Improvement In Food Resources

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Basic Introduction

• Food supplies proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, all of which we require for body development, growth and health.
• We obtain most of this food from agriculture and animal husbandry.
• Increasing the incomes of people working in agriculture is therefore necessary to combat the problem of hunger. Scientific management practices should be undertaken to obtain high yields from farms.

• White revolution – Milk
• Blue revolution – Water
• Green revolution – Food Crops

• Pulses and their local names :

1. Gram – chana
2. Pea – Matar
3. Black gram – urad
4. Green gram – moong
5. Pigeon pea – Arhar
6. Lentil– masoor

Gram

Pea

Black Gram

Pigeon Pea

Lentils

• Oil seeds :

1. Soyabean
2. Ground nut
3. Sesame
4. Castor
5. Mustard
6. Linseed
7. Sunflower

• Fodder crops :

1. Berseem
2. Oats
3. Sudan grass

Crops

Kharif Crops	Rabi Crops
Crops which are grown in rainy season from the month of June to October.	Crops grown during winter season from the month of November to April.
Eg- Paddy, soyabean, pigeon pea, maize, cotton, green gram and black gram	Eg – wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed

• In India there has been a four times increase in the production of food grains from 1952 to 2010 with only 25% increase in the cultivable land area.

• The major groups of activities for improving crop yields can be classified as:

1. Crop variety improvement
2. Crop production improvement
3. Crop protection management.

Crop Variety Improvement

• Varieties or strains of crops can be selected by breeding for various useful characteristics such as disease resistance, response to fertilizers, product quality and high yields. One way of incorporating desirable characters into crop varieties is by hybridization.
• The process of an animal or plant breeding with an individual of another species or variety.
• Different types of crosses :

1. Intervarietal(between different varieties).
2. Interspecific(between two different species of the same genus).
3. Intergeneric(between different genera).

• Cultivation practices and crop yield are related to weather, soil quality and availability of water.

• Some of the factors for which variety improvement is done are:

1. Higher yield:  To increase the productivity of the crop per acre.
2. Improved quality: Quality considerations of crop products vary from crop to crop. Baking quality is important in wheat, protein quality in pulses oil quality in oilseeds and preserving quality in fruits and vegetables.
3. Biotic and abiotic resistance: Crops production can go down due to biotic (diseases, insects and nematodes) and drought (drought, salinity, water logging, heat, cold and frost) stresses under different situations. Varieties resistant to these stresses can improve crop production.
4. Wider adaptability: Developing varieties for wider adaptability will help in stabilizing the crop production under different environmental conditions. One variety can then be grown under different climatic conditions in different areas.
5. Desirable agronomic characteristics: Tallness and profuse branching are desirable characters for fodder crops. Dwarfness is desired in cereals, so that less nutrients are consumed by these crops. Thus developing varieties of desired agronomic characters help give higher productivity.

Crop Production Management

• There is a correlation between higher inputs and yields.
• Thus, the farmer’s purchasing capacity for inputs decides cropping system and production practices.
• Production practices can be at different levels.
• They include ‘no cost’ production, ‘low cost’ production and ‘high cost’ production practices.

• Nutrient Management:

1. Nutrients are supplied to plants by air, water and soil. There are several nutrients which are essential for plants.
2. Air supplies carbon and oxygen.
3. Hydrogen comes from water.

• Soil supplies total 13 basic nutrients which are divided into two groups :

Micro – nutrients	Macro – nutrients
Nutrients which are required in large quantities.	Nutrients which are required in small quantities.
Eg – Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur.	Eg – Iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, chlorine.

• Deficiency of these nutrients affects physiological processes in plants including reproduction, growth and susceptibility to diseases.

• Manure:

1. Manure is prepared by the decomposition of animal excreta and plant waste.
2. Manure helps in enriching soil with nutrients and organic matter and increasing soil fertility.
3. This involves increasing the water holding capacity in sandy soils.
4. In clayey soils, the large quantities of organic matter help in drainage and in avoiding water logging.
5. It is advantageous in protecting our environment from excessive use of fertilizers.
6. Using biological waste material is also a way of recycling farm waste.
7. Manure classification :

1. Compost and vermi – compost
2. Green manure

• Irrigation

• Most agriculture in India is rain-fed, that is, the success of crops in most areas is dependent on timely monsoons and sufficient rainfall spread through most of the growing season.
• Water resources available for irrigation purposes are :

1. Wells
2. Canals
3. Tanks
4. River – lift systems

• Fresh initiatives for increasing the water available for agriculture include rainwater harvesting and watershed management.

• The two types of wells are :

1. Dug well : Water is collected from water bearing strata.
2. Tube wells : Tube wells can tap water from the deeper strata. From these wells, water is lifted by pumps for irrigation.

• This is usually an elaborate and extensive irrigation system. In this system canals receive water from one or more reservoirs or from rivers.
• The main canal is divided into branch canals having further distributaries to irrigate fields.

• These are small storage reservoirs, which intercept and store the run-off of smaller catchment areas.
• In areas where canal flow is insufficient or irregular due to inadequate reservoir release, the lift system is more rational. Water is directly drawn from the rivers for supplementing irrigation in areas close to rivers.

Tanks for irrigation

River lift – systems

Cropping Patterns

• The 3 basic different kinds of cropping patterns are:

• Mixed cropping

1. Mixed cropping is growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land, for example, wheat + gram, or wheat + mustard, or groundnut + sunflower.
2. This reduces risk and gives some insurance against failure of one of the crops.

• Inter – cropping

1. Inter-cropping is growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same field in a definite pattern. A few rows of one crop alternate with a few rows of a second crop, for example, soyabean + maize, or finger millet (bajra) + cowpea (lobia).
2. The crops are selected such that their nutrient requirements are different.

• Crop rotation

1. The growing of different crops on a piece of land in a pre-planned succession is known as crop rotation.
2. The availability of moisture and irrigation facilities decide the choice of the crop to be cultivated after one harvest. If crop rotation is done properly then two or three crops can be grown in a year with good harvests.

• Storage Of Grains

Crop Protection Management

• Field crops are infested by a large number of weeds, insect pests and diseases. If weeds and pests are not controlled at the appropriate time then they can damage the crops so much that most of the crop is lost.
• Weeds and their scientific names :

1. Xanthium– Gokhroo
2. Parthenium- Gajarghas
3. Cyperinusrotundus – Motha

• Why weeds are harmful :

1. They compete for food, space and light.
2. Weeds take up nutrients and reduce the growth of the crop.

• Insect pests attack the plants in 3 ways :

1. They cut the root, stem and leaf.
2. They suck the cell sap from various parts of the plant.
3. They bore into stem and fruits.

• Diseases in plants are caused by pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and viruses. These pathogens can be present in and transmitted through the soil, water and air.
• Weeds, insects and diseases can be controlled by pesticides, which include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.
• Some other preventive measures against pests are the use of resistant varieties, and summer ploughing, in which fields are ploughed deep in summers to destroy weeds and pests.

Poultry Farming

• Poultry farming is undertaken to raise domestic fowl for egg production and chicken meat.

1. Indian breed – Aseel
2. Foreign breed – Leghorn

• Cross – breeding is done considering the following desirable traits :

1. Number and quality of chicks
2. Dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production
3. Summer adaptation capacity/ tolerance to high temperature.
4. Low maintenance requirements
5. Reduction in the size of the egg-laying bird with ability to utilize more fibrous cheaper diets formulated using agricultural by-products.

Egg & Broiler Production

• Broiler chickens are fed with vitamin-rich supplementary feed for good growth rate and better feed efficiency.
• They are produced as broilers and sent to market for meat purposes.
• For good production of poultry birds such practices must be done :

1. Maintenance of temperature and hygienic conditions in housing.
2. Poultry feed.
3. Prevention and control of diseases and pests.

• The ration (daily food requirement) for broilers is protein rich with adequate fat.
• The level of vitamins A and K is kept high in the poultry feeds.
• Diseases and their prevention :

1. Appropriate vaccination can prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases and reduce loss of poultry during an outbreak of disease.

Chickens kept in a poultry

Fish Production

• Fish is a major source of protein for our diet.
• Examples of shellfish are prawns and molluscs.

• Marine Fisheries

• Popular marine fish varieties include :-

1. Pomphret
2. Mackerel
3. Tuna
4. Sardines
5. Bombay duck

• Yields are increased by locating large schools of fish in the open sea using satellites and echo-sounders.

• Marine fishes with high economic value :

1. Mullets
2. Bhetki
3. Pearl spots
4. Shellfish such as prawns, mussels and oysters as well as seaweed.

Mullets

Bhetki

Pearl Spots

Oysters

• Note -One problem with such composite fish culture is that many of these fish breed only during monsoon.
• To overcome this problem, ways have now been worked out to breed these fish in ponds using hormonal stimulation. This has ensured the supply of pure fish seed in desired quantities.

• Inland Fisheries

Inland fisheries refer to fishing activities that take place in freshwater bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs.

Catla

Rohu

Bee-Keeping

• Practice of culturing beehives for obtaining honey and bee-wax.
• Kinds of bees and their zoological names :

1. Apis cerana indica – Indian bee
2. Apis dorsata – rock bee
3. Apis florae – little bee
4. Apis mellifera – Italian bee

• Benefits of Italian bee variety :

1. The Italian bees have high honey collection capacity.
2. They sting somewhat less. They stay in a given beehive for long periods, and breed very well.

• Note – The value or quality of honey depends upon the pasturage, or the flowers available to the bees for nectar and pollen collection.