, and the price at
this point is called the equilibrium price. The graph on the
right illustrates.
B
A price support is government assistance in maintaining

the levels of market prices regardless of supply or
demand.An example if a price support is guaranteed
prices. These are guaranteed minimum prices for selected
crops or commodities by the government.
The commodities may be export-oriented (sugar cane,

cocoa, co ee, citrus fruits and bananas) or for domestic
consumption (rice, root crops, milk, mutton and eggs).
These guaranteed prices are incentives to production
because they reduce risk by ensuring farmers get at
leased a guaranteed amount of pro t, provided market
factors such as demand and supply are favorable.
The guaranteed prices show that the government is
committed to helping farmers.
D
A credit rating is an estimate of the ability of a person or

organization to ful l their nancial commitments, based on
previous dealings. Arrears is money that is owed and
should have been paid earlier. A farmer, or anyone, who
takes a loan from a lending institution or buys something
on credit, e.g. an appliance, signs a contract that
obligates him to repay a certain amount every certain
period usually monthly. If the person This amount is called
the loan installment.
If the person pays the installment promptly when it is due,

he maintains a good credit rating. If he defaults (stops
paying), he accumulates arrears. This damages his credit
rating. He can work out as repayment plan, but his credit
rating remains damaged, which reduces his ability to get a
loan or buy anything on credit in the future.
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A
A variable cost (VC) is a cost that increases or decreases

with the level of production. Examples include the cost of
fuel, salaries (e.g. for laborers, managers etc.), feed,
fertilizers, medications, pesticides & transport.
For example, to increase production on a chicken farm,

the farmer will increase the number of chicks he
purchases, as well as the amount of feed, medicines etc.
he purchases.
Thus the amount of money spent on these inputs

increases with the increased production, i.e. the cost of
these inputs increases with increased production.
If production decreases, so too does the money spent on
these inputs. So the cost of these inputs decreases with
decreasing production.
Variable costs also include the value of the produce

consumed by the farmer and his family. Additionally, while
buildings are a xed cost, repairs to buildings, as well as
other repairs, are variable costs. While land is a xed cost,
land preparation is a variable cost.
A
A cooperative is a business venture that is collectively

owned, controlled, operated, used and managed by its
members on a non-pro t or cost basis, for the economic
bene t of all its members. A cooperative enables its
members, as a group, to improve their economic status.
Among the bene ts of farmers’ cooperatives to their
members are they assist farmers in marketing of their
produce, provide more available access to government
agricultural support services e,.g. training programs and
act as a single uni ed body representing their members to
outside forces such as the government or international
buyers. They do not usually provide scholarships for
study.
A partial budget is prepared when there is a change in a

speci c aspect of the existing farm plan that requires
modi cation of the budget.
For example, a farmer may want to know whether

replacing one crop with another crop, or buying a pick-up
truck instead of hiring one, or adding more cattle to his
herd, would be more pro table. In such situations, most of
the income (receipts) and expenses (costs) in the existing
budget will remain the same and only a few of them will
change. A partial budget identi es the income and
expenses that will change and sets out how additional
costs and income will a ect the change in pro t. The
farmer can therefore determine if the proposed change is
economically sensible or not.
A partial budget provides an estimate of expected change

in income and expenditure resulting from the proposed
farm plan change. Therefore it is prepared before the
proposed change is implemented.
Both a complete budget and a partial budget are prepared

before the start of the operation. A complete budget is
prepared before the start of the entire operation that it
covers. A partial budget is prepared before the proposed
farm plan change that it covers is implemented.
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D
Gross income = number of birds × price per bird = 1000 ×

20 = $20,000
Answer: D
A soil pro le is a vertical section dug through a soil

showing the sequence of horizons in the soil. A soil
horizon is any of the distinctive layers in a soil pro le.
Soil pro les can be used by farmers to determine:

- The depth of tillage needed for his soil. Tillage is
preparing soil for growing crops. Shallower topsoils
need less tillage than deeper topsoils.
- The selection of tillage equipment needed for his soil.
For example, if horizon B has a hardpan, it needs to be
broken up. If it is not, water will accumulate atop the
hardpan until it saturates the topsoil. Breaking up a
hardpan requires a special tractor implement known as
a subsoiler.
- The choice of crops he can plant. If his topsoil (horizon
A) is shallow, he cannot plant deep-rooting crops e.g.
cassava, sweet potato, or other starchy root crops.
See the notes below.
This fertilizer has 7% nitrogen (N), 14% phosphorus (P)

and 21% potassium (K). The ratio is 7:14:21. 7÷7 = 1,
14÷7 = 2 and 21÷7 = 3. So mathematically, 7:14:21 is a
ratio of 1:2:3. Therefore the ratio of nitrogen to
phosphorus to potassium is 1:2:3. So the ratio if nitrogen
to phosphorus is 1:2.
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B
Intercropping is the cultivation of a short-term crop, for

example, lettuce, between the plants of a medium-term
crop, such as sweet pepper. It helps the farmer earn
quickly from the sale of the the short-term crop while the
medium-term crop develops. The short-term crop is also
known as a cash crop. The crops chosen for intercropping
need to be compatible so that one crop does not smother
the other with rapid growth or use all the soil nutrients.
This type of cropping system helps the farmer to use the
space between plants of the main crop more e ciently.
Soil fertility is maintained and soil nitrogen may even
increase, particularly if one crop is a legume such as
beans. The vegetative cover provided by two crops helps
to control soil erosion on sloping ground.
Crop rotation is growing a series of crops in succession

(one after the other) on the same plot of land in a cycle.
For example, a sequence of lettuce (a leafy crop), green
beans (a legume), beetroot (a root crop), tomato (a fruit
crop) helps to maintain soil fertility because the legume
crop adds nitrogen to the soil.
Cover cropping is planting a crop that grows rapidly so

that it provides cover on bare soil. It is used to improve
soil fertility and prevent erosion. The cover crop is usually
planted after the main crop has been harvested and can
be ploughed into the soil before the land is replanted. The
cover crop, often referred to as ‘green manure’, provides a
cover of vegetation for the soil and adds organic matter
when it is ploughed in. If a legume, such as cowpea or
vetch, is planted, then the nitrogen content of the soil is
increased. Cover crops may be sown between the rows of
other crops, and are often planted between rows of fruit
trees in an orchard.
D
Slash and burn is a conventional farming system in which

wild or forested land is clear-cut and any remaining
vegetation burned. This is NOT what the question is
referring to. It is referring to simply setting vegetation on
re to clear land. In general, burning as a form of land
clearing depletes soil of most nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S),
two valuable soul nutrients.
This is a is a diagram of a rain gauge. A rain gauge is a

meteorological (weather study) instrument to measure the
amount of rain in a given amount of time per unit area. e.g.
5 cm of rain per day per square meter.
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D
Germination is the process in which the plant embryo

inside the seed grows and develops into a seedling.
There are two types of germination: epigeal and hypogeal.
In epigeal germination, the cotyledons rise above the
ground as the seedling emerges from the soil. In hypogeal
germination, the cotyledons stay underground as the
seedling emerges from the soil.
This diagram illustrates photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, plants convert carbon dioxide and oxygen into glucose and
oxygen using energy from certain wavelengths of light, all of which are found in sunlight.
B
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma.

There are two types of pollination: self-pollination and
cross-pollination.
Self-pollination is pollination in which pollen is transferred

from the anther of one ower to the stigma of the same
ower or the stigma of another ower of the same plant.
This type of pollination is possible with:
• plants with hermaproditic owers ( owers with both
male and female parts) e.g. hibiscus
• monoecious plants (plants with male and female owers
on the same plant) e.g. maize
Self-pollination is not possible with dioecious plants
(plants with male and female owers on di erent plants of
the same species) e.g. paw-paw.
Cross-pollination is pollination in which pollen is

transferred from the anther of one ower to the stigma of
another ower on a another plant of the same species.
This type of pollination is possible in:
• plants with unisexual owers ( owers with both male
and female parts) e.g. hibiscus
• monoecious plants (plants with male and female owers
on the same plant) e.g. maize
• dioecious plants (plants with male and female owers
on di erent plants of the same species) e.g, pawpaw
C
Transpiration is the loss of water from a plant via its exit as

water vapor through the stomata of the plant’s leaves.
The transpiration stream is the continuous ow of water
up from the roots, through the stem and into the leaves,
where some is used for photosynthesis and the rest
evaporates out through the stomata.
Transpiration cools the plant. However on hot days, high

transpiration can cause excessive water loss, leading to
wilting.
Plants should therefore not be watered during the hottest

part of the day, as water loss by transpiration is at
maximum at this time. This can cause excessive water
loss.
Transpiration is a ected by soil water, relative humidity, air

movement, light and temperature.
B
Fertilization is the union of the nuclei of male and female

gametes (sex cells). Pollen grains contain male gametes
(male sex cells). Ovules contain female gametes (female
sex cells).
On landing on the stigma, the pollen grain grows a pollen

tube.The pollen tube grows down the style into the ovary
and into an ovule in the ovary. The male gamete in the
pollen grain moves down through the pollen tube into the
ovary. The nucleus of the male gamete fuses with the
female gamete in the ovule, fertilizing it. The fertilized
ovule develops into a seed and the ovary that contains it
becomes a fruit.
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C
The classes of weed control methods are:

• Mechanical control methods: these involve physical
removal of weeds.
• Cultural control methods: these involve adequate
preparation of the land and cultural practices such as
hand weeding and hoeing to retard weed growth.
• Chemical control methods: these involve the use of
herbicides to kill weeds.
• Biological control methods: these involve the use of
other organisms to control weed growth .
• Integrated control methods: these involve combining
two or more weed control methods that are suited to a
particular crop.
C
Monohybrid inheritance is the inheritance of a single trait

e.g. ower color, fruit color, height, eye color, hair color
etc.
If a single pair of alleles code for a trait, the monohybrid
inheritance of the trait can be predicted using monohybrid
crosses.
The genotypes and phenotypes of the o spring a
monohybrid cross can be predicted using the genotypes
of the parents.
The o spring are called the F1 generation.
The procedure uses a diagram called a Punnett square
(shown on the right).
D
Soil erosion is the process by which particles of topsoil

are carried away from one area, by water, wind, or other
factors such as human activity, and deposited at another
area.
All soils undergo erosion, but if there has been no clearing
or cultivation of the land, the rate of erosion is slow and
allows the processes of soil formation to continue.
If vegetative cover is removed, for example, when the land
is cleared for agriculture, forestry or grazing, then the soil
is exposed to wind and water. Soil erosion is speeded up
and can become a problem.
Alleles are di erent forms of a gene that code for

contrasting characteristics. In this question, T and t are
alleles - di erent forms of the same gene that control
height. T codes for tallness and t codes for shortness.
A genotype is the collection of genes on paired
chromosomes. TT, Tt and TT are genotypes. Genotypes
cause phenotypes. A phenotype is the physical
expression of a genotype. For example, if a genotype
causes tallness, then the phenotype is tallness. If a
genotype codes for shortness, then the phenotype is
shortness.
In a pair of alleles, one allele may be dominant and the
other may be recessive. The dominant allele displays its
characteristic in the phenotype even though the recessive
allele is present. The recessive allele only shows its
characteristic in the phenotype only if the dominant allele
is absent.
In this question, T is dominant over t, which means that in
any genotype with T will shows its characteristic in the
genotype: the organism will be tall. If genotype TT is
crossed with genotype tt, the o spring will all have
genotype Tt; all will be tall.
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B
Integrated pest control, or integrated pest management

(IPM), is the control of pests by using a combination of
chemical, cultural, mechanical, biological and/or manual
pest control methods to keep pest populations at low
levels rather than totally eliminating them.
Cultural pest control is the practice of modifying the

growing environment to reduce the prevalence of pests by
making it less favorable for them.
Manual pest control is the use of hands-on techniques as

well as simple equipment and devices to catch and
remove pests.
Chemical pest control is the use of pesticides to kill pests.

A pesticide is any chemical used to kill pests.
Mechanical pest control is the management and control of

pests using physical means such as fences, barriers or
electronic wires.
A
Fungi thrive in damp conditions. Damp conditions are

facilitated by high humidity.
High humidity decreases transpiration instead of

increasing it.
Since high humidity facilitates damp conditions, it

facilitates damp soil instead of soil drying out.
Answer: D
Farm mechanization decreases operation time, leads to

better yields and produce quality. Better velds and quality
mean increased sales, leading to increased standard of
living for farmers.
Unless it occurs via mechanical fault or poor equipment

use, mechanization does not damage crops.
B
Early blight of tomato is caused primarily by the fungus

Alternaria linariae. Symptoms of early blight can occur on
the foliage, fruit, and stem at any stage of development.
The disease is more commonly observed in the eld.
Fungicides are used to treat fungal diseases.
Lesions (areas of abnormal, damaged tissue) rst develop

on lower leaves as small, brownish-black spots which can
expand to about 1⁄4 to 1⁄2-inch in diameter with
characteristic concentric rings in the darkened area. The
area surrounding the lesions may become yellow and, as
disease progresses, the entire leaf may turn yellow. In later
stages, lesions may appear in the upper leaves and
defoliation (dropping o of leaves from the plant) may
occur in the lower part of the plant leaving the fruit
susceptible to sunscald.
Sunscald commonly a ects tomatoes, as well as peppers.

It’s generally the result of exposure to sunlight during
extreme heat, though may be caused by other factors as
well. While this condition is not technically dangerous to
plants, it can damage fruits and lead to other issues that
could become a problem. On tomatoes, sunscald will
appear as a yellow or white-spotted area on the side or
upper part of the fruit that has been directly exposed to
the sun. As the fruit ripens, the a ected area may become
blistered before it nally turns thin, wrinkly, and paper-like
in appearance.
D
The cabbage white butter y is a pest of crops in the

Brassica family. This includes cabbage, broccoli,
cauli ower, kale & pak-choi. The adult butter ies are
harmless, but their larvae (caterpillars) are highly
destructive. The caterpillars feed very heavily, consuming
leaves and heads of any plan of the Brassica family..
Answer: B
Tomatoes should be harvested when they just begin to

turn color. Leaving them to ripen on the plant risks
damage from feeding birds.
Beans should be harvested at the snap stage. This is

when they snap clean when broken.
Cabbages should be harvested by cutting o the head

from the root with a sharp knife 3 to 4 months after
transplanting.
Sweet potato should be harvested by digging them up

when leaves begin to dry. Bruising and breakage of the
root tubers should be avoided.
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41: B
42: C
I is the esophagus, which carries food from the mouth to

the crop.
II is the crop, which stores food.
III is the proventriculus. The proventriculus is a tube-like

area that is the rst part of a bird’s stomach.
It produces digestive juices such as pepsin and
hydrochloric acid. Pepsin starts digesting proteins in the
food. The food is throughly soaked in these digestive
juices, after which it passes from the proventriculus to the
gizzard.
IV is the gizzard. The gizzard is the second part of a bird’s

stomach. It is a highly muscular organ that grinds up food
into smaller pieces. It therefore performs the same
function as teeth and jaws in monogastrics, ruminants and
pseudo-ruminants.The grinding up of the food increases
its surface area and mixes it thoroughly with the digestive
juices from the proventriculus.
Below is a diagram of the poultry digestive system.

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B
Rabbits are pseudo-ruminants. A pseudo-ruminant is an

animal that is able to live entirely on cellulose (from
vegetation), but it does not have a rumen.
Instead of a rumen, pseudo-ruminants have a digestive
organ called a cecum that performs the same function as
a rumen. It is part of a pseudo-ruminant’s large intestine.
Pseudo-ruminants are hind-gut digesters. This means that

most of their digestion takes place in the large intestine,
speci cally in the cecum. The animal chews and swallows
the food. The food passes quickly through the stomach
and small intestine to the cecum. The cecum in pseudo-
ruminants is large and well-developed. It contains bacteria
that digest the cellulose in the food into glucose, converts
some of the glucose into amino acids, and produces
certain B-vitamins, similar to the rumen in a ruminant.
Below is a diagram of the pseudo-ruminant digestive

system
All four of these are concentrate feedstu s. A feedstu is

any food provided for animals. There are 4 types of
feedstu s: forages, fodder, silage and concentrates.
A forage is any food obtained by animals via grazing.

Fodder is dried feedstu s, such as hay, straw and cha ,
used when forage is unavailable. Silage is pasture
grasses, legumes and other crops that have been
conserved and stored in silos.
Concentrates are feedstu s that are produced

commercially in manufacturing facilities called feed mills
using local and imported ingredients.
Of the 4 concentrates in this question, Fish meal is highest

in protein. Broken rice is high in energy. Coconut meal is
also high in protein, but not as high as sh meal. Coco
pods meal is high in ber and minerals, particularly
potassium.
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A
Structure I is albumen. This is commonly called the egg

white. It is composed of proteins, minerals, some
carbohydrates and water. It provides a developing embryo
with some food and a source of water.
Structure III is the yolk. This is rich in fats called

phospholipids, as well as protein. It is the main source of
food for the developing embryo if the egg is a hatching
egg (a fertilized egg). Its yellow color is created by
pigments.
46: C
47: A
The allele H codes for having horns and the allele h codes
for having no horns. H is dominant over h. Therefore in
any genotype (genetic constitution that determines the
traits) that has H, the trait that H codes for will be the trait
that shows up in the phenotype (physical expression of
the genotype). Thus genotype HH (homozygous dominant)
will show as having horns and the genotype Hh
(heterozygous dominant) will also show as having horns.
Only the homozygous recessive genotype hh will show up
as having no horns.
In a monohybrid cross between two heterozygous

dominants:
- The F1 genotypes are always quarter homozygous
dominant, half heterozygous dominant and quarter
recessive
- The F1 phenotypes are always 3 quarters showing the
dominant trait and 1 quarter showing recessive trait
The cross in this case is homozygous dominant genotype

× homozygous dominant genotype, i.e. Hh × Hh.
According to the rules above, the o spring genotypes will
be 25% HH, 50% Hh and 25% hh. The phenotypes will be
75% having horns, 25% having no horns.
The o spring with genotype hh will be homozygous

recessive for the horn trait; this means that they will have
no horns. This is 25% of the o spring. There are 12
o spring. 25% of 12 is 3. Thus 3 o spring will be
homozygous receptive for the horn trait, i.e. have no
horns.
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D
Arti cial insemination (AI) is the introduction of semen into

the uterus of a female by arti cial means, i.e. by means
other than copulation. Mating in livestock farming refers to
bringing together mature male and female animals of the
same species for the purpose of breeding.
Female animals that come into heat may be bred or

serviced naturally by the male (boar, bull, ram or buck).
As an alternative, semen from the male can be obtained
and introduced into the reproductive tract of the female in
heat via arti cial insemination.
AI is a skilled process that requires training. Attempts by

untrained people can cause injury to the animal and
failure of the insemination to lead to pregnancy.
Arti cial insemination is carried out in cattle, sheep, goats
and pigs.
The advantages of AI are:

• Farmers are more motivated to keep records.
• There is an improvement or upgrading of the farmer’s
stock of animals.
• It removes the risks involved in rearing dangerous male
animals, for example, bulls.
• The costs to the farmer are less than the cost of rearing
a male animal to maturity.
• Female animals do not need to be taken to the breeding
station for servicing.
• The spread of venereal diseases is reduced or
prevented.
• Young females, such as heifers, are not at risk of
physical injury, which can occur during mating because
of the weight of mature bulls.
• Semen from a pedigree male can be used to service
hundreds of females.
• Semen from injured males or males that cannot mount
females can be used.
• Frozen semen can be stored and used for many years,
even after the death of the male animals.
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B
Calcium phosphate is the main material in eggshells.

Layers therefore need adequate amounts of calcium in
their diet for strong, properly-formed eggshells. This can
be supplied by feeding crushed egg-shells to layers.
Answer: C
Landrace pigs have large, deep bodies. Sows are

excellent mothers and have large litters.
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B
Snu es is s rabbit disease caused by bacterial infection.

Its symptoms include nasal discharge, sneezing and
rubbing of the the nose and eyes with the forepaws. The
treatment regimen is:
• Treat with sulfa drugs and antibiotics.
• Isolate infected rabbits.
• Feed a nutritious diet and adopt sanitary measures
• Do not breed the infected animals; even if recovery
• occurs, the animals may still be carrier.
Answer: C

same species for the purpose of breeding. Female animals
that come into heat may be bred or serviced naturally by
the male (boar, bull, ram or buck). As an alternative,
semen from the male can be obtained and introduced into
the reproductive tract of the female in heat via arti cial
insemination. Arti cial insemination is carried out in cattle,
sheep, goats and pigs.

untrained people can cause injury to the animal and failure
of the insemination to lead to pregnancy. Upgrading local
animals is crossbreeding them with breeds from other
countries; it is much less expensive to ship stocks of
semen from these animals than to ship the live animals.
Answer: D
The estrus cycle is a sequence of events occurring in

female mammals, occurring over a speci c number of
days from the beginning of one heat period (estrus) to the
beginning of the next heat period.
The heat period is the length of time during which the

female farm animal is sexually receptive to the male farm
animal. During this period, the female is said to be in heat.
This means she will allow a male to copulate (have sexual
intercourse) with her.
The estrus cycle is controlled by hormones. Once puberty

is reached, female farm animals come into heat at regular
intervals. Puberty is the period during which growing
mammals reach sexual maturity and become capable of
reproduction.
It is only when in heat that the female allows a male to

copulate with her. Heat occurs as a result of the high
levels of the hormone estrogen, produced by the ovaries,
circulating in the blood.
Ovulation (the release of an ovum from the ovary) is

closely associated with the heat period. It usually occurs
during estrus or shortly after it. Mating during this time can
result in fertilization and pregnancy.
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B
Feed conversion ratio is the amount of feed that an animal

needs to consume to gain 1 kg of weight.
From whenever the birds were acquired until the time of

weighing, the average weight of the 1000 birds is 3 kg.
That means each bird weighs 3 kg. The 1000 birds
consumed a total of 12,000 kg of feed. Thus each bird
consumed 12,000 ÷ 1000 = 12 kg. Each bird therefore
needed 12 kg to attain a weight of 3 kg. This is an FCR of
12 to 3 or 12:3. This can be mathematically reduced to
4:1.
The FCR can be gured out another way: instead of using

the feed consumed per bird, you can use the total feed
consumed by all 1000 birds and the total weight gain of all
1000 birds.The average weight is 3 kg. Thus each bird
weighs 3 kg. So the total weight of all 1000 birds is 3 ×
1000 = 3000 kg. The total weight of feed consumed by all
1000 birds is 12,000 kg. The 1000 birds needed 12,000 kg
of feed to attain a total weight of 3000 kg. This is an FCR
of 12,000:3000, which mathematically can be reduced to
4:1.
Fowl pox is caused by a virus. Symptoms include:

• Scabs or wart-like lesions on the comb, wattles,
eyelids, face, and feet.
• Eyelid swelling and eyes sealed shut or scabbed over.
• Yellow canker lesions in mouth.
• Weight loss.
• Loss of appetite.
• Reduced water consumption.
Marek’s disease is caused by a herpes virus. Birds may
show signs of depression, paralysis, loss of appetite, loss
of weight, anaemia (pale combs), dehydration (shrunken
combs), and sometimes diarrhoea. Some birds die without
any clinical signs being noticed. Most birds that develop
Marek's disease usually die.
Fowl cholera is a contagious, bacterial disease of birds

caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida. It causes
lameness, swollen wattles (in chickens), pneumonia (in
turkeys), and torticollis (twisting of the neck to one side),
but it can also be asymptomatic (no symptoms are seen).
Infectious bursal disease (IBD), also called gumboro

disease, is a highly contagious viral infection in young
chickens that attacks a speci c area inside the bird’s vent
(the opening out of which the bird defecates and through
which sperm pass from rooster to hen in mating.
Symptoms include trembling, ru ed feathers, poor
appetite, dehydration, huddling, vent pecking, and
depression.
B
There is only one queen in a hive.She is the only fertile

female in the hive, i.e. she is the only female that lays
fertilized eggs. She is the largest bee in a hive.
She can sting repeatedly because her stinger has no
barbs, so it can be easily withdrawn from the esh of the
enemy when she moves o after stinging. She can
therefore withdraw it without harm to herself and
immediately use it again.
She develops from a larva fed with a protein-rich

substance called royal jelly. She takes 15 days to develop
from a larva into an adult.
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B
Drones are fertile male bees. They are the second largest
bees in a hive, after queens. They have no stinger. They
have the largest eyes of all 3 castes of bees. They live 2
months and grow from larvae to adult in 24 days.
They develop from larvae that are hatch from unfertilized

eggs laid by workers. You have learned earlier in the
lesson that fertilized eggs laid by queens hatch larvae that
develop into queens or workers, depending on whether
the larvae are fed royal jelly or bee bread.
Drones’ only function is to mate with queens. They do not

forage (they collect anything for the hive. e.g. nectar,
pollen, water etc.), they cannot make honey or beeswax,
and they play no role in hive building or maintenance.
After mating, they die. If food becomes scarce, they are
driven out of the hive by the workers.
C
Honey should never be heated. Bees turn nectar into

honey by adding proteins called enzymes to the nectar
and then reducing the nectar’s water content to 19%.
Thus honey contains enzymes. Heating destroys these
enzymes and thus reduces the honey’s quality.
There are a number of ways to priory honey. One way os

by straining it.
Dressing percentage is the percentage of a dressed

carcass is usable meat. Dressing a carcass is removal of
the parts that are not wanted e.g. feathers, head and
internal organs except liver, gizzard and possibly the heart.
Dressing percentage = (Dressed weight ÷ Liveweight) ×
100.
The goat’s liveweight is 50 kg. Its dressed weight is 30 kg.

Therefore its dressing percentage is 30 ÷ 50) × 100 =
60%.
SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE TO SEE THE REST OF THE ANSWERS
AGRI PAST PAPER 1 ANSWERS

June 2014
1) A 21) A 41)A
2) A 22)A 42)D
3) D 23)C 43)B
4) C 24)B 44)C
5) D 25)C 45)A
6) A 26)C 46)B
7) A 27)D 47)B
8) B 28)B 48)B
9) D 29)C 49)D
10) C 30)B 50)B
11) C 31)D 51)C
12) B 32)B 52)D
13) B 33)A 53)C
14) D 34)A 54)C
15) B 35)C 55)B
16) B 36)C 56) C
17) A 37)D 57)C
18) B 38)D 58)B
19) A 39)A 59)C
20) D 40)D 60)D
June 2015
1) D 21) D 41)D
2) C 22) A 42)C
3) A 23) C 43)C
4) D 24) D 44)B
5) D 25) D 45)D
6) C 26) C 46)B
7) C 27) C 47)C
8) D 28) B 48)A
9) B 29) C 49)B
10) A 30) C 50)B
11) C 31) D 51)B
12) B 32) D 52)A
13) B 33) B 53)D
14) D 34) A 54)C
15) A 35) B 55)B
16) B 36) D 56)D
17) C 37) D 57)C
18) C 38) A 58)D
19) A 39) A 59)B
20) A 40) A 60)B
June 2016
1) D 21)D 41) A
2) A 22)C 42)B
3) D 23)C 43)A
4) C 24)B 44)D
5) D 25)B 45)D
6) A 26)D 46)B
7) A 27)A 47)
8) B 28)D 48)
9) C 29) C 49)D
10) C 30)D 50)B
11) D 31) 51)D
12) B 32) 52)A
13) A 33)A 53)D
14) C 34)C 54)C
15) B 35)A 55)B
16) D 36)A 56)C
17) C 37)D 57)B
18) A 38)D 58)C
19) A 39)C 59)C
20) C 40)B 60)D
June 2018
1) D 21) D 41) A
2) C 22) C 42) B
3) D 23) A 43) A
4) D 24) B 44) A
5) A 25) A 45) C
6) D 26) B 46) B
7) D 27) A 47) A
8) C 28) D 48) C
9) C 29) D 49) A
10) B 30) D 50) D
11) C 31) D 51) D
12) A 32) B 52) D
13) B 33) B 53) B
14) C 34) A 54) C
15) A 35) A 55) B
16) D 36) A 56) C
17) B 37) B 57) B
18) D 38) B 58) B
19) C 39) A 59) B
20) D 40) B 60) D
June 2019
1) C 21) D 41) B
2) C 22) A 42) C
3) A 23) A 43) B
4) D 24) A 44) B
5) C 25) B 45)
6) C 26) D 46) D
7) A 27) D 47) C
8) C 28) B 48) B
9) C 29) C 49) C
10) A 30) D 50) C
11) B 31) A 51) D
12) B 32) D 52) A
13) A 33) C 53) B
14) C 34) B 54) B
15) A 35) D 55) A
16) D 36) C 56) C
17) A 37) D 57) C
18) D 38) D 58) B
19) A 39) D 59) D
20) D 40) A 60) B

consumer. This includes the promotion and sale of goods
and services.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all

the goods and services produced in a country within a
speci c time period, usually annually.
3: A
Improper herbicide usage can kill ground cover plants that

hold the soil together, resulting in soil erosion.
4: C
The burning of bushes and emission of gases from

industrial operations releases large amounts of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to
global warming.
5: D
Food security is a country’s ability to supply its people

with a su cient quantity of safe, a ordable, nutritious
food at all times. Postharvest is the stage of crop
production immediately following harvest, including
cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing. Poor crop handling
after harvest causes a loss of produce. The incidents of
pests and diseases and poor postharvest practices
therefore results in a loss of produce. If this is widespread
in thro country, it negatively impacts food security.
Answer: A
Predial larceny is the theft of agricultural produce. It is one

of the main challenges to agriculture in the Caribbean.
There are weak sensitivities among police & judiciary

(judges) to predial larceny, i.e. they do not see it as a
serious o ense; therefore o enders are not sternly dealt
with, which emboldens them to continue. Loss of produce
& the resulting loss of money discourages farmers.
Police can help by establishing a squad to deal with

predial larceny. Police & the judiciary can help by treating
predial larceny sternly.
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A
To grow a crop, planting material must be selected (seeds,

seedlings, vegetative parts such as cuttings etc). The
choice depends on the crop.
Land must be prepared according to the needs of the crop

being grown. The general steps in land preparation are
site selection, land clearing, tillage, drain formation,
leveling and bed formation.
The material is then planted.
Aftercare is the care of the crop as it grows: irrigation,

fertilizing, pest and disease management etc. This is
necessary for optimal crop growth and therefore
maximum yields.
Once the stage of maturity at which the crop id harvested

is reached, the crop is harvested.

a ect sales of the commodity. These forces are demand
for the commodity and supply of the commodity
The price of the commodity is determined by the demand
for it in relation to the conditions of its supply at a
particular time.
At some point, two forces of demand and supply are

brought into balance or equilibrium, i.e. the demand and
supply become balanced. The equilibrium price is the
price at which demand and supply are balanced. In terms
of supply and demand curves, it is the price at the point
where the 2 curves intersect.
You do not need to look at the curves to determine the

equilibrium price and quantity. You can just look at the
demand and supply tables. The equilibrium price is the
price at which the quantity demanded and supplied are
equal. In this case, the equilibrium price is $2.00.
Credit unions, commercial banks and savings and thrift

societies are sources of credit to farmers; farmers can
obtain loans to purchase agricultural inputs, e.g., seeds,
feed, fertilizer, fuel etc., from from these institutions. Take
organizations manage and regulate international trade.
They are not sources of credit.
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Answer: A
Fixed costs (FC) are costs that do not increase or

decrease with the level of production. Examples include
land rental, machinery, buildings, insurance premiums (the
amount of money paid for an insurance policy), taxes, loan
installments and depreciation (a reduction in the value of
an asset over time, due in particular to wear and tear). No
matter how much or little production occurs, these costs
do not change, e.g. suppose a farmer buys a tractor and
is paying $5,000 per month. That monthly payment is his
loan installment. Regardless of how much or little
production happens, the farmer still has to pay that money
every month; it does not change.
Variable costs (VC) are costs that increase or decrease

fuel, feed, fertilisers, medications and pesticides. For
example, to increase production on a chicken farm, the
farmer will increase the number of chicks he purchases,
as well as the amount of feed, medicines etc. he
purchases. Thus the amount of money spent on these
inputs increases with the increased production, i.e. the
cost of these inputs increases with increased production.
If production decreases, so to does the money spent on
these inputs, so the cost of these inputs decreases with
decreasing production. Variable costs also include the
value of the produce consumed by the farmer and his
family. Additionally, while buildings are a xed cost, repairs
to buildings, as well as other repairs, are variable costs.
B
Cheap available land is not usually available to Caribbean

farmers, and even if it were, it would be a BENEFIT, not a
PROBLEM.
The assertion that farmers who own land are usually better
farmers is nonsense.
Farmers are willing to improve their production by

developing the land they use if they can, even if the land is
rented, and the landlords will usually allow it as they can
get higher rent since the farmer makes more money.
The major di culty farmers face in this list is the prospect

of getting land for rental.
Factors that change demand for the commodity other

than price cause the commodity’s demand curve to shift
left or right. If a factor causes increased demand, the
curve shifts right. If a factor causes decreased demand,
the curve shifts left. This causes the demand curve to shift
left.
During lent, the demand for sh increases. The demand

curve D1 therefore shifts left to D.
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The lender considers all 3. The character of the farmer

gives the lender con dence that the farmer has the
honesty and integrity to repay the loan. Management
amorality gives the lender con dence that the farmer has
the ability to manage the farm business to make the
money to pay his loan installments on time. Repayment
capacity gives the lender con dence that the farmer has
the ability to repay the loan at all.
When demand exceeds supply, there is not enough of the

commodity for all of the buyers to get as much as they
want. Therefore some do not get enough or get any at all.
This is a shortage.
When supply exceeds demand, there is more of the

commodity than all of the buyers want. All of the buyers
get enough but there is some left over. This is called a glut
or surplus.
Production records are useful to identify production

problems so that farm performance can be improved. The
most common production records used are crop
cultivation records, livestock production, labour and
machinery records.
Types of production records are:

• Crop cultivation records include all the various elds or
orchard numbers, production size, yield potential and
soil analyses of the land used for that speci c crop or
fruit. Other items included in the crop cultivation
records are fertilization, seeding, cultivation methods,
weed and pest control, time of application and crop
yields.
• Livestock production records have related to livestock
farming should be included here. Examples are feed,
medicine dosing, marketing costs and individual animal
records such as milk production, calving records, wool
production, weaning mass and weight gains. The
opening and closing numbers of livestock should be
grouped according to their age and gender, for
example, bulls, cows and one to two-year-old heifers.
• Labour records have information such as such as
service contracts of sta , wages received, rations,
medical costs and worker’s compensation are recorded
in the labour records. Other items that should be
included are the number of laborers, loans, debts, leave
and absences.
• Machinery records include in the machinery records and
should include details such as model type, age, book
value, repairs, service records, hours worked and
insurance.
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Farming are not planned to be immediately repaid.

However they may not be enough to cover the intended
purpose and they may not be available at the right time.
Answer: A

speci c aspect of the existing farm plan that requires
modi cation of the budget.

herd, would be more pro table. In such situations, most of
change. A partial budget identi es the income and
costs and income will a ect the change in pro t. The

18: C
Gross income, also called total income, is all of the money

that a business receives from sales of goods and services,
and from non-sale transactions such as subsidies, tax
rebates etc. These are not sales, but they are sources of
income because they bring money into the business.
19: A
Net income is income after money for all expenses

(variable and xed) is deducted. Expenses are the costs of
production, i.e. costs of inputs, both variable and xed. In
accounting, expenses are called expenditure. The
calculated di erence between gross income and total
expenditure is called net income, also known as net pro t.
Net income = Gross income − Total expenditure
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A
The BEST answer for this question would be a plant

pathologist. This agricultural professional studies plant
health and identi es diseases, pests and other health
problems a plant may experience.
However, this is not one of the answers listed here. The

best answer IN THIS LIST is an agronomist. This
agricultural professional specializes in crop production,
soil control, and soil management, tries nd ways to
maximize crop production from a given acreage of soil
and performs experiments to determine and then
maximize plant nutrients and soil health.
Soil pH is determined by the amount of hydrogen ions (H+

ions) or hydroxide ions (OH-) present. An acidic soil has
more H+ ions than OH- ions. The more acidic the soil, the
more more H+ ions it has than OH- ions. An alkaline soil
has more OH- ions than H+ ions. The more alkaline the
soil, the more OH- ions it has than H+ ions.
The ratio of nutrients in a mixed fertilizer is nitrogen (N):

phosphorus (P): potassium (K), i.e. N:P:K. This fertilizer
has a ratio of 7:14:21. This means it has 7% N, 14% P
and 21% K. Mathematically this means an NPK ratio of
1:2:3 since 14 is twice as much as 7 and 21 is 3 times as
much as 7. Therefore there is twice as much P as N and 3
times as much K as N. So the ratio of N to P in this
fertilizer is 1:2.
Keeping the heap moist promotes the growth of microbes

that break down the organic matter.
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The soil horizons are as follows.

• Horizon A: (topsoil): the most important horizon in terms
of crop growth because it contains most of the soil
nutrients
• Horizon B (subsoil): when loosely packed, permits easy
penetration of roots, damage and aeration
• Horizon C (weathered rock): his is partially weathered
parent rock
• Horizon D (parent rock or bedrock): the rock whose
weathering formed the soil; it in uences soil type and
mineral content.
Soil erosion is the process by which particles of topsoil

are carried away from one area, by water, wind, or other
factors such as human activity, and deposited at another
area.
Overgrazing can cause oil erosion by the consumption of

all the plants that cover the soil. This leaves the soil
exposed to wind and rain, which move the topsoil away.
Land clearing has the same e ect as it clears away all of

all the plants that cover the soil.
Excessive rainfall can cause soil erosion by the sheer

volume of water falling on the soil. This is particularly the
case on hillsides.
A windbreak provides shelter from wind, Thus putting up a

windbreak does not cause soil erosion. On the contrary; it
REDUCES soil erosion.
This is a diagram of a rain gauge. A rain gauge is used to

measure rainfall.
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D
Temperatures above 37 ˚C will cause increased

evaporation of water and increased transpiration in plants.
Transpiration is the loss of water from plants through the
stomata of their leaves. The rate of transpiration increases
with increasing temperature. The increased evaporation
dries out the soil faster.
Fungi thrive in moist environments. Since temperatures

above 37 ˚C promote dry conditions, fungal activity is
reduced at these temperatures. Thus the incidence of
disease caused by fungi decreases.
In epigeal germination, the cotyledons rise above the

ground as the seedling emerges from the soil. In hypogeal
germination, the cotyledons stay below ground.
Transpiration is the loss of water from a plant via its exit as

water vapor through the stomata of the plant’s leaves.
Higher temperatures increase a plant’s transpiration rate
Lower temperatures decrease it. High humidity (a large
amount of moisture in the air) reduces the transpiration
rate. Windy conditions increase transpiration.
In plant breeding, selection is process of selectively

propagating plants with desirable characteristics and
eliminating or "culling" those with less desirable
characteristics. Plant hybridization is the process of
crossbreeding between genetically dissimilar parents to
produce a hybrid.
Selection chooses only plants with desirable

characteristics and hybridization crosses to of these
plants that are not genetically related together. The
o spring plants are called hybrids.
Hybridization combines the desirable characteristics of

di erent plants, producing hybrids that have all these
characteristics in the same plants. This improves the
quality of the plants and thus crop quality.
B
Pollination (the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma)

puts a pollen grain, which contains a male gamete, onto
the stigma of the ower. The pollen grain produces a
pollen tube which grows down the style into an ovule in
the ovary. The ovule contains a female gamete. The male
gamete is transferred down the pollen tube into the ovule,
where its nucleus fuses with the nucleus of the female
gamete in the ovule. This is fertilization of the ovule. The
fertilized ovule develops into a seed, while the ovary
develops into a fruit.
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Monohybrid inheritance is the inheritance of a single trait

e.g. ower color, fruit color, height, eye color, hair color
etc. In a monohybrid cross, parents having a di erence in
one trait, e.g. purple owers vs. red owers or white fur vs.
black fur, are crossed together.
Mixed farming is the cultivation of crops alongside the

rearing of livestock.
Multiple cropping, also called mixed cropping, is the

cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously (at the
same time) on the same plot of land.
The plantation system is mass production of a few

commodity crops done on large farms called plantations.
Monoculture is the continuous cultivation and production

of only one crop on a plot of land for many years.
B
Integrated pest control, or integrated pest management

(IPM), is the control of pests by using a combination of
chemical, cultural, mechanical, biological and/or manual
pest control methods to keep pest populations at low
levels rather than totally eliminating them.
Chemical pest control is the use of pesticides to kill pests.
Cultural pest control is the practice of modifying the

growing environment to reduce the prevalence of pests by
making it less favorable for them.
Mechanical pests control, is the management and control

of pests using physical means such as fences, barriers or
electronic wires.
Biological pest control us the use of natural predators or

parasites of pests against them.
Manual pest control is the use of of hands-on techniques

as well as simple equipment and devices to catch and
remove pests.
Biological pest control us the use of natural predators or

parasites of pests against them.
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Agricultural quarantine is isolation of plants and animals.

Agricultural quarantine is done to:
• prevent the introduction of pests and diseases into a
country where the pest or disease is absent.
• prevent or control the spread of pests and diseases in a
country or area should they enter.
Postharvest is the stage of crop production immediately

following harvest, including cooling, cleaning, sorting and
packing.
Post-harvest technology is the processes developed to

handle, store and market crop produce after it has been
harvested.
An understanding of the way in which crops ripen, the

changes that take place after harvest and the correct way
to store produce will all increase farm pro ts.
In postharvest management of fruits, mechanical damage

is due to the action of machinery, mishandling, and/or
improper packaging, and may result in cuts, punctures,
bruises, and/or abrasions. This hastens (speeds up)
spoilage.
In postharvest management of fruits, high temperature

drives water loss, changes in metabolic activity, loss of
avor, texture and nutrients and therefore spoilage.
In postharvest management of fruits, high humidity

encourages growth of bacteria and fungi, which hastens
spoilage.
In postharvest management of fruits, poor ventilation of

produce causes to the accumulation of carbon dioxide
around the produce. When the concentration of this gas
rises to between I and 5 percent in the atmosphere, it
quickly causes spoilage by causing bad avors, internal
breakdown, failure of fruit to ripen and other abnormal
physiological conditions.
Thus, the proper ventilation of produce is essential, as it

reduces these e ects. Therefore proper ventilation does
not cause spoilage; it helps to retard it (slow it down).
Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of a substance

by bacteria, yeasts of other microbes. In winemaking and
brewing of beer, yeast ferments sucrose to produce
ethanol, which is the alcohol in alcoholic beverages, and
water.
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C
Rabbits and horses are pseudo-ruminants. A pseudo-

ruminant is an animal that is able to live entirely on
cellulose (from vegetation), but it does not have a rumen.
a rumen. It is part of a pseudo-ruminant’s large intestine.
Pseudo-ruminants are hind-gut digesters. This means that

most of their digestion takes place in the large intestine,
speci cally in the cecum. The cecum in pseudo-ruminants
is large and well-developed. It contains bacteria that
digest the cellulose in the food into glucose, converts
some of the glucose into amino acids, and produces
certain B-vitamins, similar to the rumen in a ruminant.
The cecum produces soft black pellets. The soft black

pellets are eaten and pass down to the stomach, where
they are fully digested. Soft black pellets are usually
produced and eaten at night; they are called night feces.
The fully digested soft black pellets pass into the ileum of
the small intestine, where the simple nutrients are
absorbed into the bloodstream for assimilation (use by the
rabbit’s body).
The proventriculus is a tube-like area that is the rst part

of a bird’s stomach. It produces digestive juices such as
pepsin and hydrochloric acid. Pepsin starts digesting
proteins in the food. The food is throughly soaked in these
digestive juices, after which it passes from the
proventriculus to the gizzard.
In a monogastric (non-ruminant) animal, the stomach

produces gastric juice.
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The shell of a bird’s egg is a hard but brittle protective

coating of calcium carbonate crystals.
Structure I is albumen. This is commonly called the egg

white. It is composed of proteins, minerals, some
carbohydrates and water. It provides a developing embryo
with some food and a source of water.
Structure III is the yolk. This is rich in fats called

phospholipids, as well as protein. It is the main source of
food for the developing embryo if the egg is a hatching
egg (a fertilized egg). Its yellow color is created by
pigments.
This ration is a concentrate. Concentrates are feedstu s

that are produced commercially in manufacturing facilities
called feed mills using local and imported ingredients. A
feedstu is any food provided for animals.
Coconut meal and sh meal are concentrate ingredients

that provide protein. Urea is a non-protein nitrogen
compound. The nitrogen portion of urea its used by the
microbes in a ruminant’s rumen to produce amino acids,
which are assembled into proteins.
Molasses, rice bran, citrus meal wheat middling are

concentrate ingredients that provide carbohydrates, which
are used by the animal’s body for energy.
Chicks grow fastest from 1 to 3 weeks old. Their protein

requirement is therefore highest at this time to provide
protein for their rapid tissue growth.
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A production ration is an animal ration that supplies

nutrients in excess of maintenance; this excess is used for
production.
A balanced ration is an ration that contains all the

necessary nutrients for growth and production in the right
proportion for the animal.
A maintenance ration is the amount of food needed to

prevent any increase or decrease in the live weight of the
animal; this is just enough to supply energy for all
metabolic activities.
The slope facilitates runo of water, which helps in

cleaning the pen.
Feed conversion ratio (FCR) is the quantity of feed

required by an animal to gain a unit of weight.
The unit may be kg, lbs or whatever unit the weight is
measured in. The e ectiveness of a broiler feed is directly
shown by the average amount of it the broilers require to
gain a unit of weight.
A gabled roof design allows for the excess heat in the pen
to rise up and out. It also promotes ventilation and
reducing hyperthermia (heat stress).
The design is shown below.

other than copulation. In the case of cattle, a syringe is
used to inject preserved semen from a bull into the cow’s
vagina. Gloves are used in the collection, storage and
injection process. The bull itself is not needed in the actual
process.
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Answer: D

the reproductive tract of the female in heat via arti cial
insemination. Arti cial insemination is carried out in cattle,
A
T and t are alleles. Alleles are di erent form of agent that

code for contrasting traits. In this case, the gene codes for
coat color. Allele T codes for black and allele t codes for
red.
The genotype of a trait is all of the genes that code for

that trait, carried on a pair of chromosomes. Genotypes
are represented by the two alleles in the genotype written
together. In this case, there are 3 possible genotypes: TT,
tt and Tt. TT and tt are both homozygous genotypes. A
homozygous genotype is a genotype that has two
identical alleles. Tt is a heterozygous genotype. A
heterozygous genotype is a genotype that has two
contrasting alleles.
Allele T is dominant and allele t is recessive. This is shown

by T’s representation with a capital letter and t’s
representation with a common letter. A dominant allele is
an allele whose coded-for trait is displayed visibly even
though the other allele is present in the phenotype. A
recessive allele is an allele whose coded-for trait is
displayed visibly only if the dominant allele is absent
Genotype determines phenotype. A genotype is the visible

expression of the traits coded for by a genotype. Both the
alleles in genotype TT are dominant. This genotype is
therefore homozygous dominant. Since T codes for a
black coat, the phenotype (visible coat color) that this
genotype codes for is black fur. Both the alleles in
genotype tt are recessive. This genotype is therefore
homozygous recessive. Since t codes for a red coat, the
phenotype (visible coat color) that this genotype codes for
is a red coat. Genotype Tt has both the dominant and
recessive allele. This genotype is therefore heterozygous
dominant. Since T codes for a black coat and is dominant
over t, the phenotype (visible coat color) that this
genotype codes for is a black coat.
In this monohybrid cross between two heterozygous

genotypes Tt and Tt, the o spring have the following
genotypic ratio (ratio of genotypes):
• 25% (1 out of 4 o spring) TT
• 50% (2 out of 4 o spring) Tt
• 25% (1 out of 4 o spring) tt.
TT codes for black fur, Tt also codes for a black coat and
tt codes for a red coat. The phenotypic ratio (ratio of
phenotypes) is therefore:
• 75% (3 out of 4 o spring) black coat
• 25% (1 out of 4 o spring) red coat
This is a ratio of 3 black to 1 red, i.e. 3:1.

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Debeaking is the removal of about 2 mm of the chicken’s

upper beak using a hot iron. Debeaking reduces
cannibalism (the practice of the birds attacking and
picking at each other to eat each other’s esh). This
improves carcass quality by eliminating visible wounds. It
does not a ect dressing percentage.
Signs of heat in a doe (female rabbit) are:

• restlessness and nervousness.
• trying to join other rabbits in other hutches.
• scratching the oor.
• reddening of the vulva (the vaginal opening).
Coccidiosis is a disease that a icts poultry. It is caused

by type of micro-organism called a protozoan. Symptoms
and signs are droopiness and loss of appetite, diarrhea
with blood in feces; and the bird’s vent (cloaca) becomes
swollen and bloody.
A bird’s cloaca is the common chamber that is the end of

its digestive, urinary and reproductive systems. The vent is
the cloaca’s ori ce (opening leading outside of the body).
The disease’s mortality rate( percentage of deaths caused)

is moderate. Nonetheless, it is still an economically
important desires in poultry farming. With regard to animal
production, an economically important disease is a
disease that can cause large-scale economic losses to
animal farmers if an outbreak occurs. This is because the
disease spreads rapidly and causes high animal morbidity
(percentage of sick animals) or high animal mortality
(percentage of dead animals). The disease therefore costs
the farmer a lot of money because many of his animals
have low production due to being sick or die and therefore
do mot produce at all.
Treatment of coccidiosis involves the following:

• Sulfa drugs and magnesium sulphate in the drinking
water.
• swollen and bloody.
• Birds should be removed from wet, infected
• litter.
• Stocking density (number of birds per unit area of oor
space) should be reduced.
• Coccidiostats can be added to feed
• concentrates.
Birds that recover have good immunity to reinfection by

the pathogen (causative agent) of the disease.
Propolis, a sticky substance worker bees make from

certain tree buds, which is used to in hive building and
maintenance e.g. to seal cracks in the hive. It is also used
to cap cells in honeycombs and cement combs to frames
man-made hives.
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B
Drones are fertile male bees. They are the second largest
bees in a hive, after queens. They have no stinger. They
have the largest eyes of all 3 castes of bees. They live 2
months and grow from larvae to adult in 24 days. They
develop from larvae that are hatch from unfertilized eggs
laid by workers.
Below is an image of a drone with images of the other 2

castes of bees: the worker and the queen.
Layer chicks are fed chick starter for the rst 7 weeks.
They are then fed pullet developer until 15 weeks old. A
pullet is a hen that is not more than a year old.
From 15 weeks old, they are fed layer ration until they are
culled (removed from the batch) due to natural reduction
of egg production as they age beyond their most
productive period (2 years old).
Broilers should never be fed layer ration. Layer ration is

high in calcium. Layers need calcium for eggshell
production. The high calcium content in layer ration
damages a broiler’s kidneys.
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Answer: C
Plant quarantine is a technique for ensuring disease-free

and pest-free plants, whereby plant material (plants, fruits,
flowers, plant parts etc.) is isolated, inspected and tested
to detect the presence of pests or diseases. It is used
reduce entry of agricultural pests or diseases into a
country via mandatory (required by law or rules)
quarantine of plant material entering the country at
government-operated quarantine stations.
Answer: A
CARICOM is the Caribbean Community and Common

Market, also called the Caribbean Community Secretariat.
It is a regional political and economic organisation of
Caribbean countries that:
• Creates conditions to increase output of agricultural
and manufacturing products in member countries.
• Facilitates trade among members
• Develops a common trade policy.
• Eliminates charges (duties) on imported goods which
originate in member countries
• Acts as a single bargaining body in negotiations with
outside countries & international institutions
The CDB is the Caribbean Development Bank. It is a

regional agricultural financial institution that provides loans
to Caribbean governments for development of:
• Agriculture - credit, marketing, storage, land
development, fisheries, forestry, irrigation, training
• Infrastructure - roads, bridges, water supply etc.
The CFNI is the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute. It

is a regional food and nutrition institution. It is part of the
Pan-American Health Organization/World Health
Organization (PAHO/WHO). It promotes food security and
nutritional health.
CARDI is the Caribbean Agricultural Research and

Development Institute. It is a regional agricultural
development and research institution that:
• Provides for research and development needs of
CARICOM states
• Provides longterm research in agriculture
• Co-ordinates and agricultural integrate research and
development efforts of CARICOM states
• Provides teaching & training
• Provides technology services, for example, the supply
of quality plant products & genetic products and
services
Answer: D
Agriculture’s contribution to Caribbean economies:

Contribution to National Income and GDP
National Income is the total amount of money earned
within a country. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the
market value of all the goods and services produced in a
country within a specific time period, usually annually.
The value of agricultural goods and services contributes to
National Income & GDP.
Creation of Employment
Agriculture provides opportunities for employment. There
are many different jobs in or relating to agriculture, from
unskilled labor to highly-skilled jobs.
Contribution to Food Security
with a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food at all
times. Agriculture contributes to food security by
supplying the country with enough affordable nutritious
food for its citizens.
Production of Raw Materials
Agriculture provides raw materials for downstream
industries (industries that use products manufactured by
industries before them to manufacture their own
products). For example:
• Agriculture produces wheat (Industry #1)
• Wheat is used to make flour (industry #2, downstream
of #1)
• Flour is used to make bread (industry #3, downstream
of #2)
Earning of Foreign Exchange
Foreign exchange is foreign currency, e.g. U.S. money is
foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago.
All countries need foreign exchange, usually U.S. dollars
($US), to pay for imports (good & services purchased from
another country). Agriculture earns foreign exchange by
producing goods that can be exported (sold to other
countries), which pay Trinidad and Tobago in foreign
exchange.
Saving of Foreign Exchange via Import Substitution
Import substitution is an economic practice in which
foreign goods & services are replaces with local goods &
services.Agriculture can contribute to import substitution
by supplying locally produced agricultural goods and
services in the place of foreign ones.This means less
foreign exchange is spent importing agricultural goods
and services; foreign exchange is therefore saved.
Reduction of Food Import Bill
A country’s food import bill is the money spent by the
country to import food. Agriculture produces food locally,
therefore it reduces the need to import food and so
reduces a country’s food import bill.
Answer: D
Good agricultural practices (GAPs) are a set of essential

operational, technical and managerial practices necessary
to prevent or reduce the risk of food safety hazards
enabling the delivery of safe fresh fruits and vegetables to
the consumer, sustainability and reduction in negative
environmental impact
Answer: D
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the use of harmful

biological agents, e.g. the release of pathogens (disease-
causing organisms) to intentionally cause outbreaks of
disease among people and livestock.
Since food stocks and production are affected, the price

of food that is safe and available rises. Ecological habitats
are destroyed, and food security (a country’s ability to
supply its people with a sufficient quantity of affordable,
nutritious food at all times) is destabilized.
Answer: A
The yield of tomato remains constant regardless of rainfall. This suggests the use of an undercover system. Normally
crop production varies with rainfall. However in systems such as hydroponics and other undercover agricultural
systems, also called protected agricultural systems, there is no such relationship because carefully controlled irrigation
provides adequate water for the crops, regardless of rainfall.
Answer: A
Biodiversity is all the diverse ecosystems & the organisms

in them. It may be referred to as the diversity of all species
in a habitat, or sum of all species in a habitat.
Answer: B
Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants in a nutrient

solution or aggregate with added nutrients, but without
using soil. Instead of soil, plants are grown in one of the
following:
• A nutrient solution; this is circulated by a pump to
ensure the plants get a constant supply of nutrients.
The nutrient solution is aerated (e.g. with an air pump &
air stone) to ensure that the roots of the plants are
constantly supplied with oxygen for respiration.
• An aggregate, which is an inert (chemically inactive)
growing medium e.g. sand, gravel, perlite or vermiculite
through which a nutrient solution flows. The nutrient
solution is circulated through the aggregate. Aeration is
unnecessary, since the spaces between the aggregate
have air, which contains oxygen for the plants’ roots.
Trough culture involves growing crops in shallow troughs.

Troughs can be filled with an inert, soil-free medium such
as rock wool and are connected to a drip system that
supplies water and nutrients in solution; trough culture is
therefore similar to hydroponics.
Organic farming is a non-conventional farming system in

which the use of synthetic chemicals is restricted. Organic
farming restricts the use of synthetic chemicals, which are
usually harmful to the environment, to increase
biodiversity.
Subsistence farming is the practice of growing crops and

raising livestock sufficient only for one's own use, without
any surplus for trade, or very little surplus for trade..
Answer: D
Marketing is all of the activities involved in moving goods

and services from the producer to the consumer.
Marketing links production and consumption; it
incorporates several business activities in a coordinated
way to move goods and services from the site of
production to the site of sale to consumers.
Production is the process of combining various material

inputs (raw materials, labor etc.) with relevant plans and
expertise in order to make a product or service.
Consumption is the purchase and use of goods and

services by clients and customers, known as consumers.
Answer: C
The economic factors of agricultural production are land,

labor, capital and management.
Land is not necessarily a field on which to do agriculture.

Technically, land is any suitable space for agricultural
production, e.g. for broiler production, land is the space
where the broiler houses are sited.
Capital is all the money, buildings, machinery, equipment,

tools, materials, tree crops and livestock that are used to
produce agricultural goods and services on a continuing
basis. Therefore in corn production, corn and machinery
are part of capital.
Profit is the difference between income (the amount of

money generated from sales of produce) and expenditure
(the amount of money spent on production). Profit is not
an economic factor of agricultural production.
Answer: C
Demand is the quantity of a product that consumers are

willing to buy at a certain price at a particular time.
Demand is directly related to price. A decrease in price will
lead to an increase in demand.An increase in price will
lead to a decrease in demand.Demand is one of a
commodity’s two market forces (forces that determine
sales of the commodity). The other is supply.
Supply is the quantity of a product that vendors put on the

market for sale at certain price at a particular time.
Supply is directly related to price. A decrease in price will
lead to a decrease in supply. An increase in price will lead
to an increase in supply. Supply is one of a commodity’s
two market forces (forces that determine sales of the
commodity). The other is demand.
When supply is greater than demand, this leaves an

amount of the commodity that is not sold because there is
more of the commodity than is demanded. This is called a
surplus, or glut. When supply is less than demand, this
causes the commodity to run out and leaves some
consumers unable to get it because there is no more
available. This is called a shortfall.
Answer: D
CARICOM is the Caribbean Community and Common

Market, also called the Caribbean Community Secretariat.
It is a regional political and economic organisation of
Caribbean countries that:
• Creates conditions to increase output of agricultural
and manufacturing products in member countries.
• Facilitates trade among members
• Develops a common trade policy.
• Eliminates charges (duties) on imported goods which
originate in member countries
• Acts as a single bargaining body in negotiations with
outside countries & international institutions
The WTO is the World Trade Organization. It is an

international trade regulation and dispute settlement body.
In 2006, after considering the challenges of an

increasingly globalized economy and the need to increase
competitiveness of its goods and services, the Caribbean
Community Secretariat (CARICOM) set up the Caribbean
Single Market and Economy (CSME). The CSME enables
the free movement of goods, services, capital and people
across member states in the Caribbean.This means that
production and marketing operations are promoted and
supported in an enlarged, single economic area. There is a
better environment for the competitive production of
goods and services for external markets and for markets
within the region (intra-regional markets). The removal of
trade barriers and the opening up of new opportunities for
18,500,000 CARICOM nationals enables the CSME to
stimulate growth.
The Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was

organized on May 1, 1968, to provide a continued
economic linkage between the English-speaking countries
of the Caribbean.
Answer: B
When repaying a loan from from an agricultural bank, or

indeed from any lending institution, the borrower pays
interest. Interest is calculated as a percentage of the
money borrowed, paid by the borrower to the lender
periodically for being allowed to borrow the money. It may
be thought of as a cost that the institution charges the
lender for allowing the lender to borrow the money.
Answer: D
A credit rating is an estimate of the ability of a person or

organization to fulfill financial commitments, based on
previous dealings. For example a farmer will have a good
credit rating if he has has a history of taking loans and
paying installments in full and on time. Credit rating also
involves paying bills on time and other financial
obligations.
If the farmer is able to agree with financial institution son a

realistic plan to repay loans, is prompt in meeting all
financial obligations such as bill payments, and uses
agricultural loans for their intended purpose, he can be
guaranteed to have a good credit rating.
Answer: B

owned, controlled, operated, used and managed by its
members on a non-profit or cost basis, for the economic
benefit of all its members.
A an agricultural cooperative can enable farmers who are

members to stay in business e.g. by providing low cost
loans for input purchases. It can assist farmers in
marketing produce and help farmers access government
support services for agriculture e.g. artificial insemination
services. Cooperatives do not provide scholarships for
study.
Answer: B
Price support is government assistance in maintaining the

levels of market prices regardless of supply or demand.
Farmers can be guaranteed minimum prices by the
government, referred to as guaranteed prices, for selected
crops or commodities. The commodities may be export-
oriented or for domestic consumption. These guaranteed
prices are incentives to production. The guaranteed prices
show that the government is committed to helping
farmers.
Answer: A
Farm records store essential data about all the agricultural

enterprises on a farm. The data includes records of
production, transactions, costs, information and
observations, and is essential in determining & tracking
the economic performance of the farm.
Answer: B
The gross return of:
Cabbage = 27,000 kg × $2.00 per kg = 27,000 × 2.00 =

$54,000.
Cauliflower = 17,000 kg × $3.50 per kg = 17,000 × 3.50 =
$59,500.
Lettuce = 27,000 kg × $1.25 per kg = 27,000 × 1.25 =
$33,750.
Tomato = 22,000 kg × $2.50 per kg = 22,000 × 2.50 =
$55,000.
Therefore, based only on gross returns, the most

profitable crop for a farmer to plant is cauliflower.
Note that gross return is the same as gross income: Gross

income, also called total income, is all of the money that a
business receives from sales of goods and services.
Answer: A
Variable costs (VCs) are costs that increase or decrease

fuel, feed, fertilisers, medications and pesticides. For
example, to increase production on a chicken farm, the
farmer will increase the number of chicks he purchases,
as well as the amount of feed, medicines etc. he
purchases. Thus the amount of money spent on these
inputs increases with the increased production, i.e. the
cost of these inputs increases with increased production.
If production decreases, so to does the money spent on
these inputs, so the cost of these inputs decreases with
decreasing production.
Fixed costs (FCs) are costs that do not increase or

an asset over time, due in particular to wear and tear).
Other variable costs include all repairs and maintenance,
labor, etc. No matter how much or little production
occurs, these costs do not change, e.g. suppose a farmer
buys a tractor and is paying $5,000 per month. That
monthly payment is his loan installment. Regardless of
how much or little production happens, the farmer still has
to pay that money every month; it does not change.
Answer: D
A budget is an estimate of expected quantity of inputs,

costs, outputs, income and profit related to an enterprise.
In terms of agribusiness, a budget is an estimate of the
expected quantity of agricultural inputs (land, seeds, feed,
fertilizer etc.) & their costs, outputs (crops, meat, milk,
eggs etc. produced for sale), expected income from the
sale of the expected outputs, and expected net profit and
gross margin.
Budgets are a form or records. Budgets show expected

profits and losses. Budgets are requirements for
agricultural businesses to secure loans to purchase goods
and services. Additionally, information on amounts of input
goods and services procured are part of budgets.
Demand and supply determination is not done by
budgeting; they are determined by preparation of demand
and supply schedules. A demand schedule is a table
showing the amount of a commodity demanded by
consumers at various prices. A supply schedule is a table
showing the amount of a commodity supplied to
consumers at various prices.
Answer: A
Soil conservation refers to protecting the soil from erosion

and maintaining its fertility. It is of great importance to
agriculture in the Caribbean region. Soil erosion is the
process by which particles of topsoil are carried away
from one area, by water, wind, or other factors such as
human activity, and deposited at another area.
Answer: A
Soil texture is the fineness or coarseness of the soil.

It is determined by the proportion of different-sized
mineral particles (sand, silt & clay) present. For the farmer,
soil texture is related to the workability of the soil and how
easy it is to plough. Some soils are ‘light’ as they are easy
to till (sandy soils). Some soils are ‘heavy’ (clay soils) and
other soils are ‘intermediate’ (loam soils).
Soil structure is the arrangement of the various particles,

cemented together into clusters called aggregates that
create a network of cracks and pores in the soil. These
cracks and pores are necessary for the soil to hold air and
water and for water to drain through the soil. Although
aggregates may be made up of similar types of particles,
they generally differ in size, shape, particle composition
and arrangement and stability.Aggregates contain pore
spaces between their particles (intra-pore spaces) and
there are spaces between adjacent aggregates (inter-pore
spaces).
Soil capillarity is the movement of water upwards in the

pore spaces of the soil due to capillary action. In capillary
action, water molecules stick to the sides of very small
channels (such as soil pore spaces), causing water to be
pulled up along the space. The narrower the space, the
higher up the water rises. The smaller the pore spaces, the
higher the water rises upward in the soil. Sandy soils have
low capillarity due to their large pore spaces. Clay soils
have high capillarity due to their small pore spaces.
Capillary water in soil pore spaces is the water that is
available to plant roots.
Soil pH is the acidity or alkalinity of a soil. pH is measured

in pH units on a scale running from pH 0 (completely
acidic) to pH 14 (completely alkaline). A pH of 7 is neutral
(neither acidic nor alkaline). As the pH gets lower, i.e. from
6.9 down to 0, the acidity gets higher, As the pH gets
higher, ie. From 7.1 to 14, the alkalinity gets higher.
Soils generally range from pH of 3 to 10. Plant nutrients
become unavailable according to a soil’s pH level. If the
pH is too low, i.e. the soil is too acidic, plants can get
poisoned.Deficiencies of major plant nutrients often occur
in very acidic soil because nutrients are less available to
plants in acidic soils. Alkalinity impairs plant growth by
restricting water supply to the roots, thus obstructing root
development. It results to phosphorus and zinc
deficiencies, and possibly iron deficiency and boron
toxicity. Plants have less ability to extract essential
nutrients from the soil when damaged by alkalinity.
Texture, structure and capillarity are all physical soil

properties. Soil pH is a chemical soil property.
Answer: D
Sulphur is a secondary plant macronutrient. A plant

macronutrient or plant major nutrient is a nutrient that is
needed by plants in relatively large amounts. Sulphur is
part of proteins. Deficiency results in stunted growth, and
younger leaves become yellow.
Nitrogen is a primary plant macronutrient. It is absorbed

as ammonium ions NH4 and nitrate ions NO3. It promotes
vegetative growth (growth of leaves, stems & branches). It
is easily leached (drained out of the soil by water
dissolving it as it runs through the soil). Deficiency results
in stunted growth, yellowing of leaves and leaf drop.
Potassium is a primary plant macronutrient. It is absorbed

as potassium ions. It is essential for carbohydrate
formation & transfer. It promotes flowering and fruiting.
Deficiency results in leaf drying & decay from the tips
backward, irregular yellowing (mottling) of leaves; &
premature falling of flower buds.
Phosphorus is a primary plant macronutrient. It is

absorbed as phosphate ions. It stimulates root growth.
Deficiency results in purple discoloration of leaves,
stunting of green parts & poor root development.
Answer: B
Climate is the weather conditions prevailing in an area in

general or over a long period.
Answer: C
A rain gauge measures rainfall. An anemometer measures

windspeed. A barometer measures atmospheric pressure.
A hygrometer measures atmospheric humidity (the
amount of moisture in the atmosphere). A thermometer
measure temperature.
Answer: C
Primary tillage is breaking up the surface of the soil by

ploughing (plowing in American English). Ploughing is
turning up the soil. An implement called a plough (or plow)
is used. Ploughing may be by hand or using a plough
pulled by an animal or a tractor. At the end of primary
tillage, the soil is in large clods or lumps. Ploughing and
subsoiling are examples of primary tillage. The effect of
primary tillage is to:
• Loosen or break up the soil surface
• Allow air and water to enter the soil more freely
• Bury or mix organic matter with the soil
Secondary tillage is breaking up large clods of soil into

smaller pieces, or aggregates, and the production of a tilth
suitable for seed germination and crop growth. The
process may be done manually using a hoe, rake or hand
fork or, mechanically using a harrow and a rotovator.
Ridging is also a secondary tillage operation. The effect of
secondary tillage is to:
• Obtain a tilth suited to the crop
• Produce a seedbed for the cultivation of crops
• Cut up and mix organic matter (crop residues or
stubble) into the soil
• Allow the roots of crop plants to penetrate easily and
grow freely in the soil
Answer: C
Monocot leaves have a long & narrow lamina with no

definite midrib, but with parallel veins. Examples are
leaves e.g. of all grasses & cereal grains maize, wheat,
rice, barley, rye, palm trees e.g. coconut, etc.
Dicot leaves are of variable sizes and shapes, with a

definite midrib & veins branching off of the midrib in a net-
like pattern. Examples are leaves of most plants other
than plants of the grass family e.g. pak-choi, sweet
pepper, cucumber etc.
Answer: B
The stomata of a leaf are pores on the underside of the

leaf through which carbon dioxide enters the leaf (carbon
dioxide is used for photosynthesis) and through which
water vapor leaves the leaf via transpiration.
Stomata are opened and closed by cells called guard
cells. Therefore they determine the rate of water loss from
a leaf by controlling the amount of water lost by
transpiration. High air temperatures increase transpiration.
High humidity (high water vapor content in the air)
decreases transpiration. High air movement (windspeed)
increases transpiration. High light intensity (brightness)
increases transpiration.
Epithelial cells are found in animals, not plants. Mesophyll
cells are found in leaf tissue. There are two types: palisade
and spongy. Palisade mesophyll tissue is where most
photosynthesis occurs. Spongy mesophyll allows diffusion
of carbon dioxide through the leaf from the stomata into
the palisade mesophyll.
Answer: C
In agriculture, plant propagation is the production of new plants. This can either be sexual (from seeds produced by
flowers) or asexual, also called vegetative (without using seeds). Vegetative propagation can either be natural or
artificial. Natural vegetative propagation uses the natural ability of some plants to reproduce vegetatively. Artificial
vegetative propagation, which is the subject of this question, induced plants that do not have a tendency to reproduce
vegetatively to do so.
Sexual reproduction in plants

The flowers of seed plants contain the organs of sexual reproduction. Most flowers, for example, guava, contain both
male and female parts in one flower and are called hermaphrodite. But other plants, for example, pumpkins, produce
separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant.
A typical flower has the following parts:

• a flower stalk, or pedicel, which attaches the flower to the stem
• a receptacle, which is the swollen tip of the pedicel that all the other floral
• parts are attached to
a ring of sepals called the calyx, which is usually green and protects the other
• flower parts when in a bud
a ring of petals called the corolla, which is usually brightly colored to attract
• pollinating insect; the male parts of the flower called stamens; each stamen consists of a
• filament or stalk that has anthers that form the pollen grains containing the
• male gametes
• the female parts of the flower called carpels; each carpel consists of a receptive surface (the stigma) attached to the
ovary by the style; the ovary contains ovules, which contain the female gametes, or egg cells.
Answer: C
See notes the following notes.

Answer: D
Hybridization is the process of interbreeding between

purebred individuals of different species (called
interspecific hybridization) or genetically divergent
individuals from the same species (called intraspecific
hybridization). Offspring produced by hybridization may
be fertile, partially fertile, or sterile. Plants hybridize much
more easily than animals. Genetically, the offspring is said
to be heterozygous, combining traits from the two
species.
Answer: B
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or

genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an
organism's genes via biotechnology. Genes are
transferred from 1 organism to another, producing
transgenic organisms. A transgenic organism is an
organism that contains genes that have been transferred
into it from another species.
Answer: A
See notes below.

Answer: A
This question is about pest and disease management. See

notes below.
Answer: C
To import agricultural produce, permits must be obtained

from the Ministry of Agriculture. No importation from
countries that are known to have pests and diseases is
allowed. This especially from areas where there are
outbreaks of economically important pests and diseases;
these are pests and diseases that cause large-scale
economic losses in terms of crop and livestock damage
and death. The produce must also have a phytosanitary
certificate before being allowed into the country; this is a
certificate that certifies the produce as pest and disease
free.
The price of imported produce vs. the price of local

produce is a purely economic consideration; it is non
necessary for imported produce to be cheaper than local
produce for it to be allowed into the country.
Answer: C
Postharvest operations are operations that are done after

harvesting, usually to prepare the produce for sale.
Sorting, washing, and packaging are all postharvest
operations. Moulding usually when soil is scraped up and
heaped around the base of a plant to form a small mound
using a hoe or trowel. This is done during growth of the
plant, not after harvesting.
Answer: D
The cabbage white butterfly is a pest of crops in the

cauliflower, kale & pak-choi. The adult butterflies are
Answer: D


Cabbages should be harvested by cutting off the head

transplanting.

Answer: A
Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of a substance

by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically
involving effervescence (fizzing) and the giving off of heat.
It is used to convert carbohydrates to alcohol in brewing
beer and winemaking. Carbon dioxide is released in the
process.
Answer: D
Processing adds value to agricultural produce e.g. or rage

juice can be sold for a higher price than oranges. This can
maximize the farmer’s profits. Processing also reduces
post harvest disease incidence and increases product
shelf life.
Answer: C
The table under the following diagram outlines the

digestive system of poultry.
Answer: D
Answer: B
The ovaries produce ova. Mature ova are released from

the ovaries into the fallopian tubes or oviducts. This is
called ovulation. In some animals such as cattle, only one
ovum is released, leading to the development and birthing
of one offspring. In other animals such as pigs, several
ova are released at the same time, leading to development
and birthing of several offspring; each ovum develops into
an offspring upon fertilization. Therefore, if eg. 9 ova are
released and fertilized, 9 offspring develop and are
birthed.
As an ovum travels down the fallopian tube, it encounters

sperm from a male animal that has copulated with the
female (if the female has mated). The sperm cells
converge on the ovum and attempt to penetrate it. Only
one succeeds; the rest die and are absorbed by the
female’s body. The nucleus of the successful sperm fuses
with that of the ovum. This is called fertilization.
Fertilization results in a new cell called a zygote that

immediately begins to develop into offspring. It does so by
continually dividing to produce new cells. Over the course
of the development of the offspring, these cells divide
even more, and differentiate to produce the specialized
cells that form the animals tissues e.g. bone. blood,
muscle, skin etc.
The dividing zygote continues down the fallopian tube and

enters the uterus. Here it implants itself into the uterus
wall. This is called implantation and begins pregnancy, our
gestation: the condition of having offspring developing in
the uterus.
When the offspring is developed, it emerges from the

mother’s body. This process is generally called birthing,
giving birth, or parturition. In specific animals it has
specific names e.g. in pigs it is called farrowing, and in
rabbits it is called kindling.
Answer: C
Antibiotics are drugs that kill bacteria when administered

internally to an animal or human. They are used to treat
diseases caused by bacteria.
However, excessive exposure to an antibiotic can cause

the bacteria to develop resistance to the antibiotic via
mutation. Thus the antibiotic no longer is effective,
resulting in the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria
being consumed by consumers who purchase products
from the animals (meat, eggs, milk etc.) This engages
consumers’ health.
Additionally, ingested antibiotic residues can lead to

harmful effects on consumers such as allergic reactions.
Answer: A
A feedstuff is any food provided for livestock. Feedstuffs,

provide nutrients for energy, growth, development,
maintenance, production and reproduction.
There are 4 types of feedstuffs: forages, fodder, silage and

concentrates. A forage is any food obtained by animals
via grazing. Fodder is dried feedstuffs, such as hay, straw
and chaff; they are used when forage is unavailable.
Fodder can also include green chopped feedstuffs, for

example, corn stalks, elephant grass and kudzu. Silage is
pasture grasses, legumes and other crops that have been
conserved and stored in silos. Concentrates are produced
commercially in feed mills using local and imported
feedstuffs. They are designed to suit the maintenance and
production needs of different farm animals and they can
be mixed, mashed, ground, granulated or pelleted.
Concentrates may be high protein, low protein, high fibre,

low fibre, high carbohydrate, rich in essential vitamins and
minerals, or have a low percentage of fat or low moisture
content.
Rice, wheat middlings, brewer’s grain and molasses are

feedstuffs that are all high in carbohydrates. Soybean,
acacia, kudzu and gliricidia are all forage legumes; these
are high in proteins. Fish meal is also high in proteins. The
other feedstuffs provide various nutrients, such as lipids,
vitamins and minerals.
Answer: D
The following information outlines grazing systems.

Answer: B
The following information outlines apiculture equipment.

Apiculture is beekeeping.
Answer: A
The following information outlines a hen’s reproductive

system.
Answer: D
Layers start to lay from about 5 months; their economic

life is about 2 years. Therefore laying ration is most
appropriate from 5 months and over.
Layer chicks are fed chick starter for the first 5 weeks.
They are then fed pullet developer, or grower, until 15
weeks old. A pullet is a hen that is not more than a year
old.
From 5 months old (the age at which they start to lay),

they are fed layer ration until they are culled (removed
from the batch) due to natural reduction of egg production
as they age beyond their most productive period (2 years
old).
Broilers should never be fed layer ration. Layer ration is

high in calcium. Layers need calcium for egg production,
but the high calcium content in layer ration damages a
broiler’s kidneys.
Answer: B
The foot bath identifies this as a poultry house. Below are diagrams of roofs used in poultry housing. Note
that this is actually a monitor roof, but that is not one of the options given. The closest one is gable.
Answer: B
Candling is the process by which eggs are tested for

fertility. In this process, a light is shone through them. It
gets its name from when candles were used as the light
source. The process is carried out on artificially incubated
eggs between days 9–15 of incubation so that infertile and
bad eggs can be removed.
Answer: D

female mammals, occurring over a specific number of
reproduction.
Answer: C
Landrace pigs have large, deep bodies. Sows are

excellent mothers and have large litters.
Answer: C
Chicks are fed starter, which has the high protein content
needed for growth snd development.
Answer: B
Brooding is the special care given to day-old chicks for

the first 2–3 weeks of their lives. It takes place in an
enclosed area where the chicks are housed, protected,
fed and kept warm. It is important because:
• It provides comfort for the chicks.
• It confines the chicks to an area in which they are as
safe as possible.
It allows for easy record-keeping e.g. of chick survival.
There are two types of brooding:
• Natural brooding
• Artificial brooding
In natural brooding, the hen incubates a clutch of eggs

and produces a brood of chicks. She provides protection
and warmth for the newly hatched chicks. She keeps
them under her wings and feathered body until they
develop feathers and are able to withstand colder weather
conditions. If the area around the poultry house is securely
fenced, the hen may roam freely with her chicks.
Alternatively, she may be confined to a coop, which
protects her and the chicks from rain, hot sun, draughts
and predators such as rats, mongooses and stray cats.
The farmer ensures that both the hen and the chicks have
sufficient feed and water at all times.
In artificial brooding, the day-old chicks are housed in a

specially prepared area, usually a corner of the poultry
house, where they are protected, kept warm and provided
with litter, feed and water.
A chick does not have normal feathers; it is instead

covered with very fine, light feathers called down.
Down, unlike normal feathers, cannot insulate the chick;
thus the chicks get chilled quickly and die if they do not
have a heating lamp to warm them if they are brooded
artificially.
Answer: C

upper beak using a hot iron. It prevents the birds from
pecking at each other, and thus reduces/prevents
cannibalism. It is no longer generally practiced as it has
been found to be cruel.
Answer: C
Mites, ticks, and poultry lice are all external parasites.

Roundworms are common and are the largest worms
affecting poultry. In appearance they are thick and white
and up to 12 cm in length. These intestinal worms can
cause intestinal impaction (compacting of the contents of
the intestines) and fatalities in severe cases.
Answer: B
Snuffles is caused by a bacterial infection. Its symptoms

include a nasal discharge of mucus, sneezing, and
rubbing of the nose and eyes with the forepaws (front
paws).
Answer: D
Poultry are mainly raised for meat. Feathers are also used.
Skin from chicken legs and feet is also used to make
leather.
Answer: D
Dressing percentage = (Dressed weight ÷ Live weight) ×

100
Dressed weight = 30 kg
Live weight = 50 kg
Therefore dressing percentage = (30 ÷ 50) × 100 = 60%
CSEC Agricultural Science May/June 2012 Paper 1
Answer: A
An agricultural engineer designs and maintains agricultural

businesses and equipment.
Answer: A
Entomology is the study of insects and their relationship

to humans, the environment, and other organisms.
Entomologists make great contributions to such diverse
fields as agriculture, chemistry, biology, human/animal
health, molecular science, criminology, and forensics.
Answer: D
Agriculture’s contribution to Caribbean economies:

Contribution to National Income and GDP
National Income is the total amount of money earned
within a country. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the
market value of all the goods and services produced in a
country within a specific time period, usually annually.
The value of agricultural goods and services contributes to
National Income & GDP.
Creation of Employment
Agriculture provides opportunities for employment. There
are many different jobs in or relating to agriculture, from
unskilled labor to highly-skilled jobs.
Contribution to Food Security
with a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food at all
times. Agriculture contributes to food security by
supplying the country with enough affordable nutritious
food for its citizens.
Production of Raw Materials
Agriculture provides raw materials for downstream
industries (industries that use products manufactured by
industries before them to manufacture their own
products). For example:
• Agriculture produces wheat (Industry #1)
• Wheat is used to make flour (industry #2, downstream
of #1)
• Flour is used to make bread (industry #3, downstream
of #2)
Earning of Foreign Exchange
Foreign exchange is foreign currency, e.g. U.S. money is
foreign exchange in Trinidad and Tobago.
All countries need foreign exchange, usually U.S. dollars
($US), to pay for imports (good & services purchased from
another country). Agriculture earns foreign exchange by
producing goods that can be exported (sold to other
countries), which pay Trinidad and Tobago in foreign
exchange.
Saving of Foreign Exchange via Import Substitution
Import substitution is an economic practice in which
foreign goods & services are replaces with local goods &
services.Agriculture can contribute to import substitution
by supplying locally produced agricultural goods and
services in the place of foreign ones.This means less
foreign exchange is spent importing agricultural goods
and services; foreign exchange is therefore saved.
Reduction of Food Import Bill
A country’s food import bill is the money spent by the
country to import food. Agriculture produces food locally,
therefore it reduces the need to import food and so
reduces a country’s food import bill.
Answer: C
Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) are a set of essential

operational, technical and managerial practices necessary
to prevent or reduce the risk of food safety hazards. It
enables the delivery of safe fresh produce to the
consumer in a sustainable manner, reducing negative
environmental impact.
Answer: D
Predial larceny is the theft of agricultural produce. It is one

of the main challenges to agriculture in the Caribbean.
Offenders may have a complex theft and distribution

operation that allows them to develop livelihoods &
business from predial larceny. Most farmers experience it
daily.
There are weak sensitivities among police & judiciary

(judges) to predial larceny, i.e. they do not see it as a
serious offense; therefore offenders are not sternly dealt
with, which emboldens them to continue. Loss of produce
& the resulting loss of money discourages farmers.
Police can help by establishing a squad to deal with

predial larceny. Police & the judiciary can help by treating
predial larceny sternly.
Answer: D
Increased drought (lack of rainfall) and flooding result from

global warming. Drought also reduces the the availability
of water to animals, resulting in their deaths.
Answer: A

Answer: A
Crop rotation, environmentally friendly practices and

maintenance of soil fertility are all principles of organic
farming. The use of inorganic chemicals, especially toxic
inorganic chemicals, is strictly forbidden in organic
farming.
Answer: B

consumer. A large number of activities are involved in
doing this: planning, planting, growing, harvesting, sorting,
grading, agro-processing, food processing, packing and
packaging, distribution, advertising and sales.
Reaping, or harvesting, is not part of marketing. All

marking activities occur after the produce is harvested.
Answer: D
This graph most likely represents the law of diminishing

returns. The law states that in any production process, if
an input is continually increased by 1 additional unit while
all other inputs are kept constant, the marginal output will
increase to a maximum level, and then start decreasing.
The graph representing the law is shown below.
Answer: C

affect sales of the commodity: demand for the commodity
this point is called the equilibrium price. The graph below
illustrates.
Answer: B
When repaying a loan from from an agricultural bank, or

indeed from any lending institution, the borrower pays
interest. Interest is calculated as a percentage of the
money borrowed, paid by the borrower to the lender
periodically for being allowed to borrow the money. It may
be thought of as a cost that the institution charges the
lender for allowing the lender to borrow the money.
Answer: B
Subsides are monetary incentives to farmers; they involve

giving farmers money. Credit is the ability of the farmer to
borrow money; it is not an incentive. Taxes are monetary,
but they involve taking money from farmer's; taxes are
therefore not incentives. The answer is therefore reward;
the government is rewarding people for getting into coffee
production by preparing their land and giving them
planting material.
Answer: C
Cooperatives act as bargaining bodies, representing their

members negotiations with with outside parties such as
the government; they have much more influence and
bargaining power than farmers would individually have.
Cooperatives can buy inputs in bulk and sell them to

farmers retail at educed prices, lowering the costs they
pay for inputs.
Cooperatives have no influence on the interest rates that

commercial banks set.
Answer: B

specific aspect of the existing farm plan that requires
modification of the budget.

herd, would be more profitable. In such situations, most of
change. A partial budget identifies the income and
costs and income will affect the change in profit. The

A partial budget is prepared before the proposed farm

plan change that it covers is implemented.
Answer: A
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is a regional

bank that provides loans to Caribbean governments for
development of:
Answer: B
The gross return of:
Cabbage = 27,000 kg × $2.00 per kg = 27,000 × 2.00 =

$54,000.
Cauliflower = 17,000 kg × $3.50 per kg = 17,000 × 3.50 =
$59,500.
Lettuce = 27,000 kg × $1.25 per kg = 27,000 × 1.25 =
$33,750.
Tomato = 22,000 kg × $2.50 per kg = 22,000 × 2.50 =
$55,000.
Therefore, based only on gross returns, the most

profitable crop for a farmer to plant is cauliflower.
Note that gross return is the same as gross income: Gross

income, also called total income, is all of the money that a
business receives from sales of goods and services.
Answer: B
Dressing percentage is the percentage of the live animal

weight that becomes the carcass weight after dressing.
Liveweight is the weight of the live animal. Dressing is the
removal of the parts or the carcass that are unwanted e.g.
with broilers, these parts are the feathers, head, all internal
organs except the gizzard and liver (unwanted internal
organs are collectively called the offal), the uppermost
layer of the skin covering the feet, and the toes. Dressed
weight is the weight of the carcass after dressing.
Equations:
1. Dressing percentage = (Dressed weight ÷ Live weight)
× 100
2. Live weight = (Dressed weight × 100) ÷ Dressing
percentage
3. Dressed weight = (Live weight × Dressing percentage)
÷ 100
If this pig has a liveweight of 70 kg and its dressing

percentage is 60%, then according to equation 3, its
dressed weight is (live weight × dressing percentage) ÷
100 = (70 × 60) ÷ 100 = 4200 ÷ 100 = 42 kg. If the market
price of pork is $4.00 kg, then the farmer sells 42 kg of
pork from this pig at this price. Therefore his income from
the sale of pork from this pig is 42 × 4 = $168.00
Answer: C
A complete budget is also known as a total budget or a

whole farm budget. A complete budget is prepared for a
farm that has a new owner or new management. It can
also be used when there is a major change in the
resources and enterprises of a farm, or when a complete
re-organisation is undertaken. It is also prepared when an
existing farm wants to change its systems of production
and introduce improved technology.
A complete budget provides an estimate of expected

gross income and total expenditure. Therefore it is
prepared before the start of the enterprise. Indeed, it is an
essential part of planning the operation of the enterprise.
Answer: A
Soil conservation refers to protecting the soil from erosion

and maintaining its fertility. It is of great importance to
agriculture in the Caribbean region. Soil erosion is the
process by which particles of topsoil are carried away
from one area, by water, wind, or other factors such as
human activity, and deposited at another area.
Answer: C
Clay soil particles are very small and have very high
cohesion (the ability of soil particles to stick together to
form aggregates). Clay soils therefore have high water
retention. They have very small intra-pore spaces (spaces
between the particles in each aggregate) and inter-pore
spaces (spaces between adjacent aggregates). This
means they have very poor aeration; the small pore
spaces hold little air.
Soil capillarity is the movement of water upwards in the

pore spaces of the soil due to capillary action.In capillary
action, water molecules stick to the sides of very small
channels (such as soil pore spaces), causing water to be
pulled up along the space. The narrower the space, the
higher up the water rises. The smaller the pore spaces, the
higher the water rises upward in the soil. Sandy soils have
low capillarity due to their large pore spaces. Clay soils
have high capillarity due to their small pore spaces.
Capillary water in soil pore spaces is the water that is
available to plant roots.
Answer: D
The carbon cycle is the natural recycling of carbon in

nature. All carbon in nature, including in plants, originally
comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide gas. The carbon
enters plants via photosynthesis. The process of
photosynthesis releases oxygen into the air as a
byproduct. Carbon in plants enters animals when they
feed on plants; this is called nutrition. Carbon in dead
plants and animals enters the soil via decomposition by
bacteria and fungi. Fossilization is a process that converts
dead plants and animals into fossil fuels (petroleum,
natural gas and coal), rather than them decomposing.
Combustion (burning) of plants (e.g. trees for fuel) and
fossil fuels returns carbon to the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide gas.
Answer: C
This is the acidity or alkalinity of a soil.

pH is measured in pH units on a scale running from pH 0
(completely acidic) to pH 14 (completely alkaline). A pH of
7 is neutral (neither acidic nor alkaline). As the pH gets
lower, i.e. from 6.9 down to 0, the acidity gets higher, As
the pH gets higher, ie. From 7.1 to 14, the alkalinity gets
higher. Soils generally range from pH of 3 to 10.
Plant nutrients become unavailable according to a soil’s

pH level. If the pH is too low, i.e. the soil is too acidic,
plants can get poisoned.Deficiencies of major plant
nutrients often occur in very acidic soil because nutrients
are less available to plants in acidic soils.Alkalinity impairs
plant growth by restricting water supply to the roots, thus
obstructing root development. It results to phosphorus
and zinc deficiencies, and possibly iron deficiency and
boron toxicity. Plants have less ability to extract essential
nutrients from the soil when damaged by alkalinity.
Before attempting to change a soil’s pH, its current pH

needs to be known. This will determine by how much it
needs to be changed.The soil’s texture must be also be
known.A soil pH test using a commercially available soil
testing kit can be used to determine the pH. More effort is
needed to change the pH of a clay soil than a sandy soil
because the electrically charged surfaces of clays make
them more resistant to pH changes than the uncharged
surface of the sand particles.
Generally, limestone (calcium carbonate) is added to a soil

to raise its pH level, i.e. make it less acidic, and sulphuric
salt e.g. ammonium sulphate is added to a soil to reduce
its pH level, i.e. make it more acidic.
Answer: C
Fungi proliferate (increase rapidly in numbers) in damp conditions. Rainfall is highest in May, June and December. This
ensures the damp conditions that fungi proliferate in.
Answer: D
Burning vegetation as part of land clearing has positive

and negative effects. Among the positive effects are:
• Unwanted material, such as cane trash, is burned out,
so cane-cutters work more efficiently.
• Land clearing can be carried out more speedily.
• Harmful plants, such as nettles, are destroyed.
• Harmful animals, such as snakes, scorpions,
centipedes and nests of wasps, are destroyed.
• The ashes on the land add potash (potassium) to the
soil.
• The soil is sterilized as a result of the intense heat,
killing plant pathogens (organisms that causes disease
in plants).
Other negative effects of burning vegetation are:

• The destruction of organic matter that took many years
to accumulate
• Humus in the soil is also destroyed
• Beneficial soil organisms, e.g. earthworms, are killed
• The soil surface becomes bare, with no plant cover so it
is more exposed to soil erosion.
• Soil water is lost more rapidly through evaporation.
• Leaching of nutrients can occur more easily. Leaching
of soil nutrients is the draining away of the nutrients
when they get dissolved in soil water, which then
percolates through the soil, i.e. it runs through the soil’s
pore spaces, deeper into the soil. This takes the
nutrients beyond the reach of plant roots.
• It creates smoke pollution in the atmosphere.
It is recommended instead that harmful plants and crop
residues are cut and stacked in an area where they can
decompose slowly.
Answer: B
The pump handle is continually pulled up and pushed

down. This forces air out of the tank via a small hole near
the pump handle. The removal of air from the tank creates
a vacuum that sprays the chemical out the nozzle when
the trigger is pressed. At the chemical sprays out, air
gradually enters the tank space around the pump handle,
reducing spray pressure. Further pumping via the pump
handle rebuilds pressure.
Answer: B
The cuticle slows down water loss from a leaf. However it

does not regulate water loss; regulation means active
control. Regulation of water loss in a leaf is done by the
leaf’s guard cells. These are specialized cells that open
and close the stomata (pores on the underside of a leaf)
through which transpiration (water loss from the leaf by
evaporation occurs. When the stomata are fully open,
maximum transpiration occurs. When they are fully shut,
no transpiration occurs. The degree to which the stomata
are open and shut is directly controlled by the guard cells.
Answer: D
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants

manufacture organic food from inorganic materials. The
plant uses carbon dioxide and water (inorganic materials)
to produce glucose (organic food) using energy from
sunlight trapped by chlorophyll. The process mainly takes
place in leaves, in tissue called palisade mesophyll tissue.
Oxygen is a byproduct of the process, not a requirement.
Answer: B
Crop rotation is a cropping system in which different crops

are grown in succession on the same land chiefly to
preserve the productive capacity of the soil.
For example, a leafy crop e.g lettuce is cultivated,

followed by a legume e.g. bodi; the legume replaces the
nitrogen used up from the soil by the lettuce (leafy crops
use a lot of nitrogen for leaf development). This can be
followed by cultivation of another leafy crop e.g. spinach;
the spinach uses the nitrogen that was put back into the
soil by the bodi. The spinach can then be followed by
pigeon peas, a legume that replaces the nitrogen used by
the spinach. The cycle is then repeated, starting with
lettuce, which uses the nitrogen put back by the pigeon
peas.
Answer: C
In translocation, phloem vessels transport the glucose

produced by photosynthesis & other substances
manufactured by the plant to other parts of the plant for
use or storage.
Answer: B
Grafting is inserting a shoot or twig into a slit on the trunk

or stem of a living plant, from which it receives sap, so
that the twig and trunk unite to form a single plant. It is an
artificial procedure used in agriculture to propagate plants
(produce more plants) artificially by vegetative propagation
(propagation without seeds). Budding is a grafting
technique in which a single bud from the desired scion is
used.
Mango, grapefruit and avocado are all propagated by

grafting and/or budding. Banana naturally propagates
vegetatively via suckers.
Answer: A
Technically, a weed is any plant that grows where it is not

wanted. However there are certain wild plants that are of
no economic value, may poison or cause injury to
livestock, and easily kill crops by crowding them out in
terms of spacing, by taking most of the soil’s nutrients,
and by growing much faster than crops and thus shading
them from sunlight, which the crops require for
photosynthesis. These plants are what are commonly
thought of as weeds.
Weeds grow very much faster than crops and propagate

very easily, both by seeds and vegetatively. They shade
crops from needed sunlight, reducing their ability to
photosynthesis and crowd crops, reducing their growing
space. They also severely reduce nutrients available to
crops by quickly depleting the soil of nutrients.
Answer: B
Alleles are different forms of a gene that code for

alleles - different forms of the same gene that control

shortness.
In a pair of alleles, one allele may de dominant and the

is absent.
In this question, T is dominant over t. So genotypes TT

and Tt produce tall plants and genotype tt produce short
plants. The phenotypes of the offspring of this cross are
all Tt. The diagrams below illustrate.
Answer: B
Mulching is the application of mulch. A mulch is a

covering, as of straw (dried grass), compost, or plastic
sheeting, spread on the ground around plants to prevent
excessive evaporation or erosion, enrich the soil, etc.
Straw (dry grass), fertilizer, compost, dried leaves and

plastic sheeting are used as munching material. Fertilizer
is not mulch; it is used to increase soil fertility by adding
nutrients to the soil.
Answer: C
Anthracnose is a general term for a variety of plant fungal

diseases. On leaves, more or less circular, chocolate
brown spots (1 to 5 mm in diameter) develop. Leaves
eventually fall off.
Answer: D
The cabbage white butterfly is a pest of crops in the

cauliflower, kale & pak-choi. The adult butterflies are
Answer: D


Cabbages should be harvested by cutting off the head

transplanting.

Answer: A
Labelling, packaging involve direct handling of producing,

increasing the chance of damage that causes postharvest
losses. Transporting is also likely to cause damage leading
to post harvest loss if packaging for transport is improper.
Provided that conditions are suitable, storage is least likely
to cause post-harvest losses.
Answer: D
Processing adds value to the produce, which can greatly

increase the market price and thus maximize profits.
Processing can also reduce the incidence of post-harvest
diseases by asking the physicals condition of the produce
unsuitable for pathogens (disease-causing organisms).
Processing cal also prolong the storage life of the produce
by making its physical condition unsuitable for organisms
that cause spoilage.
Answer: A
The crop stores food after swallowing. The food then

passes to the proventriculus. The proventriculus is a tube-
like area that produces digestive juices such as pepsin
and hydrochloric acid. The food is thoroughly soaked with
these digestive juiced here. The food then passes to the
gizzard, a muscular organ that grinds up the food. The
gizzard has small stones called grit (swallowed by the bird
or fed to the bird as a constituent of its feed) to assist in
grading up the food. The food then passes to the small
intestine, where nutrients are absorbed from it into the
birds’ body.
Answer: D
Goats, sheep and cattle are ruminants. A ruminant is an

animal that has a rumen. The rumen is part of a ruminant’s
complex, four-chambered stomach. It allows a ruminant to
live entirely on cellulose (the main material in vegetation,
i.e. grass and herbage).
The four chambers of a ruminant’s stomach are the

rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum.
The rumen is the largest chamber. Food is swallowed
without chewing and enters the rumen from the mouth,
where the cellulose in the food is digested by bacteria,
which also manufacture B-complex vitamins, which the
ruminant’s body absorbs (they are nutrients).
The food passes into the reticulum. The food is now semi-
liquid. The reticulum forms the semi-liquid food into
boluses or cuds, which are retuned to the mouth via
regurgitation, or anti-peristalsis, for chewing (commonly
called ‘chewing the cud’).
The chewed cuds are swallowed and pass back through

the rumen and reticulum to the omasum. The omasum
squeezes liquids out of the cuds. Fatty acids and water
are absorbed from the cuds into the bloodstream through
the wall of the omasum. The remaining solids in the cuds
are passed from the omasum to the abomasum.
The abomasum produces gastric juice, which begins

digesting proteins in cuds into amino acids, and fats in the
cuds into fatty acids and glycerol. The cuds become
completely liquified and enter the small intestine. All the
simple nutrient molecules resulting from the digestion of
the food (amino acids, glucose, fatty acids & glycerol) are
absorbed into the animal’s bloodstream here.
The undigested remains of the food pass into the large

intestine, where water is absorbed from them and they are
formed into feces, which are removed from the ruminant’s
body via egestion/defecation though the anus.
Answer: A

required by an animal to gain a unit of weight; the unit may
be kg, lbs or whatever unit that the weight is measured in.
It is a measure of the efficiency with which an animal
converts feed into meat.
The table below gives the FCRs of common Caribbean

livestock animals.
The closest FCR to the FCR for chickens, which are birds,
is 4:1, so A is the best answer:
Answer: C
Excessive antibiotics in broilers endangers those who

consume the chicken. Bacteria can develop resistance to
an antibiotic if they are frequently exposed to to large
amounts of it. These bacteria may be ingested by
consumers who eat the chicken, leading to diseases that
are difficult to treat because the antibiotics that previously
killed the bacteria no longer do so.
Answer: D

maintenance, production and reproduction
.
conserved and stored in silos.
Concentrates are produced commercially in feed mills

using local and imported feedstuffs. They are designed to
suit the maintenance and production needs of different
farm animals and they can be mixed, mashed, ground,
granulated or pelleted. Concentrates may be high protein,
low protein, high fibre, low fibre, high carbohydrate, rich in
essential vitamins and minerals, or have a low percentage
of fat or low moisture content.

Answer: C
Breeds of rabbits include Flemish Giant, New Zealand

White, New Zealand Red, California and Chinchilla.
Breeds of goats include Saanen, British Alpine, Anglo-
Nubian and Toggenburg.
Breeds of pigs include Landrace, Large White, Duroc,
Hampshire and Tamworth.
Breeds of layer chickens include White Leghorn, Rhode
Island Red, Bevan Brown (or Bovan Brown) and Hyline.
Breeds of broiler chickens include Vantress Cross,
Peterson and Shaver.
Breeds of sheep include Barbados Blackbelly, Blackhead
Persian, West African and Virgin Island White.
Breeds of dairy cattle include Jersey, Jamaica Hope and
Holstein (or Holstein-Friesian).
Breeds of beef cattle include Jamaica Black, Jamaica Red
(or Jamaica Red Poll), Charolais, Zebu and Buffalypso.
Answer: B
In managed hives, honey is stored in the cells of the

combs in the supers in a hive. Supers are removable
sections of a managed beehive that are used to hold
frames of combs that contain mostly honey. The supers
are usually at the top of a managed hive. A hive tool is
used to lift the frames from the super
Answer: A
An egg starts in the hen’s ovary. The yolk (ovum) of the

egg develops here. The yolk moves into the magnum.
Albumen (egg white) is produced here and surrounds the
yolk. Thickened albumen forms the chalazae, which hold
the yolk in a central position. The developing egg then
moves into the isthmus. Two shell membranes are placed
around the egg here. Finally moves into the uterus. The
shell, formed mainly of calcium carbonate, is deposited on
the outer shell membrane here.
Answer: C
Chicken litter can be rice hulls, wood shavings or any

material that does not produce large amounts of dust.
The litter is 3 to 4 cm deep; this allows it to generate
sufficient heat to dry the watery feces.
Answer: D
The queen excluder is one of the 7 parts of an apiarist’s

hive. The word apiarist is the technical term for beekeeper.
beehive. The other parts are the stand, the bottom board,
the brood box, brood chamber or body, the honey super,
the crown board and the roof.
At the bottom of the hive is the stand. It lifts the hive 75
cm off the ground and protects hive against ground
predators.
The bottom board is the floor of the hive.
The brood box, brood chamber or body contains a
number of frames for the bees to make honeycombs. In a
hive, brood is the name for all of the hive’s larvae and
eggs. A honeycomb is a structure of hexagonal cells of
wax, made by bees to store honey, pollen and eggs. The
queen lays eggs here. Workers are reared here. Frames
must be spaced 4 cm apart tp provide space for the bees
to pass between them.
The queen excluder keeps queens and drones out of the
honey super, but allows workers into it.
The honey super is a honey storage compartment. Only
the workers get in here, to make and store honey; the
queen excluder keeps the queen out.
The crown board is the ceiling of the hive. It allows the
roof to be removed without disrupting the hive.
Answer: C








Answer: B

female mammals, occurring over a specific number of


reproduction.


Answer: C

upper beak using a hot iron. It prevents the birds from
pecking at each other, and thus reduces/prevents
cannibalism. It is no longer generally practiced as it has
been found to be cruel.
Answer: A
A hen does not need to mate to lay eggs, but she does
need to mate to produce fertile eggs, or hatching eggs
(eggs that hatch into chicks). This is because hatching
eggs contain a germinal disc, or blastoderm, on their
yolks. The germinal disc develops into the chick and
results from the fertilization of the ovum that develops into
the egg by a sperm cell from a cockerel, or rooster.
The ratio of cockerels to hens should be 1 : 10 to 1 : 12;

this means 1 cockerel for every 10 to 12 hens. This
ensures that all the hens can mate with and be fertilized
by a cockerel, which is needed to produce hatching eggs
(eggs that hatch into chicks).
This farm has a cockerel to hen ratio of 1:50. Thus the

majority of the hens do not mate and thus produce only
infertile eggs, or table eggs. These are eggs that have no
germinal disc and thus do not hatch into chicks.
Answer: C
Artificial insemination (AI) is the introduction of semen into

the uterus of a female by artificial means, i.e. by means
the reproductive tract of the female in heat via artificial
insemination. Artificial insemination is carried out in cattle,
Answer: B








Answer: A
A dull coat, an offensive body odor and excessive

salivation are among the signs of illness in farm animals,
including cattle.
Answer: C
Coccidiosis is caused by a protozoan. It symptoms are

droopiness, loss of of appetite, bloody diarrhea and a
bloody, swollen vent (cloaca).
Coccidiosis is treated with sulfa drugs and magnesium

sulphate in the birds’ drinking water. Medications called
coccidiostats can also be added to the feed. Excessively
high stocking density and use of wet litter facilitate
multiplication and spread of the protozoan that causes the
disease. Birds that recover have high immunity from
subsequent infections.
Answer: A
Pasteurization kills pathogenic bacteria and reduces the

number of other bacteria that could cause spoilage, but it
does not kill spores. Most pasteurization is carried out by
heating to 72 °C for 15 seconds. During the process, milk
is passed through pipes that are surrounded by water kept
at just above 72 °C. This heats the milk, which is kept at
this temperature for the correct amount of time and then
cooled rapidly to 3 °C. Pasteurized milk and pasteurized
juices should be kept refrigerated between 1 °C and 4 °C.
The benefits of pasteurization are that the nutritional
content and flavor are not altered by being exposed to
these temperatures.
Answer: D
Dressing percentage is the percentage of the live animal

weight that becomes the carcass weight after dressing.
Liveweight is the weight of the live animal. Dressing is the
removal of the parts or the carcass that are unwanted e.g.
with broilers, these parts are the feathers, head, all internal
organs except the gizzard and liver (unwanted internal
organs are collectively called the offal), the uppermost
layer of the skin covering the feet, and the toes. Dressed
weight is the weight of the carcass after dressing.
Equations:
1. Dressing percentage = (Dressed weight ÷ Live weight)
× 100
2. Live weight = (Dressed weight × 100) ÷ Dressing
percentage
3. Dressed weight = (Live weight × Dressing percentage)
÷ 100
If this goat has a liveweight of 50 kg and its dressed

carcass weighs 30 kg, then according to equation 1, its
dressing percentage = (30 ÷ 50) × 100 = 0.6 × 100 = 60
Answer: C
Organic farming is a non-conventional farming

system in which the use of synthetic chemicals is
restricted. Organic farming restricts the use of
synthetic chemicals, which are usually harmful to the
environment, to increase biodiversity.Biodiversity is all
the diverse ecosystems & the organisms in them. It
may be referred to as the diversity of all species in a
habitat, or sum of all species in a habitat.
An ecosystem is a a biological community of

interacting organisms & their physical environment.
An ecosystem is made of biotic factors (the
organisms) & abiotic factors (their physical
environment e.g. air, sunlight, temperature, water &
soil pH).
Organic farming maintains biodiversity by preserving

an ecosystem’s biotic & abiotic factors. Overall, there
are 30% more species found on organic farms than
on conventional farms.
Organic farming also enhances farm income, as

organically produced agricultural products are more
expensive than crops grown using conventional
agriculture or using non-conventional farming
methods that allow synthetic chemicals. However,
consumers concerned about the environment are
usually willing to pay the higher prices for organically
produced agricultural products.
Answer: A
A farmer cultivates land, grows crops, raises livestock

and sell the resulting produce; this is known as
primary agricultural production. The farmer liaises
(establishes a working relationship with) with
agricultural advisors such as extension officers and is
aware of new developments and methods of
production so he/she can make efficient use of land
and resources.
Answer: A
Note there is an error in this question. Net income and

net profit are one and the same.
Gross income, also called total income, is all of the

money that a business receives from sales of goods
and services.
Gross income = Total sales
Net income, or net profit, is income after total money

for expenses is deducted.
Net income = Gross income - Total expenses
Fixed expenditure is fixed costs. It is expenditure that

does not increase or decrease with the level of
production. Examples include land rental, machinery,
buildings, insurance premiums, taxes, loan
installments and depreciation.
Total fixed expenditure (TFE) is the sum of all fixed
expenditures.
Variable expenditure - this is the same as variable

costs. It is expenditure that increases or decreases
with the level of production. Examples include the
cost of fuel, feed, fertilisers, medications and
pesticides.
Total variable expenditure (TVE) is the sum of all
variable expenditures.
Answer: D
Gross margin or income above variable expenditure,

is the mathematical difference between gross income
and total variable expenditure. Gross margin is
important because it shows the farmer exactly how
profitable the farm is, even more so than net profit.
Businesses with higher gross margins will have more
money left over to spend on other operations.
Gross margin = Gross income - Total variable
expenditure (TVE)
Answer: B
In agribusiness, capital is a factor of production used

in combination with land, labour and management to
produce goods and services to satisfy consumers.
It is all of the business’ assets, such as funds in bank
accounts and/or funds borrowed from lending
institutions e.g. banks, credit unions & cooperatives,
as well as stocks of materials, machinery buildings,
land etc.
Capital is used to purchase and maintain assets such

as land, buildings, tools, machinery & consumables
such as seeds, fuel, fertilizer, medications, pesticides,
herbicides, pay employees, pay bills etc.
In other words, capital is used to finance the
acquisition of inputs.
Fixed capital - all items on a farm that have more than

one year of productive life. These are items that need
to be renewed only after many years. Examples are
buildings, machinery, equipment, land, fences, tree
crops, livestock, ponds etc.
Working capital - all items on a farm that are used up

in the production of crops or livestock. In other
words, these items have less than a year of
productive life; indeed, some of them need to be
renewed daily. This can be further divided into:
• Stocks - stores of consumables such as fertilisers,
pesticides, medication, feed, fuel
• Cash - money need to purchase fixed capital or
stocks and to pay wages for labour and services
Answer: D
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is a regional

agricultural financial institution that provides loans to
Caribbean governments for development of:
Answer: A
To secure a loan, a farmer needs:
• A farmer’s registration - the applicant (farmer

applying for a loan) must be a registered farmer. In
Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, registration of
farmers is done by the Ministry of Agriculture at
regional and county agricultural offices. Farmers
who are registered have a better chance of getting
loans, subsidies and other national incentives.
• Creditworthiness - the creditworthiness or credit

rating of a farmer is a measure of the farmer’s
ability to pay off debts.
• A farm proposal and budget estimate - the farm

proposal outlines the farmer’s intentions and
details the enterprises the farmer proposes, the
farming techniques, the resources needed and the
anticipated output and income. Using the farm
proposal, the farmer prepares and submits a
budget estimate for each of the enterprises he or
she intends to develop. The proposal’s budget
explains the amount of loan required for the
proposed farming business.
• Farm records and experience - these provide

evidence of previous enterprises and indicate the
experience of the applicant. Many farmers keep
poor farm records. Without farm records, the
lending institution will not believe the farmer has
the ability to run an agricultural enterprise
successfully.
• Collateral or security -financial institutions make

sure that the farmer has some form of collateral or
security to offer that will cover the total amount of
the loan should the farmer not be able to repay the
money. This may be in the form of property, for
example, land, a house, farm machinery,
equipment or livestock.
• Character references - honesty, sincerity,

perseverance and a determination to work hard are
character traits that are highly regarded.
Answer: D
Subsistence farming, form of farming in which nearly

all of the crops or livestock raised are used to
maintain the farmer and the farmer's family, leaving
little, if any, surplus (produce in excess of what the
farmer and his family need) for sale or trade. Usually
there is very little surplus for sale.
Answer: C
Marketing, production and consumption are the 3

economic functions. Management is an economic
factor or production, not an economic function. The
other economic factors of production are land, labor
and capital. Production is the process of combining
various material inputs (raw materials, labor etc.) with
relevant plans and expertise in order to make a
product or service; for example combining water,
yeast and flour (inputs) to make bread (output).
Marketing is the economic function that satisfies the
wants of people. It is all of the activities involved in
moving goods and services from the producer to the
consumer. Marketing links production and
consumption. Consumption is is the purchase and
use of goods and services by clients and customers,
known as consumers.
Answer: B
Marketing is all of the activities involved in moving

goods and services from the producer to the
consumer. Marketing links production and
consumption; it incorporates several business
activities in a coordinated way to move goods and
services from the site of production to the site of sale
to consumers.
Middlemen operate between the producers and

consumers. They are commission agents, brokers,
merchant wholesalers, processors and retailers
(vendors).
Merchant wholesalers purchase goods from multiple
farms & collect them together at a central point for
distribution to processors and retailers. They often
use the services of commission agents and brokers
to buy goods from farmers.
The wholesalers then sell the goods:
• To retailers, who sell the goods to customers
• To processors, who use the goods as raw materials
to make secondary products which they sell to
retailers who then sell them to consumers.
Answer to 11: C

determined by interaction of the two market forces
that affect sales of the commodity: demand for the
commodity and supply of the commodity. The price
of the commodity is determined by the demand for it
in relation to the conditions of its supply at a
particular time. At some point, demand and supply
are brought into balance or equilibrium. The point at
which this happens is the called the equilibrium point,
the quantity at which this point is reached is called
the equilibrium quantity, and the price at this point is
called the equilibrium price. The graph on the right
illustrates.
Answer to 12: B
Demand is the quantity of a product that consumers

are willing to buy at a certain price at a particular
time. Demand is directly related to price. A decrease
in price will lead to an increase in demand. An
increase in price will lead to a decrease in demand.
Demand is one of a commodity’s two market forces
(forces that determine sales of the commodity). The
other is supply. A demand curve is a graph that plots
price against quantity demanded. It slopes downward
to the right.It represents the information in a demand
schedule as a graph. It shows the relationship
between demand and price: as price rises, demand
decreases. The graph on the right illustrates.
Answer: A
Rural urban drift is migration of people from rural to

urban areas to live. This is usually due to a lack of
infrastructure in rural areas e.g. poor roads, no public
utilities such as electricity, pipe-borne water, phone
service, etc. This causes agricultural lands in rural
areas to be abandoned since there is no one to farm
them.
Answer: C
See notes for question 1.
Note: there is a mistake in this question. All 4 are

necessary, but there is no option with all 4.
Answer: D

owned, controlled, operated, used and managed by
its members on a non-profit or cost basis, for the
economic benefit of all its members. A cooperative
enables its members, as a group, to improve their
economic status.
The table below shows principles of cooperative

operation. Additionally, cooperatives use the practice
of cumulative voting, whereby members with more
shares can vote multiple times, according to the
number of shares they have. Therefore A is not a
feature of cooperatives. Obviously non-members
cannot vote, so B is not a feature. Financial
cooperatives such as cooperative banks offer loans
to their members; C is therefore not a feature. The
principle of one man, one vote does not apply to all
due to cumulative voting, so D is not a feature.
Answer: B
Expenditure is is money used by to purchase new

inputs, improve existing inputs, or pay debts. Variable
costs (VCs) are costs that increase or decrease with
the level of production. Fixed costs (FCs) are costs
that do not increase or decrease with the level of
production. Income is money earned by producing
commodities that are in demand and selling them at
current market prices to wholesalers, retailers and
consumers.
Produce consumed by the farm can be classified as a

variable cost.
Answer: B
Fixed costs (FCs) are costs that do not increase or

decrease with the level of production. Examples
include land rental, machinery, buildings, insurance
premiums (the amount of money paid for an
insurance policy), taxes, loan installments and
depreciation (a reduction in the value of an asset over
time, due in particular to wear and tear). Other
variable costs include all repairs and maintenance,
labor, etc. No matter how much or little production
occurs, these costs do not change, e.g. suppose a
farmer buys a tractor and is paying $5,000 per month.
That monthly payment is his loan installment.
Regardless of how much or little production happens,
the farmer still has to pay that money every month; it
does not change.
Variable costs (VCs) are costs that increase or

decrease with the level of production. Examples
include the cost of fuel, feed, fertilisers, medications
and pesticides. For example, to increase production
on a chicken farm, the farmer will increase the
number of chicks he purchases, as well as the
amount of feed, medicines etc. he purchases. Thus
the amount of money spent on these inputs increases
with the increased production, i.e. the cost of these
inputs increases with increased production. If
production decreases, so to does the money spent
on these inputs, so the cost of these inputs
decreases with decreasing production.
Answer: A
Gross income, also called total income, is all of the

money that a business receives from sales of goods
and services.
Gross income = sum of all sources of income

Answer: A
A partial budget is prepared when there is a change

in a specific aspect of the existing farm plan that
requires modification of the budget.
replacing one crop with another crop, or buying a
pick-up truck instead of hiring one, would be more
profitable. In such situations, most of the income
(receipts) and expenses (costs) in the existing budget
will remain the same and only a few of them will
change. A partial budget identifies the income and
expenses that will change and sets out how
additional costs and income will affect the change in
profit. The farmer can therefore determine if the
proposed change is economically sensible or not.
A partial budget provides an estimate of expected
change in income and expenditure resulting from the
proposed farm plan change. Therefore it is prepared
before the proposed change is implemented.
Both a complete budget and a partial budget are
prepared before the start of the operation. A
complete budget is prepared before the start of the
entire operation that it covers. A partial budget is
prepared before the proposed farm plan change that
it covers is implemented.
Answer: C
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is an

international agricultural development institution. It is
a sub-organization of the United Nations (UN). It
promotes agricultural development; improves global
nutrition, pursues global food security, encourages
and supports development of rural areas, provides
information/technical assistance and provides a
neutral forum for countries to meet and discuss
agricultural issues.
The University of the West Indies is a regional

educational institution that offers tertiary agricultural
education through its Faculty of Agriculture.
The Organization of American States (OAS) is a

regional political institution.
The Caribbean Food and Nutrition institute (CFNI) is a

regional food and nutrition institution. It is part of the
Pan-American Health Organization/World Health
Organization (PAHO/WHO). It promotes food security
and nutritional health.
Answer: D
The factors that affect soil formation are parent

material, time, climate, relief and organisms.
Parent material refers to the mineral material from

which the soil is formed. Soils will carry the
characteristics of the parent material such as color,
texture, structure, mineral composition. For example,
if soils are formed from an area with large rocks
(parent rocks) of red sandstone, the soils will also be
red in color and have the same feel as its parent
material.
Time - soils take thousands of years to form.

Young soils have some characteristics from their
parent material, but as they age, the addition of
organic matter, exposure to moisture, and other
environmental factors, may change their features.
With time, they settle and are buried deeper below
the surface, taking time to transform. Eventually they
may change from one soil type to another.
Climate is probably the most important factor that

can shape the formation of soils. Two important
climatic components: temperature and rainfall, are
key. They determine how quickly weathering will be,
and what kind of organic materials may be available
on and inside of the soils. Moisture determines the
chemical and biological reactions that will occur as
the soils are formed. Climate with more rainfall means
more vegetative cover and more animal action. It also
means more runoff, more percolation (the running of
water through spaces between soil particles) and
more water erosion.
Relief refers to the landscape position and the slopes

it has.Steep, long slopes mean water will run down
faster and potentially erode the surfaces of slopes.
The effect will be poor soils on the slopes, and richer
deposits at the foot of the slopes.Also, slopes may be
exposed to more direct sunlight, which may dry out
soil moisture and render it less fertile.
Organisms - the source & richness of organic matter

is due to the living organisms that live on and in the
soils. Plants in particular provide vegetative residue
that are added to soils. Plant roots also hold the soils
and protect them from wind and water erosion. Plants
shelter the soils from the sun and other environmental
conditions, helping the soils to retain the needed
moisture for chemical and biological reactions.
Answer: B
Soil pH is the acidity or alkalinity of a soil.

pH is measured in pH units on a scale running from
pH 0 (completely acidic) to pH 14 (completely
alkaline). A pH of 7 is neutral (neither acidic nor
alkaline). As the pH gets lower, i.e. from 6.9 down to
0, the acidity gets higher, As the pH gets higher, ie.
From 7.1 to 14, the alkalinity gets higher. Soils
generally range from pH of 3 to 10. Plant nutrients
become unavailable according to a soil’s pH level. If
the pH is too low, i.e. the soil is too acidic, plants can
get poisoned.
Answer: D

nature. All carbon in nature, including in plants,
originally comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide
gas. The carbon enters plants via photosynthesis.
The process of photosynthesis releases oxygen into
the air as a byproduct. Carbon in plants enters
animals when they feed on plants; this is called
nutrition. Carbon in dead plants and animals enters
the soil via decomposition by bacteria and fungi.
Fossilization is a process that converts dead plants
and animals into fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas
and coal), rather than them decomposing.
Combustion (burning) of plants (e.g. trees for fuel)
and fossil fuels returns carbon to the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide gas.

manufacture organic food from inorganic materials.
The plant uses carbon dioxide and water (inorganic
materials) to produce glucose (organic food) using
energy from sunlight trapped by chlorophyll. The
process mainly takes place in leaves, in tissue called
palisade mesophyll tissue.
Answer: B
Drain formation and is one of the steps of land

preparation. The purpose of land preparation in crop
production is to provide the necessary soil conditions
that encourage the successful establishment of
young seedlings and/or the vigorous germination and
establishment of seeds. The steps in land
preparation, in order, are site selection, land clearing,
tillage, drain formation & leveling and bed formation.
After the drains have been dug, the land needs to be

leveled to form beds suited to the crop, soil type,
season and weather conditions. During the dry
season, flat-topped beds may be used. In the rainy
season, the beds need to be constructed so that
excess water is removed, especially in areas with clay
soil.Cambered beds have slightly sloping tops.
Ridges and furrows create channels for water to drain
away and mounds have raised portions in the centre.
The farmer may use a variety of beds: cambered
beds, ridges and furrows, mounds on cambered beds
and ridges and furrows on cambered beds.
Answer: D
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British

English) is any material of natural or synthetic origin
that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply one
or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of
plants.
Inorganic fertilizers are chemical fertilizers that supply

nutrient elements for the growth of crops made by
chemical means, such as ammonium sulphate. They
can supply one or more nutrients, e.g. ammonium
sulphate supplies nitrogen.
Organic fertilizers, more commonly called manures,

are natural fertilizers obtained from plants and
animals, such as compost, crop residues and farmed
manures
Answer: C
In plants, potassium is essential for carbohydrate

formation & transfer. In flowering plants, it is
necessary for flowering and fruiting. Signs of of
potassium deficiency are leaf drying & decay from the
tips backward, irregular yellowing (mottling) of leaves
& premature falling of flower buds.
Potassic fertilizers supply potassium and therefore

will correct the problem. Examples are muriate of
potash and sulphate of potash. Wood ash also
provides potassium but ion very small amounts.
Mixed fertilizers such as 13:13:21 are also high in
potassium. However the fertilizers that are highest in
potassium are muriate of potash (60% potassium)
and sulphate of potash (48 to 50% potassium).
Answer: A

covering, as of straw (dried grass), compost, or
plastic sheeting, spread on the ground around plants
to prevent excessive evaporation or erosion, enrich
the soil, etc.
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of
different types of crops in the same area across a
sequence of growing seasons.Good drainage
reduces soil erosion due to water. All 3 of the above
help to maintain soil fertility.
Staking is the practice of driving a stake or rod into

the ground close to a plant to provide support for its
stems. Tomato is the most common example of crops
that are staked. Staking is done because some plant
stems, such as tomato, are too weak to remain
upright on their own. Staking has no effect on soil
fertility.
Answer: C

manufacture organic food from inorganic materials.
The plant uses carbon dioxide and water (inorganic
materials) to produce glucose (organic food) using
energy from sunlight trapped by chlorophyll. The
process mainly takes place in leaves, in tissue called
palisade mesophyll tissue. Oxygen is a byproduct of
the process, not a requirement.
Answer: C
A chisel plough, or subsoiler, is a primary tillage

tractor attachment used to break up hardpans in
subsoils. A hardpan is an is an impermeable layer;
water cannot penetrate it. Therefore if left intact,
water accumulates above it, waterlogging the topsoil.
In waterlogging, soil becomes saturated with water.
This drives air out of the soil. Without soil air, plant
roots cannot get oxygen to respire; they thus die,
killing the plants. A tractor attachment called a
subsoiler or chisel plough is used to break up
hardpans. However, subsoiling is expensive.
Hardpans are mainly caused by excessive traffic on
topsoil, causing soil compaction. If the farmer wishes
to avoid hardpan development, he therefore needs to
limit traffic on the soil.
Hardpan break-up is part of primary tillage. Primary

tillage is breaking up the surface of the soil by
ploughing (plowing in American English).
Ploughing is turning up the soil. An implement called
a plough (or plow) is used. Ploughing may be by hand
or using a plough pulled by an animal or a tractor. At
the end of primary tillage, the soil is in large clods or
lumps. The effect of primary tillage is to loosen or
break up the soil surface, allow air and water to enter
the soil more freely & bury or mix organic matter with
the soil.
Secondary tillage is breaking up large clods of soil

into smaller pieces, or aggregates, and the
production of a tilth suitable for seed germination and
crop growth. The process may be done manually
using a hoe, rake or hand fork, or mechanically using
a harrow and a rotovator. The effect of secondary
tillage is to obtain a tilth suited to the crop, produce a
seedbed for the cultivation of crops, cut up and mix
organic matter (crop residues or stubble) into the soil
& allow the roots of crop plants to penetrate easily
and grow freely in the soil.
Answer: C
Biodiversity is an important consideration in

sustainable farming, especially organic farming. It is is
all the diverse ecosystems & the organisms in them. It
may be referred to as the diversity of all species in a
habitat, or sum of all species in a habitat.
An ecosystem is a a biological community of
interacting organisms & their physical environment.
An ecosystem is made of biotic factors (the
organisms) & abiotic factors (their physical
environment e.g. air, sunlight, temperature, water &
soil pH).
B obviously harms diversity instead of benefitting it,

so B is not correct. Of A, C and D, C is the most
beneficial, as pollution broadly affects all species in
an ecosystem.
Answer: A
Slightly angling the fork as it is pushed into the soil

eases its penetration of the soil.
Answer: A
Tools should first be washed, then dried. Cutting

edges should be sharpened, then the tool should be
oiled to reduce rusting.
Answer: C
Ideally a knapsack sprayer should not be used in

windy conditions. However the next best thing is to
spray across the direction of the wind. Spraying in
against the wind, or downwind, blows the pesticide
onto the farmer as it is sprayed. Spraying in the
direction of the prevailing wind blows the chemical
across a wide area; enough may not therefore land on
the intended plants and may furthermore much more
likely to land on unintended plants. Spraying across
the direction of the wind lowers the likelihood of this
occurring, as well as ensuring more of the pesticide
lands on the intended plants instead of blowing away.
Answer: D
A herbicide is any substance that is toxic to plants.

They are usually used to control weeds.
Technically, a weed is any plant that grows where it is

not wanted. However there are certain wild plants
that are of no economic value, may poison or cause
injury to livestock, and easily kill crops by crowding
them out in terms of spacing, by taking most of the
soil’s nutrients, and by growing much faster than
crops and thus shading them from sunlight, which the
crops require for photosynthesis. These plants are
what are commonly thought of as weeds.
Herbicides can be classified in different ways. Pre-

emergent herbicides kill weeds before they emerge
from the soil. Post-emergent herbicides kill weeds
after they emerge from the soil. Contact herbicides
kill only the part of the plant on which they are
sprayed. The root system is not killed and the weed
may grow back from the roots. Systemic herbicides
are absorbed by the plants and taken into the root
system, so the whole weed is killed and thus does
not re-emerge. Grass-specific herbicides kill only
weeds of the Graminae (grass) family. Broadleaf
herbicides kill weeds except those of the Graminae
(grass) family
.
Selective herbicides kill certain plants as they work
on processes that happen in those plants only, while
non-selective herbicides kill any plant as they work
on processes that happen in all plants.
Answer to 35: A
Root hair cells (black arrow pointing at one of the root

hair cells) are single tubular (tube-shaped) root cells.
Their distinctive lateral (elongation (state of being
horizontally lengthened) increases the surface of
exchange between the plant's root system and the
soil. The main function of root hairs is the uptake of
water and dissolved mineral salt and nutrients from
the soil.
Answer to 36: C
In translocation, phloem vessels transport the

glucose produced by photosynthesis & other
substances manufactured by the plant to other parts
of the plant for use or storage.
Answer: B
Ethylene gas is a major plant hormone that influences

diverse processes in plant growth, development and
stress responses throughout the plant life cycle.
Responses to ethylene, such as fruit ripening, are
significant to agriculture. Ethylene regulates fruit
ripening by coordinating the expression of genes that
are responsible for a variety of processes, including a
rise in respiration, autocatalytic ethylene production
and changes in color, texture, aroma and flavor.
Answer: B
Tissue culture is a process used to create new plants.

In the process, a small piece of plant tissue is taken
from a plant and placed in a solution that contains
nutrients and hormones that will help the tissue grow
into a plantlet quickly. The solution used is called
culture solution or growth medium. In this process,
the growth medium or culture solution is very
important as it contains various plant nutrients in the
form of ‘jelly’ known as agar as well as plant
hormones that are necessary for the growth of the
plant. The plants produced from tissue culture are
genetically identical to the parent plant that provided
the tissue.
The process is as follows:

1. A small piece of plant tissue is taken from the
growing point of a plant or from the tip of the
plant and placed on a sterile jelly that contains
nutrients and plant hormones.
2. The hormones make the cells in the plant tissue
divide rapidly, producing many cells that form a
shapeless lump called a callus.
3. The callus is then transferred to another jelly
containing plant hormones that will stimulate it to
develop roots.
4. The callus with roots is moved to another jelly
containing different hormones that will stimulate
the development of shoots.
5. The callus, having roots and shoots now,
separates into tiny plantlets. In this way, many
tiny plantlets are produced from just a few
original plant cells or tissue.
The new plants are clones of the original plant, i.e,

they are produced asexually from the original plant, to
which they are genetically identical. Thus if the
original plant is virus-free, the new plants are
certifiably virus free. As the plantlets are grown in a
lab, seasonal changes do not affect their production.
However, production of new plant varieties involves
plant breeding, which involves asexual production;
tissue culture is not involved in this process.
Answer: B

contrasting characteristics. In this question, T and t
are alleles - different forms of the same gene that
control height. T codes for tallness and t codes for
shortness.
chromosomes. TT, Tt and TT are genotypes.
Genotypes cause phenotypes. A phenotype is the
physical expression of a genotype. For example, if a
genotype causes tallness, then the phenotype is
tallness. If a genotype codes for shortness, then the
phenotype is shortness.
In a pair of alleles, one allele may de dominant and
the other may be recessive. The dominant allele
displays its characteristic in the phenotype even
though the recessive allele is present. The recessive
allele only shows its characteristic in the phenotype
only if the dominant allele is absent.
In this question, T is dominant over t. So genotypes
TT and Tt produce tall plants and genotype tt
produce short plants. The phenotypes of the offspring
are 50% tall, 50% short. The diagrams below
illustrate.
Answer: C

covering, as of straw (dried grass), compost, or
plastic sheeting, spread on the ground around plants
to prevent excessive evaporation or erosion, enrich
the soil, etc.
Answer: B
Goats, sheep and cattle are ruminants. A ruminant is

an animal that has a rumen. The rumen is part of a
ruminant’s complex, four-chambered stomach. It
allows a ruminant to live entirely on cellulose (the
main material in vegetation, i.e. grass and herbage).
rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the
abomasum. The rumen is the largest chamber. Food
is swallowed without chewing and enters the rumen
from the mouth, where the cellulose in the food is
digested by bacteria, which also manufacture B-
complex vitamins, which the ruminant’s body absorbs
(they are nutrients).
The food passes into the reticulum. The food is now
semi-liquid. The reticulum forms the semi-liquid food
into boluses or cuds, which are retuned to the mouth
via regurgitation, or anti-peristalsis, for chewing
(commonly called ‘chewing the cud’).
The chewed cuds are swallowed and pass back
through the rumen and reticulum to the omasum. The
omasum squeezes liquids out of the cuds. Fatty acids
and water are absorbed from the cuds into the
bloodstream through the wall of the omasum. The
remaining solids in the cuds are passed from the
omasum to the abomasum.
digesting proteins in cuds into amino acids, and fats
in the cuds into fatty acids and glycerol. The cuds
become completely liquified and enter the small
intestine. All the simple nutrient molecules resulting
from the digestion of the food (amino acids, glucose,
fatty acids & glycerol) are absorbed into the animal’s
bloodstream here.
The undigested remains of the food pass into the
large intestine, where water is absorbed from them
and they are formed into feces, which are removed
from the ruminant’s body via egestion/defecation
though the anus.
Ruminant
Digestive
System
Answer: A

passes to the proventriculus. The proventriculus is a
tube-like area that produces digestive juices such as
pepsin and hydrochloric acid. The food is thoroughly
soaked with these digestive juiced here. The food
then passes to the gizzard, a muscular organ that
grinds up the food. The gizzard has small stones
called grit (swallowed by the bird or fed to the bird as
a constituent of its feed) to assist in grading up the
food. The food then passes to the small intestine,
where nutrients are absorbed from it into the birds’
body.
Poultry
Digestive
System
Answer: C
Rabbits are pseudo-ruminants. A pseudo-ruminant is

an animal that is able to live entirely on cellulose (fro
vegetation), but does not have a rumen.
Instead of a rumen, pseudo-ruminants have a
digestive organ called a cecum that performs the
same function as a rumen: digestion of cellulose.
Pseudo-Ruminant
Digestive System
Answer: B
A feedstuff is any food provided for livestock.

Feedstuffs, provide nutrients for energy, growth,
development, maintenance, production and
reproduction
.
There are 4 types of feedstuffs: forages, fodder, silage
and concentrates. A forage is any food obtained by
animals via grazing. Fodder is dried feedstuffs, such
as hay, straw and chaff; they are used when forage is
unavailable. Fodder can also include green chopped
feedstuffs, for example, corn stalks, elephant grass
and kudzu. Silage is pasture grasses, legumes and
other crops that have been conserved and stored in
silos. Concentrates are produced commercially in
feed mills using local and imported feedstuffs. They
are designed to suit the maintenance and production
needs of different farm animals and they can be
mixed, mashed, ground, granulated or pelleted.
Concentrates may be high protein, low protein, high

fibre, low fibre, high carbohydrate, rich in essential
vitamins and minerals, or have a low percentage of
fat or low moisture content.
Rice, wheat middlings, brewer’s grain and molasses

are feedstuffs that are all high in carbohydrates.
Soybean, acacia, kudzu and gliricidia are all forage
legumes; these are high in proteins. Fish meal is also
high in proteins. The other feedstuffs provide various
nutrients, such as lipids, vitamins and minerals.
Answer: B
There are 3 types of rations: balanced, maintenance

and production.
A balanced ration is a ration that contains all the
necessary nutrients for growth and production in the
right proportion for the animal.
A maintenance ration is the amount of food needed
to prevent any increase or decrease in the live weight
of the animal; this is just enough to supply energy for
all metabolic activities.
A production ration is a ration that supplies nutrients
in excess of maintenance; this excess is used for
increased production.
Rations are used for 2 processes: steaming up and
flushing. Steaming up is feeding a production ration
used in the late stages of pregnancy to increase
mammary tissues (tissues that produce milk in
breasts) and their blood supply. Flushing is feeding a
production ration that is used to increase the fertility
rate of female livestock.
Answer: C
Broiler chicks require broiler starter feed for the first

four weeks of their life. The broiler starter feed should
be at least 20 percent protein, preferably 23 percent
protein. After four weeks, feed a 19 percent protein
feed (broiler developer or finisher) should be fed to
the birds.
Broilers should never be fed layer ration. Layer ration

is high in calcium, which is needed by layers for
development of strong eggshells. Eggshells consist
mainly of calcium carbonate, along with small
amounts of protein and other organic compounds.
The high calcium content in layer ration damages
broilers’ kidneys.
Answer: C

required by an animal to gain a unit of weight; the unit
may be kg, lbs or whatever unit that the weight is
measured in. It is a measure of the efficiency with
which an animal converts feed into meat.
The table below gives the FCRs of common

Caribbean livestock animals.
Answer: A
There are 5 types of grazing systems used by

Caribbean farmers: zero, rotational, strip, continuous
and deferred.
Zero grazing refers to the cutting, chopping and

feeding of forage crops to animals housed in pens or
stalls, called feedlots. The animals feed on grass
without having to graze, hence the term zero grazing.
Grass or leafy plants raised as feed for fenced-in
livestock is called soilage. Examples of the soilage or
legume mixtures used in this system include elephant
grass, guinea grass, also known kudzu, Guatemala
grass and pangola grass.
In rotational grazing, the pasture area is subdivided

into six or eight paddocks. Each paddock is
systematically grazed in sequence, with the animals
being moved from one paddock to another. The
stocking rate (the number of animals present in the
paddock) is usually high, e.g. 20 –25 cows per
hectare. Each paddock is grazed for three to seven
days, depending on the stocking rate and herbage
growth. After that time, the paddock is rested and the
animals are moved to another paddock. The system
continues until the last paddock has been grazed and
the cycle is then repeated. When paddocks are not
being grazed they undergo pasture management.
Strip grazing is a variation of the rotational system. A

single paddock is grazed progressively, strip by strip,
using movable electric fences to restrict the animals.
The fences can be moved forwards once or twice
daily, offering the animals a strip of fresh pasture for
grazing.
In continuous grazing, animals are allowed to graze

on the same pasture area for a very long period.
This system is normally practiced on expansive range
lands only, where fencing is absent and probably
impractical.
The stocking rate is usually low.
In deferred grazing, certain paddocks of pasture

grass or legumes are withheld for later use. In tropical
countries, it is the called the practice of conserving
‘standing hay’. The forage that is withheld usually
matures, loses its succulence (juiciness), palatability
and some nutritive value, but it is important as a
maintenance ration, especially in the dry season.
Leafier grasses and legumes, such as Guinea grass
or kudzu, and giant star grass, are most suitable for
this type of grazing
Answer: A
Ventilation is the provision of fresh air to a room,

building, etc.
Answer: B
Debeaking is the removal of about 2 mm of the

chicken’s upper beak using a hot iron. It is no longer
generally practiced as it has been found to be cruel.
Beak trimming is a preventive measure to reduce
damage caused by injurious pecking such as
cannibalism, feather pecking and vent pecking, and
thereby improve livability (survival of livestock).
Answer: A
There are 2 systems: deep litter & battery cage

The deep litter system keeps the birds together in a
deep material called litter that covers the floor.
The battery cage system keeps the birds singly in a
line of cages called a battery.
The deep litter system is usually used for broilers. The

litter can be rice hulls, wood shavings or any material
that does not produce large amounts of dust. A 30
cm wall is built around the floor to contain the litter.
The litter is 3 to 4 cm deep; this allows it to generate
sufficient heat to dry the watery feces. Feedbags are
hung on the wire mesh to keep out drafts and rain.
There are 2 feeders and 3 waterers for every 100
birds. The floor spacing is one square foot (0.09 m2)
per bird. Light is necessary as it stimulates egg
production in layers and feeding in broilers.
If layers are raised using the deep litter system, nest
boxes and perches are used; there is one nest box
for every 4 to 5 birds; the cock to hen ratio is 1: 10 to
1:12. Layers start to lay from about 5 months; their
economic life is about 2 years. The
The deep litter system is practiced where land to

build chicken houses is limited. It is usually used for
layers in egg production. Each hen is confined to a
cage just large enough to permit limited movement.
The cages are arranged in lines called batteries.
Feeders and waterers are placed outside the cages in
front of the birds. A slightly sloped tray runs behind
the cages to collect laid eggs.
Answer: A

Breeds of goats include Saanen, British Alpine,
Anglo-Nubian and Toggenburg.
Breeds of layer chickens include White Leghorn,
Rhode Island Red, Bevan Brown (or Bovan Brown)
and Hyline.
Breeds of sheep include Barbados Blackbelly,
Blackhead Persian, West African and Virgin Island
White.
Breeds of dairy cattle include Jersey, Jamaica Hope
and Holstein (or Holstein-Friesian).
Breeds of beef cattle include Jamaica Black, Jamaica
Red (or Jamaica Red Poll), Charolais, Zebu and
Buffalypso.
Answer: C
Incubation is the process of providing the conditions

needed to hatch fertile eggs. The incubation period is
the period between laying and hatching.
In chickens, the incubation period is 21 days. The

only possible answer with 21 days is C, so this is the
best answer to choose.
Answer: D
The selection of animals for breeding is mainly based

on their performance. Traditionally, good dairy cows
have been used for breeding, but a cow will produce
only about eight calves in her lifetime, and half of
them could be male. Nowadays, ‘desirable’ cows can
be made to produce many embryos, which are
transferred to the uterus of another cow or deep
frozen for later implantation. This technique is known
as embryo transfer. The cow that carries the calf to
term (bears and delivers the calf) is called a surrogate
mother. It increases the number of offspring from the
‘desirable’ cow.
Answer: B
Brooding is the special care given to day-old chicks

for the first 2–3 weeks of their lives. It provides
comfort for the chicks, confines the chicks to an area
in which they are as safe as possible, and allows for
easy record-keeping e.g. of chick survival. There are
two types of brooding: natural and artificial.
In natural brooding, the hen incubates a clutch of
eggs and produces a brood of chicks. She provides
protection and warmth for the newly hatched chicks.
She keeps them under her wings and feathered body
until they develop feathers and are able to withstand
colder weather conditions. If the area around the
poultry house is securely fenced, the hen may roam
freely with her chicks.
protects her and the chicks from rain, hot sun,
draughts and predators such as rats, mongooses and
stray cats.
The farmer ensures that both the hen and the chicks
have sufficient feed and water at all times.
In artificial brooding, the day-old chicks are housed in
a specially prepared area, usually a corner of the
poultry house, where they are protected, kept warm
and provided with litter, feed and water.
A lamp called a brooding lamp, ideally an infra-red or
heating bulb, is used to keep the chicks warm. They
need an initial temperature at 35 °C; this is reduced
reduced by 2 °C each week until it reaches 24–26 °C.
If the temperature is too low, they huddle below the
light and all will make loud, insistent ‘peep-peep’
noises. If the temperature is too high, they silently
pant and scatter as far from the light as they can get.
If the temperature is suitable, they will disperse
evenly & eat and drink normally; some will ‘peep’
contentedly and others will not.
The question asks about day-old chicks, so they

need the initial temperature of 35˚C. The closest
answer is 35.5˚C, so this is the best answer to
choose.
Answer: A
Newcastle disease is caused by a virus. It affects

poultry of all ages. Symptoms are loss of appetite,
droopiness, nasal mucus discharge, twitching of head
and neck, breathing difficulties, paralysis and sudden
death. Mortality rate (death rate) is high. There is no
treatment for infected birds. Young chicks should be
vaccinated. Sanitary measures such as using a
footbath, and cleaning and disinfecting poultry pens,
feeders and waterers should be adopted.Dead birds
should be buried or burned.
Aspergillosis is causes by a fungus. High mortality

rates can be seen in chicks and poults that inhale
large numbers of fungal spores during hatching or
when placed on bedding contaminated with mold
spores. In older birds, infection is caused primarily by
inhalation of spore-laden dust from contaminated
litter, feed, or dusty range areas. In facilities with
reoccurring infection, the air handling system(s)
should also be investigated as a source of
contamination.
Feather loss is a symptom of disease, not a disease

itself.
Impacted crop (crop bound) is a condition in which

the crop does not empty. In the sultry digestive
system, the crop stores food temporarily. In impacted
crop, this does not happen, leading to the crop
swelling and becoming hard. Symptoms are lethargy
(lack of energy), weight loss (birds do not eat when
their crops are full), and strange head movements
due to the discomfort caused by the impacted crop.
Answer: D
Bees pollinate flowers. Most citrus trees grown

indoors or outdoors are self-pollinating. However,
cross-pollination by insects such as bees increases
pollination, leading to increased fruit production.
Answer: C
Fresh milk is subjected to three post-milking
processes: pasteurization, homogenization and
sterilization.
Pasteurization destroys pathogenic organisms
(organisms that cause disease, therefore organisms
that are harmful) in milk, thus protecting public
health. It prolongs the storage life of milk and
maintains the nutritional value, taste and color. It is
achieved by heating the milk to 63 °C for 30 minutes
or to 72 °C for 15–20 seconds. The milk is then
rapidly cooled to about 3 °C.
In homogenization, butterfat globules are broken up
into minute particles. The milk is heated to 72 °C for
15–20 seconds to pasteurize it. It is then subjected to
high pressure and forced through a valve. Cream
formation on the surface is prevented.
In sterilization. Sterilization is used to produce ultra-
high temperature (UHT) milk. The milk is heated to
140 °C for 3–5 seconds. This destroys all the micro-
organisms in the milk but maintains the taste, color
and nutritional value of the milk. This process extends
the storage life of the milk considerably.
Answer: D
In managed hives, honey is stored in the cells of the

combs in the supers in a hive. Supers are removable
sections of a managed beehive that are used to hold
frames of combs that contain mostly honey. The
supers are usually at the top of a managed hive.
When honey is the right consistency, bees cap (close
off) the cells with wax. Any uncapped cells are likely
to contain ‘unripe’ or ‘immature’ honey.
Unlike ripe honey, immature honey is subject

fermentation and spoilage due to its relatively high
water content compared to ripe honey.
Answer: B
Eggs are fragile so care needs to be taken when

handling them. Eggs are collected from nest boxes
and battery cages and placed into an egg basket.
Care should be taken to prevent eggs from rolling,
colliding and cracking. The number of eggs collected
is recorded each day. Eggs are then cleaned by
simply wiping them with a damp cloth. They should
not be immersed in water as this destroys the
protective coating on the outside of the eggs.
Eggs are graded according to color, size, weight and

level of damage. Grading is separating produce
according to some criterion e.g. size, shape or color.
Grading is necessary for quality control, consumer
satisfaction and pricing (Larger eggs command higher
prices than smaller eggs). Graded eggs are packed
into crates holding 6, 12 or 30 eggs, with their larger
ends uppermost to reduce pressure on the
membrane and air space in the egg. The crates are
the stored in a cool, clean room, free from unpleasant
odors.
Eggs are supplied wholesale to supermarkets and

middlemen for pricing, labelling and retailing to
consumers.
Answer: A
An agricultural engineer designs and maintains agricultural

businesses and equipment.
Answer: D
The CBI (Caribbean Basin Initiative) was a trade

agreement between the US and Caribbean countries; it no
longer exists. The OAS (organization of American states) is
a Caribbean region political organization, not an
agricultural organization. The IDB (Inter-American
Development Bank) is an international financial institution
that operates in the Caribbean. CARDI (Caribbean
Agricultural Research and Development Institute) is a
Caribbean agricultural research and development
organization.
Answer: A
Rural urban drift is migration of people from rural to urban

areas to live. This is usually due to a lack of infrastructure
in rural areas e.g. poor roads, no public utilities such as
electricity, pipe-borne water, phone service, etc. This
causes agricultural lands in rural areas to be abandoned
since there is no one to farm them.
Answer: C
Pasture is land used for grazing livestock. Sugarcane is a

crop. Cotton, coffee and citrus are also crops. These uses
collectively take up approximately 25% (one quarter) of
the land.
Answer: A
Fixed costs (FC) are costs that do not increase or

an asset over time, due in particular to wear and tear). No
matter how much or little production occurs, these costs
do not change, e.g. suppose a farmer buys a tractor and
is paying $5,000 per month. That monthly payment is his
loan installment. Regardless of how much or little
production happens, the farmer still has to pay that money
every month; it does not change.
Answer: D
Increased drought (lack of rainfall) and flooding result from

global warming. Drought also reduces the the availability
of water to animals, resulting in their deaths.
Answer: B
G.M.P. means good manufacturing practices. Good

manufacturing practice (G.M.P.) is a system for ensuring
that products are consistently produced and controlled
according to quality standards. It is designed to minimize
the risks involved in any production that cannot be
eliminated through testing the final product.
Answer: C
Crop rotation, environmentally friendly practices and

maintenance of soil fertility are all principles of organic
farming. The use of inorganic chemicals, especially toxic
inorganic chemicals, is strictly forbidden in organic
farming.
Answer: A
Marketing, production and consumption are the 3

economic functions. Management is an economic factor
or production, not an economic function. The other
economic factors of production are land, labor and
capital. Production is the process of combining various
material inputs (raw materials, labor etc.) with relevant
plans and expertise in order to make a product or service;
for example combining water, yeast and flour (inputs) to
make bread (output). Marketing is the economic function
that satisfies the wants of people. It is all of the activities
involved in moving goods and services from the producer
to the consumer. Marketing links production and
consumption. Consumption is is the purchase and use of
goods and services by clients and customers, known as
consumers.
Answer: A
Agricultural credit unions are one of the sources of capital

used to purchase agricultural inputs e.g. land, seeds,
fertilizer, fuel etc. The graduate can join an agricultural
credit union and get a loan to start his broiler project. The
WTO (World Trade Organization) is an international trade
regulation and dispute settlement body; it works with
countries, not individuals, and it does not give loans. The
University of the West Indies (UWI) is a regional
educational institution; its Faculty of Agriculture provides
agricultural education; it does not give loans. The Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is an international
agricultural research and development institution; it does
not give loans.
Answer: D
This graph most likely represents the law of diminishing

returns. The law states that in any production process, if
an input is continually increased by 1 additional unit while
all other inputs are kept constant, the marginal output will
increase to a maximum level, and then start decreasing.
The graph representing the law is shown below.
Answer: B

affect sales of the commodity: demand for the commodity
this point is called the equilibrium price. The graph below
illustrates.
Answer: A

Answer: C
A budget is necessary to obtain a loan to demonstrate the
projected profitability of the enterprise, giving confidence
to the lending institution that the borrower will be able to
repay the loan. Collateral is necessary to obtain a loan to
provide property which the bank can legally seize and sell
if the loan is not repaid; this is called loan security. A
proposal is necessary to obtain a loan in order to give the
lending institution confidence that the enterprise is
realistic, which directly affects profitability; an unrealistic
enterprise will make no profit and thus repayment will
prove impossible. Subsides are not loans, nor do they
have anything to do with loans; they are incentives given
by the government to encourage agricultural production,
such as money to assist in purchasing inputs.
Answer: B
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the use of harmful

biological agents, e.g. the release of pathogens (disease-
causing organisms) to intentionally cause outbreaks of
disease among people and livestock.
Answer: D
Price support is government assistance in maintaining the

levels of market prices regardless of supply or demand.
Farmers can be guaranteed minimum prices by the
government, referred to as guaranteed prices, for selected
crops or commodities. The commodities may be export-
oriented or for domestic consumption. These guaranteed
prices are incentives to production. The guaranteed prices
show that the government is committed to helping
farmers.
Tariffs are taxes on imports. Tax incentives are tax
reductions intended to encourage production e.g. reduced
value-added tax (VAT) on agricultural inputs.
Tax exemptions are removals of taxes on commodities,
e.g. removal of VAT on agricultural inputs. Tax incentives
and tax exemptions are both intended to encourage
agricultural production.
Answer: C
Farm records store essential data about all the agricultural

enterprises on a farm. The data includes records of
production, transactions, costs, information and
observations, and is essential in determining & tracking
the economic performance of the farm.
Answer: D
Variable costs are costs that increase and decrease with

the level of production. The farmer can increase or cut
back on them depending on his level of production; they
are within his control. Examples of variable costs are
seeds, labor, fertilizers, fuel, seedlings, medication etc.
Fixed costs are costs that do not change with the level of
production. No matter how much or how little his
production, the farmer cannot increase or cut back on
these costs; they are outside of his control. Examples are
land, machinery buildings, rent, taxes, and insurance
premiums.
Answer: D
A cooperative helps its members reduce their operating

costs and increase their levels of production, and
therefore their income. Operating costs include transport
costs and costs of inputs. Cooperatives also act as
bargaining bodies, representing their members
negotiations with with outside parties such as the
government; they have much more influence and
bargaining power than farmers would individually have.
Answer: C
A complete budget is also known as a total budget or a

whole farm budget.
A complete budget is prepared for a farm that has a new
owner or new management. It can also be used when
there is a major change in the resources and enterprises
of a farm, or when a complete re-organisation is
undertaken. It is also prepared when an existing farm
wants to change its systems of production and introduce
improved technology.
A complete budget provides an estimate of expected
gross income and total expenditure. Therefore it is
prepared before the start of the enterprise. Indeed, it is an
essential part of planning the operation of the enterprise.
Answer: D
Soil organic matter consists of fresh or decaying plant and

animal residues and humus. Humus is the end product of
the decomposition of organic matter by micro-organisms.
It is black or dark brown. In the tropics and sub-tropics,
organic matter is broken down rapidly to humus by soil
micro-organisms.
Answer: A
I, II, III and IV are the horizons in the soil profile. In a soil
profile, a horizon is any of the profile’s distinct layers.
I is horizon A - the topsoil. This is the horizon that is most
important to farmers because it contains most of the
nutrients needed by plants & it supplies the plants with
water. Therefore to improve soil structure, this is the
horizon that a farmer should plough.
II is horizon B - the subsoil. The only instance in which a
farmer has to plough the subsoil is if a layer called a
hardpan develops in it. This is an impermeable layer;
water cannot penetrate it. Therefore if left intact, water
accumulates above it, waterlogging the topsoil. In
waterlogging, soil becomes saturated with water. This
drives air out of the soil. Without soil air, plant roots
cannot get oxygen to respire; they thus die, killing the
plants. A tractor attachment called a subsoiler or chisel
plough is used to break up hardpans. However, subsoiling
is expensive. Hardpans are mainly caused by excessive
traffic on topsoil, causing soil compaction. If the farmer
wishes to avoid hardpan development, he therefore needs
to limit traffic on the soil.
III is horizon C - weathered rock. This is weathered
bedrock that formed the soil. In soil formation, weathering
is the breakdown of rocks by physical, chemical and
biological agents.
IV - is parent rock or bedrock. This is the unweathered
rock that formed the soil over thousands of years via
weathering.
Answer: D

nature. All carbon in nature, including in plants, originally
comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide gas. The carbon
enters plants via photosynthesis. The process of
photosynthesis releases oxygen into the air as a
byproduct. Carbon in plants enters animals when they
feed on plants; this is called nutrition. Carbon in dead
plants and animals enters the soil via decomposition by
bacteria and fungi. Fossilization is a process that converts
dead plants and animals into fossil fuels (petroleum,
natural gas and coal), rather than them decomposing.
Combustion (burning) of plants (e.g. trees for fuel) and
fossil fuels returns carbon to the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide gas.
Answer: A
Grafting and budding are two processes used to artificially

propagate plants vegetatively. Vegetative propagation is
the production of new plants without seeds. Artificial
vegetative production is vegetative production that is
induced by humans. Mangoes, avocados and grapefruit
are all artificially propagated vegetatively.
Bananas also propagate vegetatively, but this is natural
vegetative propagation, as opposed to artificial; the plant
naturally reproduces vegetatively; it does so by producing
genetic copies, or clones, of itself called suckers. Bananas
are not usually propagated via artificial vegetative
propagation, therefore they are not usually propagated by
grafting or budding.
Answer: C
A rain gauge is a device for collecting and measuring the

amount of rain which falls. Rainfall is an important
consideration in agricultural production, especially crop
production. It should be sited in an open area above
ground level; it should obviously not be sited under a
shed.
Answer: C
Burning vegetation as part of land clearing has positive

and negative effects. Among the positive effects are:
- Unwanted material, such as cane trash, is burned out,
so cane-cutters work more efficiently.
- Land clearing can be carried out more speedily.
- Harmful plants, such as nettles, are destroyed.
- Harmful animals, such as snakes, scorpions,
centipedes and nests of wasps, are destroyed.
- The ashes on the land add potash (potassium) to the
soil.
- The soil is sterilized as a result of the intense heat,
killing plant pathogens (organisms that causes
disease in plants).
However, burning vegetation also has negative effects:
- It destroys organic matter that took many years to
accumulate.
- Humus in the soil is destroyed.
- Beneficial soil organisms, e.g. earthworms, are killed
- The soil surface becomes bare, with no plant cover so
it is more exposed to soil erosion.
- Soil water is lost more rapidly through evaporation.
- Leaching of nutrients can occur more easily. Leaching
of soil nutrients is the draining away of the nutrients
when they get dissolved in soil water, which then
percolates through the soil, i.e. it runs through the
soil’s pore spaces, deeper into the soil. This takes the
nutrients beyond the reach of plant roots.
Answer: D
A disc plough is a primary tillage tractor attachment.

Primary tillage is breaking up the surface of the soil by
ploughing (plowing in American English). The purpose of
the furrow wheel on a disc plough is to stabilize the
plough as the tractor pulls it. The image below shows the
position of the furrow wheel.
Answer: B
The stomata of a leaf are pores on the underside of the

leaf through which carbon dioxide enters the leaf (carbon
dioxide is used for photosynthesis) and through which
water vapor leaves the leaf via transpiration.
Stomata are opened and closed by cells called guard
cells. Therefore they determine the rate of water loss from
a leaf by controlling the amount of water lost by
transpiration. High air temperatures increase transpiration.
High humidity (high water vapor content in the air)
decreases transpiration. High air movement (windspeed)
increases transpiration. High light intensity (brightness)
increases transpiration.
Epithelial cells are found in animals, not plants. Mesophyll
cells are found in leaf tissue. There are two types: palisade
and spongy. Palisade mesophyll tissue is where most
photosynthesis occurs. Spongy mesophyll allows diffusion
of carbon dioxide through the leaf from the stomata into
the palisade mesophyll.
Answer: C
There are two types of reproduction in living organisms:

sexual and asexual.
Sexual reproduction involves gametes (sex cells). In
plants, these are produced by flowers. The male parts of a
flower are collectively called the androecium; they are the
flower’s anthers and stamens. Anthers produce pollen,
which contains male gametes. The female parts of a
flower are collectively celled the gynoecium: the stigma,
style, ovaries and ovules. Ovules carry female gametes.
In pollination, pollen is transferred from anther to stigma.
Once transferred thusly, a pollen grain produces a tube
called a pollen tube, which grows down the style into the
ovary and into an ovule. The male gamete passes through
the pollen tube from the pollen grain to the ovule. The
male and female gamete nuclei fuse; this is called
fertilization. The ovary becomes a fruit, and the ovule
becomes a seed containing a plant embryo, which grows
into a new plant when the seed germinates.
Asexual reproduction in plants is reproduction that does
not involve seed production. Parts of some plants can
naturally grow into new plants. This is called vegetative
propagation.
A major advantage of sexual reproduction is that it
produces adaptability and variation in new plants of the
species. This allows the species to evolve characteristics
that allow it to survive gradual generational changes in the
environment.
Answer: A
Crop rotation is a cropping system in which different crops

are grown in succession on the same land chiefly to
preserve the productive capacity of the soil.
For example, a leafy crop e.g lettuce is cultivated,
followed by a legume e.g. bodi; the legume replaces the
nitrogen used up from the soil by the lettuce (leafy crops
use a lot of nitrogen for leaf development). This can be
followed by cultivation of another leafy crop e.g. spinach;
the spinach uses the nitrogen that was put back into the
soil by the bodi. The spinach can then be followed by
pigeon peas, a legume that replaces the nitrogen used by
the spinach. The cycle is then repeated, starting with
lettuce, which uses the nitrogen put back by the pigeon
peas.
Answer: C
In translocation, phloem vessels transport the glucose

produced by photosynthesis & other manufactured
substances to other parts of the plant for use or storage.
In plants, absorption is process by which water and
mineral ions enter plants through their roots from soil.
Respiration is the process by which all cells, including
plant cells, release energy from food, typically glucose;
they use this energy to maintain their life functions. In
plants, the glucose is manufactured via photosynthesis.
Transpiration is the evaporation of water out of the
stomata of a plant’s leaves.
Answer: C
There are two types of tubers: stem tubers and root

tubers. A root tuber, tuberous root or storage root, is a
modified lateral (horizontal) root, enlarged to function as a
storage organ. Examples are sweet potato and cassava. A
stem tuber is a thickened underground stem. An example
is Irish potato. Both types of tubers store food, particularly
carbohydrates.
Answer: D
A cell’s nucleus contains chromosomes. Chromosomes

carry genes. Genes are made of DNA.
Answer: B

alleles - different forms of the same gene that control
shortness.
In a pair of alleles, one allele may be dominant and the
is absent.
In this question, T is dominant over t, which means that in
any genotype with T will shows its characteristic in the
genotype: the organism will be tall. If genotype TT is
crossed with genotype tt, the offspring will all have
genotype Tt; all will be tall.
Answer: D
Pruning is trimming a tree, shrub, or bush by cutting away

dead or overgrown branches or stems, especially to
increase fruitfulness and growth. Secateurs, commonly
called pruning shears, are specially designed to cut
cleanly though both soft and hard plant tissue, resulting in
clean pruning cuts with no unnecessary tissue damage.
They are also designed to be used with one hand, making
pruning easier. A hoe is used for tillage, not for pruning. A
knife is not the best tool to use for pruning because it may
not cut cleanly; this leads to unnecessary damage to plant
tissue. Both hands may also be needed to make the cut.
Shears other than secateurs are not designed for cutting
cleanly through all types of plant tissue; they therefore
damage tissue unnecessarily. Both hands may also be
needed.
Answer: D
Nematodes are very small, slender worms: typically about

5 to 100 micrometers thick, and 0.1 to 2.5 mm long. Root-
knot nematodes are plant-parasitic nematodes. They exist
in soil in areas with hot climates or short winters. Root-
knot nematode larvae infest plant roots, causing the
development of root knots called galls that drain the
plant's nutrients and the sugars it synthesizes via
photosynthesis. This is lethal to the plant. Affected plants
have an unhealthy appearance and often are stunted
wilted or chlorotic (their leaves turn yellow); chlorosis is
yellowing of leaves. Control of root-knot nematodes is by
soil nematicides, which are chemical substances that kill
nematodes.
Answer: A
Agricultural machinery is difficult to use on steep terrain,

as the machines may topple over. A farm may be too small
to effectively use machinery. However, in a farm large
enough to use machinery, especially on very large farms,
machines are more economically viable than hiring large
numbers of workers for labor.
Answer: D
A herbicide is any substance that is toxic to plants. They

are usually used to control weeds.
Technically, a weed is any plant that grows where it is not
wanted. However there are certain wild plants that are of
no economic value, may poison or cause injury to
livestock, and easily kill crops by crowding them out in
terms of spacing, by taking most of the soil’s nutrients,
and by growing much faster than crops and thus shading
them from sunlight, which the crops require for
photosynthesis. These plants are what are commonly
thought of as weeds.
Herbicides can be classified in different ways. Pre-
emergent herbicides kill weeds before they emerge from
the soil. Post-emergent herbicides kill weeds after they
emerge from the soil. Contact herbicides kill only the part
of the plant on which they are sprayed. The root system is
not killed and the weed may grow back from the roots.
Systemic herbicides are absorbed by the plants and taken
into the root system, so the whole weed is killed and thus
does not re-emerge. Grass-specific herbicides kill only
weeds of the Graminae (grass) family. Broadleaf
herbicides kill weeds except those of the Graminae (grass)
family.
Selective herbicides kill certain plants as they work on
processes that happen in those plants only, while non-
selective herbicides kill any plant as they work on
processes that happen in all plants.
Answer: B
After harvesting, produce should be cleaned and graded.

Grading is grouping based on specific criteria e.g. size,
weight and quality. Grading is necessary because different
sizes, weights, qualities etc. command different prices.
Sorting may also be necessary. Sorting is removal of
produce which is unsuitable for market or storage due to
damage etc. Packaging is the final post-harvest step.
Answer: C
After being harvested and cleaned, tomatoes can be

dried, e.g. to produce sun-dried tomatoes. Tomatoes can
also be canned. Chilling damages tomatoes, so tomatoes
are not chilled.
Answer: A

passes to the proventriculus. The proventriculus is a tube-
like area that produces digestive juices such as pepsin
and hydrochloric acid. The food is thoroughly soaked with
these digestive juiced here. The food then passes to the
gizzard, a muscular organ that grinds up the food. The
gizzard has small stones called grit (swallowed by the bird
or fed to the bird as a constituent of its feed) to assist in
grading up the food. The food then passes to the small
intestine, where nutrients are absorbed from it into the
birds’ body.
Answer: B
I is pasteurization. This process destroys pathogenic

organisms in milk, thus protecting public health. It
prolongs the storage life of milk and maintains the
nutritional value, taste and color. It is achieved by heating
the milk to 63 °C for 30 minutes or to 72 °C for 15–20
seconds. The milk is then rapidly cooled to about 3 °C.
II is homogenization: In this process, butterfat globules are

broken up into minute particles. The milk is heated to 72
°C for 15–20 seconds to pasteurize it. It is then subjected
to high pressure and forced through a valve. Cream
formation on the surface is prevented.
III is sterilization. Sterilization is used to produce ultra-high

temperature (UHT) milk. The milk is heated to 140 °C for
3–5 seconds. This destroys all the micro-organisms in the
milk but maintains the taste, color and nutritional value of
the milk. This process extends the storage life of the milk
considerably.
Answer: A
A ruminant is an animal that has a rumen. The rumen is

part of a ruminant’s complex, four-chambered stomach. It
allows a ruminant to live entirely on cellulose (the main
material in vegetation, i.e. grass and herbage).
rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum.
The rumen is the largest chamber. Food is swallowed
without chewing and enters the rumen from the mouth,
where the cellulose in the food is digested by bacteria,
which also manufacture B-complex vitamins, which the
ruminant’s body absorbs (they are nutrients).
The food passes into the reticulum. The food is now semi-
liquid. The reticulum forms the semi-liquid food into
boluses or cuds, which are retuned to the mouth via
regurgitation, or anti-peristalsis, for chewing (commonly
called ‘chewing the cud’).
The chewed cuds are swallowed and pass back through
the rumen and reticulum to the omasum. The omasum
squeezes liquids out of the cuds. Fatty acids and water
are absorbed from the cuds into the bloodstream through
the wall of the omasum. The remaining solids in the cuds
are passed from the omasum to the abomasum.
digesting proteins in cuds into amino acids, and fats in the
cuds into fatty acids and glycerol. The cuds become
completely liquified and enter the small intestine. All the
simple nutrient molecules resulting from the digestion of
the food (amino acids, glucose, fatty acids & glycerol) are
absorbed into the animal’s bloodstream here.
The undigested remains of the food pass into the large
intestine, where water is absorbed from them and they are
formed into feces, which are removed from the ruminant’s
body via egestion/defecation though the anus.
Answer: B
Rabbits are pseudo-ruminants. A pseudo-ruminant is an

animal that is able to live entirely on cellulose (fro
vegetation), but does not have a rumen.
a rumen: digestion of cellulose.
Answer: D

maintenance, production and reproduction.
conserved and stored in silos. Concentrates are produced
commercially in feed mills using local and imported
feedstuffs. They are designed to suit the maintenance and
production needs of different farm animals and they can
be mixed, mashed, ground, granulated or pelleted.
Concentrates may be high protein, low protein, high fibre,
low fibre, high carbohydrate, rich in essential vitamins and
minerals, or have a low percentage of fat or low moisture
content.
Answer: C
There are 5 types of grazing systems used by Caribbean farmers: zero, traital, strip, continuous and deferred.
Zero grazing refers to the cutting, chopping and feeding of forage crops to animals housed in pens or stalls. The
animals feed on grass without having to graze, hence the term zero grazing. Grass or leafy plants raised as feed for
fenced-in livestock is called soilage. Examples of the soilage or legume mixtures used in this system include elephant
grass, guinea grass, also known kudzu, Guatemala grass and pangola grass.
In rotational grazing, the pasture area is subdivided into six or eight paddocks. Each paddock is systematically grazed
in sequence, with the animals being moved from one paddock to another. The stocking rate (the number of animals
present in the paddock) is usually high, e.g. 20 –25 cows per hectare. Each paddock is grazed for three to seven days,
depending on the stocking rate and herbage growth. After that time, the paddock is rested and the animals are moved
to another paddock. The system continues until the last paddock has been grazed and the cycle is then repeated.
When paddocks are not being grazed they undergo pasture management.
Strip grazing is a variation of the rotational system. A single paddock is grazed progressively, strip by strip, using
movable electric fences to restrict the animals. The fences can be moved forwards once or twice daily, offering the
animals a strip of fresh pasture for grazing.
In continuous grazing, animals are allowed to graze on the same pasture area for a very long period.
This system is normally practiced on expansive range lands only, where fencing is absent and probably impractical.
The stocking rate is usually low.
In deferred grazing, certain paddocks of pasture grass or legumes are withheld for later use. In tropical countries, it is
the called the practice of conserving ‘standing hay’. The forage that is withheld usually matures, loses its succulence
(juiciness), palatability and some nutritive value, but it is important as a maintenance ration, especially in the dry
season. Leafier grasses and legumes, such as Guinea grass or kudzu, and giant star grass, are most suitable for this
type of grazing.
Answer: A
Hay-making has two requirements: young grass with an

abundance of leafy materials and weather conditions that
are sunny and windy.
Hay-making steps:
• The grass is cut before the flowering stage when its
nutritive value, palatability and yield are high.
• Sunshine and wind are used to dry the grass quickly.
The cut grass is spread out in rows on the open field
and turned at regular intervals for quick and uniform
drying. This process continues until the moisture
content has been reduced from 80% to 15–20%.
• When the moisture content is right, the hay is collected
in small bundles and stacked. It is then stored in a cool
dry area of the barn until it is needed to feed ruminant
livestock. The stored hay should be unblemished,
unbleached and have a pleasant aroma
Answer: B
Principles in citing an apiary:

• It must be away from any residential areas for public
safety.
• It must be far from the residence of the apiarist
(beekeeper) for his and his family’s safety.
• There must be an absence of pollutants & pesticides,
which would kill the bees.
• There must be a clear path to the apiary.
• Bees should have access to a source of clean drinking
water.
• The hives must have protection from direct sunlight
except during morning and evening.
• The hives must be protected from strong wind, as this
disrupts bees’ activity.
• There must be protection from pests and predators;
while the bees can defend the hive, many of them will
die in the process of stinging the predator.
• There must be protection from domestic animals that
may damage hives.
Answer: A

the first 2–3 weeks of their lives. It provides comfort for
the chicks, confines the chicks to an area in which they
are as safe as possible, and allows for easy record-
keeping e.g. of chick survival. There are two types of
brooding: natural and artificial.
In natural brooding, the hen incubates a clutch of eggs
and produces a brood of chicks. She provides protection
and warmth for the newly hatched chicks. She keeps
them under her wings and feathered body until they
develop feathers and are able to withstand colder weather
conditions. If the area around the poultry house is securely
fenced, the hen may roam freely with her chicks.
protects her and the chicks from rain, hot sun, draughts
and predators such as rats, mongooses and stray cats.
The farmer ensures that both the hen and the chicks have
sufficient feed and water at all times.
In artificial brooding, the day-old chicks are housed in a
specially prepared area, usually a corner of the poultry
house, where they are protected, kept warm and provided
with litter, feed and water.
A lamp called a brooding lamp, ideally an infra-red or
heating bulb, is used to keep the chicks warm. If the
temperature is too low, they huddle below the light and all
will make loud, insistent ‘peep-peep’ noises. If the
temperature is too high, they silently pant and scatter as
far from the light as they can get. If the temperature is
suitable, they will disperse evenly & eat and drink
normally; some will ‘peep’ contentedly and others will not.
Answer: D
The queen excluder is one of the 7 parts of an apiarist’s

hive. The word apiarist is the technical term for beekeeper.
beehive. The other parts are the stand, the bottom board,
the brood box, brood chamber or body, the honey super,
the crown board and the roof.
At the bottom of the hive is the stand. It lifts the hive 75
cm off the ground and protects hive against ground
predators.
The bottom board is the floor of the hive.
The brood box, brood chamber or body contains a
number of frames for the bees to make honeycombs. In a
hive, brood is the name for all of the hive’s larvae and
eggs. A honeycomb is a structure of hexagonal cells of
wax, made by bees to store honey, pollen and eggs. The
queen lays eggs here. Workers are reared here. Frames
must be spaced 4 cm apart tp provide space for the bees
to pass between them.
The queen excluder keeps queens and drones out of the
honey super, but allows workers into it.
The honey super is a honey storage compartment. Only
the workers get in here, to make and store honey; the
queen excluder keeps the queen out.
The crown board is the ceiling of the hive. It allows the
roof to be removed without disrupting the hive.
Above the crown board is the roof of the hive.
Answer: C
The While Leghorn is a layer chicken breed. Layers are

chickens raised for eggs. Peterson. Shaver and Vantress
Cross are broiler chicken breeds. Broilers are chickens
raised for meat.
Answer: D
A breeding system is a system of breeding animals or

plants within a species or species group.
In breeding systems, parents are chosen for desirable
characteristics. In animal breeding, these may be rapid
weight gain, high dressing percentage, high milk
production, high milk fat content, high offspring survival,
increased disease resistance, high pest tolerance, or other
such desirable characteristics.
Four animal breeding systems are crossbreeding,
upgrading, backcrossing and inbreeding.
Crossbreeding is mating an animal with another animal of
the same species but of a different breed, such as Jersey
and Zebu cattle. Back-crossing is crossing a hybrid
organism with one of its parents. A hybrid animal is an
offspring from crossbreeding. Crossbreeding provides the
following advantages:
• Hybrid vigor (heterosis), or increased vitality, in offspring
• Disease resistance in offspring
• Improved production in offspring
Upgrading is a form of crossbreeding in which is native, or
local, breeds are crossed with breeds from other countries
or regions of the world.
Inbreeding is mating closely-related animals with each
other. These animals will be genetically similar to each
other. Line-crossing is a form of inbreeding. However,
there are risks in inbreeding. If inbreeding is used for many
generations, there is actually a decrease in desirable
characteristics and an increase in undesirable
characteristics. This is known as inbreeding depression.
Inbred animals may show a decreased resistance to
infection, be smaller in size, show physical defects and
have a shorter lifespan.
Answer: B
Gestation, commonly known as pregnancy, is the period

between fertilization and birth of the offspring (parturition).
Gestation varies in length with different farm animals. In
fertilization, the nuclei of an ovum (female gamete, or
female sex cell) and a sperm cell (male gamete, or male
sex cell) fuse together to form a new cell called a zygote.
The zygote develops into fully-formed offspring, which are
birthed (parturition) a certain time after fertilization.
The average gestation period for rabbits is 30 days, with a
range of 28 to 32 days (the closest answer to this is B: 29
- 31 days).
The average gestation period for goats is 150 days, with a
range of 147 to 152 days.
The average gestation period for pigs is 114 days, with a
The average gestation period for sheep is 148 days, with a
The average gestation period for cattle is 280 days, with a
Answer: D
There are 3 types of rations: balanced, maintenance and

production.
A balanced ration is a ration that contains all the
necessary nutrients for growth and production in the right
proportion for the animal.
A maintenance ration is the amount of food needed to
prevent any increase or decrease in the live weight of the
animal; this is just enough to supply energy for all
metabolic activities.
A production ration is a ration that supplies nutrients in
excess of maintenance; this excess is used for increased
production.
Rations are used for 2 processes: steaming up and
flushing. Steaming up is feeding a production ration used
in the late stages of pregnancy to increase mammary
tissues (tissues that produce milk in breasts) and their
blood supply. Flushing is feeding a production ration that
is used to increase the fertility rate of female livestock.
Answer: C
Artificial insemination (AI) is the introduction of semen into

the uterus of a female by artificial means, i.e. by means
the reproductive tract of the female in heat via artificial
insemination. Artificial insemination is carried out in cattle,
Answer: B

upper beak using a hot iron. It is no longer generally
practiced as it has been found to be cruel.
Candling is the process by which eggs are tested for
fertility. In this process, a light is shone through them. It
gets its name from when candles were used as the light
source. The process is carried out on artificially incubated
eggs between days 9–15 of incubation so that infertile and
bad eggs can be removed.
the first 2–3 weeks of their lives. It provides comfort for
the chicks, confines the chicks to an area in which they
are as safe as possible, and allows for easy record-
keeping e.g. of chick survival.
There is no such term as clutching in poultry production.
However, a clutch of eggs is the group of eggs laid by a
hen at any one time.
Answer: A
A dull coat, an offensive body odor and excessive

salivation are among the signs of illness in farm animals,
including cattle.
Answer: C
Three diseases that affect bees are American foulbrood,

European foulbrood, sacbrood disease & nosema disease.
The term ‘brood’ refers to bee eggs and larvae Both forms
of foulbrood kill larvae, leaving them discolored and foul-
smelling, hence the term ‘foulbrood’.
Answer: B

Answer: A
Grading is grouping based on specific criteria e.g. size,

weight and quality. Grading is necessary because different
sizes, weights, qualities etc. command different prices.

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CSEC AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE SA MAY/JUNE 2021 PAPER 1

Agricultural marketing includes all the services involved in

Biodiversity is all the diverse ecosystems and the

The functions of the WTC are:

Conventional farming is farming that traditionally makes

Synthetic or inorganic resources include synthetic or

Conventional farming is the opposite of organic farming;

The main objective of food safety is to protect consumers

Environmental bene ts of organic farming:

Inventory is a list of items or goods held in stock by a

Depreciation is aa reduction in the value of an asset over

Composting refers to the process by which organic matter

Factors other than price that change demand for the

During lent, the demand for sh increases. The demand

Demand is the quantity of a product that consumers are

Supply is the quantity of a product that vendors put on the

When supply is greater than demand, this leaves an

The price of a commodity in a perfect market is

A price support is government assistance in maintaining

The commodities may be export-oriented (sugar cane,

A credit rating is an estimate of the ability of a person or

If the person pays the installment promptly when it is due,

A variable cost (VC) is a cost that increases or decreases

For example, to increase production on a chicken farm,

Thus the amount of money spent on these inputs

Variable costs also include the value of the produce

A cooperative is a business venture that is collectively

A partial budget is prepared when there is a change in a

For example, a farmer may want to know whether

A partial budget provides an estimate of expected change

Both a complete budget and a partial budget are prepared

Gross income = number of birds × price per bird = 1000 ×

A soil pro le is a vertical section dug through a soil

Soil pro les can be used by farmers to determine:

See the notes below.

This fertilizer has 7% nitrogen (N), 14% phosphorus (P)

Intercropping is the cultivation of a short-term crop, for

Crop rotation is growing a series of crops in succession

Cover cropping is planting a crop that grows rapidly so

Slash and burn is a conventional farming system in which

This is a is a diagram of a rain gauge. A rain gauge is a

Germination is the process in which the plant embryo

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from anther to stigma.

Self-pollination is pollination in which pollen is transferred

Cross-pollination is pollination in which pollen is

Transpiration is the loss of water from a plant via its exit as

Transpiration cools the plant. However on hot days, high

Plants should therefore not be watered during the hottest

Transpiration is a ected by soil water, relative humidity, air

Fertilization is the union of the nuclei of male and female

On landing on the stigma, the pollen grain grows a pollen

The classes of weed control methods are:

Monohybrid inheritance is the inheritance of a single trait

Soil erosion is the process by which particles of topsoil

Alleles are di erent forms of a gene that code for

Integrated pest control, or integrated pest management

Cultural pest control is the practice of modifying the

Manual pest control is the use of hands-on techniques as

Chemical pest control is the use of pesticides to kill pests.

Mechanical pest control is the management and control of

Fungi thrive in damp conditions. Damp conditions are

High humidity decreases transpiration instead of

Since high humidity facilitates damp conditions, it

Farm mechanization decreases operation time, leads to