CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Agriculture is the art of growing crops and rearing animals for man’s use. Adelkan, Duru, Laleye, Bayero and Idowu (2009), defined agriculture as the science and practice of cultivating the soil, growing, harvesting of crops and rearing of livestock to provide food for man and raw materials for industry. In the submission of Onuigbo (2009), agriculture is the cultivation of crops, raising animals, breeding livestock, processing, storage, distribution and marketing of agricultural products. Agriculture is very important to man’s existence. Ojo and Olatunji (2012), noted that agriculture is important to man and the society in producing food for man and animals, clothing, shelter, fuel (fire wood), income and employment for the citizens. Other importance of agriculture is provision of raw material for industries, market for agro-allied industries and materials for recreation (horse for polo game and aquarium) among others. Importance of agriculture is implicit in the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which stipulated that poverty and hunger are to be eradicated in the world by 2015. The MDGs are eight goals articulated to address the world’s main development challenges, which are to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs were drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the United Nations Millennium Summit held from Wednesday 6th September to Friday 8th September 2000 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The eight goals as contained in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2008) document are: Goal 1is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Goal 2 is to achieve universal primary education, Goal 3 is to promote gender equality and empower women, Goal 4 is to reduce child mortality, Goal 5 is to improve maternal health, Goal 6 is to combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases, Goal 7 is to ensure environmental sustainability and Goal 8 is to develop a global partnership for development. With the adoption of the goals and the contents of the MDGs, many countries of the world have embarked on curriculum reforms to achieve the MDGs goals. In Nigeria, the National Council on Education (NCE) at its meeting in Ibadan in December 2005 directed the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to develop a new curriculum. The mandate by the NCE on the NERDC resulted in the 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum. The above mandate was affirmed by Obioma in NERDC (2007) when the author noted that following the decision of the federal government to introduce the 9-year basic education programme, and the need to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, and by extension, the need to implement the National Economic and Empowerment Development Strategies (NEEDs), it has become imperative that the existing curricula for primary and junior secondary schools be reviewed, re-structured and re-aligned to the 9–Year Basic Education Programme. The author further stated that the Basic Education Curriculum structure is made up of Lower Basic Education Curriculum (Primaries 1-3), Middle Basic Education Curriculum (Primaries 4-6) and Upper Basic Education Curriculum (JSS 1-3), each with the corresponding subjects . One of the subjects which is of interest to the researcher at the upper basic education level is Agriculture. The new curriculum on Agriculture as a subject at the nine year basic education has four objectives, which include making students: a. develop interest in Agriculture; (affective domain) b. acquire basic knowledge and skills of Agriculture (cognitive and psychomotor domains) c. apply the knowledge and skills acquired to meet societal needs (psychomotor domain). d. take advantage of the numerous career opportunities offered by Agriculture, and become prepared for further studies in Agriculture (NERDC in Onu & Ugwuoke, 2011). These objectives indicate that the three domains of learning – the cognitive, the affective and psychomotor domains are emphasized. In order to achieve the above objectives, many interested authors embarked on development of teaching and learning materials to help teachers in teaching the subject, which resulted to different agricultural textbooks. In the submission of The State of Indiana (TSI, 2009), textbook is a systematically organized material designed to provide a specific level of instruction in a subject matter. Textbook in the view of Schneider (2007), is a teaching tool or material that presents the subject matter defined by the curriculum. In the statement of Goslin (2013), a textbook is a printed and bound artifact for a course of study and contains facts and ideas around a certain subject. The author noted that textbooks are not like other books, because they are made to follow a set standard curriculum for a school system. Agriculture textbook is therefore a teaching tool or material that presents the curriculum content of Agriculture. Textbook as a teaching tool or learning material has certain qualities that make it effective in teaching and learning. In the view of Asogwa in Igbokwe and Eze (2009), the factors to be considered in selecting a textbook for use by students include: Content coverage, appropriateness to the class level/age; key principles precisely and clearly stated; detailed and consistent explanations and interpretation; good text structure and layout among others. In the submission of Spicuzza (2009), the criteria expected to be present in textbook material for use in classrooms in South Washington County schools are: general information about the textbook and supporting materials; content; lesson design and instructional strategies, assessment; and universal design. It therefore means that the content of a textbook is a generally accepted criterion for its selection. Content of a textbook is the total knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to be learnt in a subject by the learners, which are presented by the author(s) in the book. Content of a textbook in the view of Spicuzza (2009) refers to an accurate and appropriate depth coverage of all the topics, provision of references for students, identification of outcomes and goals to the students, clear presentation and addressing of specific vocabulary and appropriate illustrations in a book. In the view of Nworgu as cited in Okafor (2008), content of textbook refers to its topical coverage, learning activities, study questions, illustrations and chapter summaries. This last view of the concept of content of textbook is a more operationalized (stated in measurable form) concept and will be equally adopted for this study. The value of each indicator of content (topical coverage, chapter summaries, illustrations, study questions and learning activities) of a textbook need to be determined to give an index of the content of the entire textbook. Such index obtained on a textbook can be used to judge the worth of a textbook, and this is evaluation.

1. 1. This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research work
2. 2. As a source for additional understanding of the subject.
3. 3. As a source for ideas for your own research work (if properly referenced).
4. 4. For PROPER paraphrasing (see your university definition of plagiarism and acceptable paraphrase)
5. 5. Direct citing (if referenced properly)
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