Class IX Science

Chapter - 15 Improvement in Food Resources

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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.

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