Agriculture is an art as well as a science.Any university that undertakes programs in Agricultural science related disciplines has as a matter of fact to as well undertake the study of related science and arts courses.In a particular reference to Nigerian academic system,there are three universities of agriculture in the country.It may interest one to know that virtually all the universities of agriculture undertake agricultural related science and art disciplines.Courses such as Physics,chemistry,in short all natural sciences as well as all aspects of engineering are of paramount importance to an average agricultural science students.
The question as to whether these courses should be studied in universities of agriculture should not arise.This is because agricultural science students need these courses to help prepare them well for in debt understanding of their courses.
A pure agricultural scientist as a scientist makes use of those scientific methods in production and research which natural scientists such as a Physicist also use.Taking these two courses; Physics and Agriculture,both are related in very many ways.Physics has contributed much to agricultural development.Areas where they are related includes the following:
There is an area in Physics called soil physics otherwise called agrophysics.This area studies the physical properties of the soil.It studies the effects of the physical variables such as temperature,pressure,humidity etc. on soil culture.
With emphasis on the state and the transport of soil matter such as water, energy and even nutrients in the soil.
The sud discipline to this is the soil mechanics.It undertakes the to study the process of determining the soil properties such as the water holding capacity, soil aeration bulk density,soil permeability,shear strength, soil pressure,soil texture, soil temperature etc.
Advancement in areas of Physics are used to improve the methods of planting,harvesting ,preservation, processing and storage of agricultural products.
Therefore as we can see now from this little treatise that questioning the existence of a Physics department in a university of agriculture is a step in the wrong direction.You can even attest to that.