All living organisms need food to survive. Food supplies protein
carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. India is a very populous
country. The need for food is increasing with the increasing population.
Several efforts are made to satisfy the demand by increasing food
production. There is a need for sustainable practices in agriculture and
animal husbandry because it is important to increase food production
without degrading the environment or disturbing the balances.
Improvement in crop yield
Cereals such as wheat, rice, maize, millets and sorghum provide us
carbohydrate for energy requirement. While spices and fruits provide a
range of vitamin and minerals in addition to small amount of protein
carbohydrates and fats. Different crop requires different climate condition
temperature and photoperiods for their growth and completion of their life
cycle
Some crops which are grown in rainy season are called as Kharif crops grown in the month of June to October. Paddy,
soybean, maize are examples of kharif crop.
Some crops which are grown in the winter season called the Ravi crops grown in the month of November to April. Wheat
gram mustard linseeds are some example of Ravi crops.
India has increased the production of food grains by 4 times between the
time period of 1960 to 2004 with only 25% increase in the cultivable land
area.
Practice of farming involves three stages:
Choosing the seeds to be planted
Different nutrition techniques of the crop plants
Protection of the growing and harvested crops from loss.
The major activities for improving crop yield:
Crop variety improvement
Crop production improvement
Crop protection improvement.
Crop variety improvement
The improvement through this approach depends on finding a crop variety
that can give a good yield. Varieties of strains of crop can be selected by
breeding for various useful characteristics such as disease resistance,
response to fertilizer, product quality and high yield.
New variety of crops can be accepted if the variety produces high yield
under different conditions that are found in different areas.
Factors for which variety improvement is done:
High yield:
to increase the productivity of crop per unit area.
Improve quality:
characteristic of crop product varies from crop to crop. For example,
baking quality is important in wheat.
Biotic and abiotic resistances:
crop production can go down due to biotic and abiotic stress under
different situation. It should be resistant to those.
Change in maturity duration:
the shorter the duration of the crop from sowing to harvesting the more
economical is the variety.
Wider adaptability:
developing varieties of credibility will help in stabilizing the crop
production under different environmental condition.
Desirable and agronomic characteristics:
tallness and profuse branching are desirable characteristic for fodder
crops.
Crop production management
It is the money or financial condition that allows farmers to take up
different farming practices and agricultural technologies. There is a
correlation between higher input and yields. Production practices can be at
different level; that includes no cost production, low cost production and high cost production practices.
Nutrient management
Nutrients are supplied to plant by air, water and soil there are 16
nutrients which are essential for plants. Amongst them 13 nutrients
provided by soil, six are used in large quantity and therefore called macronutrients and other 7 nutrients are used by plant in
small quantities called micronutrients.
Deficiency of any nutrients effect physiological processes in plant
including reproduction, growth and susceptibility to disease.
Manure
Manure contents large quantity of organic matter and supplies small
quantity of nutrients to the soil. Manure is prepared by the decomposition
of animal excreta and plant waste. In using manure, we use biological waste
material which is advantages in protecting our environment from excessive
use of fertilizers.
Manure can be classified as:
Compost and Vermicompost
: livestock excreta, vegetable waste, domestic waste decomposed in a pit
known as composting. Composite is also prepared by using earthworms to do
the process of decomposition of plant and animal refuse this is called
vermicompost.
Green manure:
prior to sowing crop seeds some plants like sun hemp are grown, and then
mulched by ploughing them into the soil, these plants turn into green
manure enriching the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus.
Fertilizers
Commercially produced plant nutrients. Fertilizers supply nitrogen
phosphorus and potassium. They are used to ensure good vegetable growth
giving rise to healthy plants. Fertilizer is a factor in the higher yields
of high cost farming.
Fertilizers should be used in proper dose, time and observing pre and post
application. Excess of fertilizers usage leads to water pollution.
Irrigation
Most agriculture in India is rain feed. The success of crops yields in most
area is dependent on timely monsoon and enough rainfall spread through most
of the growing season. Ensuring that the crops get water at the right
stages during their growth season can increase the expected yield of the
crop. Water for irrigation are used from different sources that are wells,
canals, rivers and tanks.
Wells:
there are two type of wells namely dug wells and tubewells. Dug well
collect water from water bearing strata whereas tubewells can trap water
from the deeper strata.
Canals:
this is usually an elaborated and extensive irrigation system. This system
of canals receive water from one or more reservoirs or from rivers.
River lift systems
: canal sometimes is insufficient or irregular due to inadequate reservoir
release, the lift system is more rational. Water is directly drawn from the
river and send to the region close to the river for supplementing
irrigation.
Tanks:
these are small storage reservoir which intercept and stores the runoff of
smaller catchment areas.
Cropping patterns
Different way of growing crops can be used to have maximum benefit.
Mixed cropping
is growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land for
example wheat + gram or wheat + mustard. This reduces risk and give some
insurance against failure of one of the crops.
Intercropping
is growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same field in a definite
pattern. A few rows of one crop alternate with few rows of second crop. For
example, soybean + maize or finger millet + cowpea. This ensures maximum
utilization of the nutrients supplied by the soil.
Crop rotation
is the process in which growing of different crop on the same piece of land
in a pre-planned succession. Depending upon the duration crop rotation is
done for different crop combination. If rotation is done properly then two
to three crops can be grown in a year with good harvest.
Crop protection management
Field crops are infected by many weeds, insect, pest and diseases. If these
weeds and paste are not controlled at appropriate time, then they can
damage the crop so much that most of the crop is lost. Weeds are unwanted
plant in a cultivated field. Xanthium and parthenium are some example of
weeds.
Generally, insect, pest attack plant in three ways:
They cut the root stem and leaves.
The sucks the cell sap from various part of the plant.
They bore into stems and fruits of the plant.
Diseases in plant are caused by pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and
viruses.
Weeds, insects and diseases can be controlled by various methods. Most
commonly used method is using pesticides which includes herbicides,
pesticides and fungicides. Weeds control methods also include mechanical
process. Preventive methods are proper seed bed preparation, timely sowing
of crops, intercropping and crop rotation.
Storage of grains
Storage losses in agricultural produce can be a very high. Factors
responsible for such losses can be biotic like insects, rodents, fungi,
mites and bacteria and abiotic- cause like inappropriate moisture and
temperature in place of storage.
Preventive and control measures are used before grains are stored for
future use, that includes strict cleaning of the produce before storage,
proper drying of the produce first in sunlight and then in shade and then
fumigation using chemical that can kill pests.
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the scientific management of animal livestock. It
includes various aspects such as feeding, breeding and disease control. As
population increases, living standard also increases and the demand for
milk, egg and meat is also going up. Thus, the livestock production also
needs to be improved.
Cattle farming
Cattle husbandry is done for two purposes, milk and draught labour for
agricultural work such as tilling, irrigation and carting. Milk producing
females are called milch animals the one used for farm
labour are called draught animals. Milk production depends
on the duration of the lactation period.
The food requirement of dairy animals is of two types:
Maintenance requirement,
which is the food required to support the animal to live a healthy life.
Milk producing requirement
, the type of food required during the lactation period.
Animal feed includes roughage which is largely fibre. Concentrates which is
low in fibre contents and contains relatively high level of protein and
other nutrients.
Cattle suffers from several diseases, the diseases besides causing death
reduces milk production. A healthy animal feeds regularly and have a normal
posture. The parasites of cattle maybe both external parasite and internal
parasites. Vaccinations are given to farm animals against many major viral
and bacterial diseases.
Poultry farming
Poultry farming is undertaken to raise domestic fowl for egg production and
chicken meat. Improved poultry breeds are developed and farmed to produce
layers for eggs and broilers for meat.
The crossbreeding programs between Indian and foreign breeds for variety
improvement are focused on developing new variety for following desirable traits:
Number and quality of chicks.
Dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production.
Summer adaptation capacity.
Low maintenance requirement.
Reduction in the size of the egg laying birds with the ability to utilize
more fibrous cheaper diet.
Egg and broiler production
Broiler chicks are fed with vitamin rich supplementary feeds for good
growth rate and better feed efficiency. Special care is taken to avoid
mortality and to maintain feathering and carcass quality.
For good production of poultry birds, good management practices are
important. It includes maintenance of temperature and hygienic condition in
housing and poultry feed, as well as preventing and controlling of disease
and pests.
Poultry fowl suffers from several diseases caused by virus, bacteria, fungi
and parasites. These necessitate proper cleaning, sanitation and spraying
of disinfectant at regular intervals.
Fish production
Fish is a cheap source of animal protein for our food. Fish production
includes the fine true fish as well as shellfish such as prawns and
mollusks. There are two ways of obtaining fish one is form natural
resource, which is called capture fishing, the other way
is fish farming which is called culture fishery. Fishing can be done both
by capture and culture of fish in marine and freshwater ecosystem.
Marine fishery
Indian marine fishery resources includes 7500 kilometer of coastline and
the deep seas beyond it. Some marine fishes of high economic value also
farmed in seawater. Includes finned fish like mullets, bhetki and pearl
spots, and shellfishes such as prawns. Oysters are also cultivated for the
pearl they make.
Inland fisheries
Freshwater resources include canals, ponds, reservoirs and rivers. Brackish
water resources where sea water and freshwater mix together estuaries and
lagoons are also important fish reservoirs. Fish culture in sometime done
in combination with rice crop so that fish are grown in the water in the
paddy field.
More intensive fish farming can be done in composite fish culture system. Both local and imported
fish species are used in such system, a combination of five or six fish
species is used in a single fishpond.
One problem with composite fish culture is that many of the fish breed only
during monsoon. To overcome this problem, which have now been worked out to
breed this fish in pond using hormonal stimulation which ensures the supply
of pure fish seeds in desired quantities.
Beekeeping
Honey is widely used and therefore bee keeping for making honey has become
an agricultural enterprise. It needs low investment, so farmer use it as an
additional income generating activity. The local varieties of bees used for
commercial honey production are the Indian bee, and the little bee.
An Italian bee variety is also bought to increase yield of honey, this
variety is commonly used for commercial honey production.
Quality of honey depends upon the pasturage, or the flowers available to
the bees for nectar and pollen collection. The kind of flowers available
determines the taste of the honey.