Crop Production, Nitrogen Cycle, and Animal Husbandry

Vocabulary flashcards covering nitrogen transformation stages, crop cultivation and protection strategies, grain harvesting techniques, and animal husbandry practices.

Nitrogen Assimilation

The process by which the roots of leguminous plants absorb fixed inorganic nitrogen and convert it into usable organic compounds, such as proteins, within living organisms.

Ammonification

The process where decomposers and microbes break down proteins and organic nitrogen from dead plants and animals, converting them into ammonia.

Nitrification

The soil process in which nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia produced from decomposed matter into nitrates.

Denitrification

The process wherein denitrifying bacteria break down soil nitrates and decaying matter, releasing nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere to complete the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen Cycle

The cyclic series of five main processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is fixed into a usable form for living organisms and eventually returned to the atmosphere.

Biological Nitrogen Fixation

The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into inorganic compounds by microorganisms like Rhizobium bacteria present in the root nodules of leguminous plants.

Atmospheric Nitrogen Fixation

The abiotic process where lightning causes nitrogen and oxygen to react into nitrogen oxides, which react with rainwater to form dilute nitric acid and subsequently react with soil alkalis to produce nitrates.

Rhizobium

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria located at the roots of leguminous crops (such as peas and beans) that absorb atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into compounds usable by plants.

Nitrobacter

A genus of nitrifying bacteria in the soil responsible for forming nitrites.

Plant Breeding

A technique utilized by farmers and agricultural scientists to alter and enhance the genetic makeup of crops to make them economically more useful.

Hybridisation

The agricultural technique of crossing two distinct varieties of a crop to combine the desired parent traits into the resulting offspring.

Hybrid

The offspring generated through hybridisation, which often exhibits superior characteristics such as increased yield, disease resistance, or drought tolerance.

Biological Pest Control

The method of managing pest populations by introducing living predatory organisms (such as ladybirds to consume aphids) without harming the crops.

Pheromones

Eco-friendly attractant chemicals deployed to lure adult male insects into specialized traps, stopping them from mating and breeding.

Harvesting

The process of cutting down and gathering mature agricultural crops, either manually using a sickle or mechanically with a harvester.

Threshing

The process of separating and loosening grain from its surrounding husk, achieved by beating stalks on a hard surface or employing a machine called a thresher.

Combine

A multifunctional farm machine engineered to carry out both harvesting and threshing concurrently.

Chaff

The light, papery husks detached and left behind from cereal grains after the threshing stage.

Winnowing

The separation technique where harvested grain is dropped from a height so the wind carries away the lighter chaff while the heavier grains drop directly down.

Silos and Granaries

Specialized large-scale storage installations designed to hold dried grains safe from moisture, microbes, insects, and rodents.

Broadcasting

The traditional method of sowing seeds by manually scattering them by hand across a ploughed field.

Animal Husbandry

The large-scale agricultural practice of breeding, rearing, and caring for domesticated animals for milk, meat, eggs, and other resources.

Integrated Farming

A holistic farming approach that pairs dairy and poultry husbandry with pisciculture so that animal wastes serve as nutrient feed for fish.

Dairy Farming

The branch of animal husbandry concerned with the keeping and breeding of dairy animals for milk and milk-based products like ghee, butter, and cheese.

Poultry Farming

The practice of raising and breeding birds to produce meat and eggs.

Apiaries

Large specialized rearing boxes or setups where honeybees are kept and cultivated on a large commercial scale.

Apiculture

The commercial rearing and management of honeybees for the extraction of honey and related products.

Pisciculture

The specialized, large-scale breeding, rearing, and harvesting of fish.

Professor MS Swaminathan

Renowned Indian scientist born on August 7, 1925 in Tamil Nadu, recognized as the 'Father of Green Revolution' in India for introducing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice to farmers.