Neco 2018 Agricultural Science Question 36

An extension officer is evaluating two pest‑management options for a maize farm of 1 ha. Option A (conventional) uses chemical pesticide costing N5,000 per ha and gives an average yield of 3.5 t ha⁻¹. The market price of maize is N500 per kg. Option B (integrated pest management, IPM) requires a one‑time training cost of N5,000 per ha and reduces pesticide cost to N2,000 per ha. IPM is expected to increase the yield by an unknown percent \(p\) relative to the conventional yield. The officer wants the IPM profit to be at least \(5\%\) higher than the profit from the conventional method. What is the minimum whole‑number percent increase in yield (\(p\), in \(\%\)) that the IPM must achieve? Round up to the nearest whole percent.