Improvement in Food Resources: Comprehensive Notes

Improvement in Food Resources

Importance of Food

  • All living organisms require food for:
    • Supply of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
    • Body development, growth, and health.
  • Major sources of food:
    • Plants.
    • Animals.
  • Food is obtained from agriculture and animal husbandry.
  • There is a need to improve production due to the growing population.
    • India's population is over one billion and growing.
    • Need to produce more than a quarter of a billion tonnes of grain every year.
  • Limited scope for increasing land under cultivation necessitates increased production efficiency.
  • Green Revolution: Increased food-grain production.
  • White Revolution: Better and more efficient milk production and availability.
  • Intensive use of natural resources can lead to damage and imbalance.
  • Importance of sustainable practices in agriculture and animal husbandry to avoid environmental degradation.
  • Increased grain production alone does not solve malnutrition and hunger; food security requires availability and accessibility.
  • The majority of the population relies on agriculture for livelihood.
  • Scientific management practices for high yields.
  • Sustained livelihood through mixed farming, intercropping, and integrated farming (e.g., agriculture with livestock).

Improving Crop Yields

  • Cereals provide carbohydrates for energy (e.g., wheat, rice, maize).
  • Pulses provide protein (e.g., gram, pea, black gram).
  • Oil seeds provide fats (e.g., soyabean, ground nut, sesame).
  • Vegetables, spices, and fruits provide vitamins and minerals.
  • Fodder crops (e.g., berseem, oats) are raised for livestock.
  • Kharif season: June to October (rainy season).
    • Crops: Paddy, soyabean, pigeon pea, maize, cotton, green gram, black gram.
  • Rabi season: November to April (winter season).
    • Crops: Wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed.
  • Significant increase in food grain production from 1952 to 2010 with a smaller increase in cultivable land.
    • Four times increase in production with only 25% increase in land.
  • Three stages of farming:
    • Choice of seeds.
    • Nurturing crop plants.
    • Protection of crops.
  • Major groups of activities for improving crop yields:
    • Crop variety improvement.
    • Crop production improvement.
    • Crop protection management.

Crop Variety Improvement

  • Finding crop varieties with good yield.
  • Breeding for characteristics like disease resistance, response to fertilizers, product quality, and high yields.
  • Hybridisation: Crossing genetically dissimilar plants (intervarietal, interspecific, or intergeneric).
  • Introducing desirable genes to create genetically modified crops.
  • New varieties must produce high yields under different conditions.
  • Farmers need good quality seeds that germinate under the same conditions.
  • Cultivation practices and yield are related to weather, soil quality, and water availability.
  • Varieties that can grow in diverse climatic conditions are useful.
  • Varieties tolerant to high soil salinity are being developed.
  • Factors for variety improvement:
    • Higher Yield: Increase productivity per acre.
    • Improved Quality: Baking quality in wheat, protein quality in pulses, oil quality in oilseeds.
    • Biotic and Abiotic Resistance: Resistance to diseases, insects, drought, salinity, etc.
    • Change in Maturity Duration: Shorter duration is more economical and allows for multiple crops.
    • Wider Adaptability: Stabilizes crop production under different conditions.
    • Desirable Agronomic Characteristics: Tallness for fodder crops, dwarfness for cereals.

Crop Production Management

  • Farming varies from small to large farms; financial conditions affect farming practices.
  • Correlation between higher inputs and yields.
  • Production practices:
    • No cost.
    • Low cost.
    • High cost.
Nutrient Management
  • Plants require nutrients for growth, supplied by air, water, and soil.
  • Air: Carbon and oxygen.
  • Water: Hydrogen.
  • Soil: Thirteen other nutrients.
  • Macronutrients: Required in large quantities (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium).
  • Micronutrients: Required in small quantities (e.g., iron, manganese, boron).
  • Deficiency affects physiological processes.
  • Soil is enriched with manure and fertilizers to increase yield.
Manure
  • Contains organic matter and supplies nutrients.
  • Prepared by decomposition of animal excreta and plant waste.
  • Enriches soil and improves soil structure.
  • Increases water holding capacity in sandy soils and improves drainage in clayey soils.
  • Uses biological waste material, protecting the environment.
  • Types of manure:
    • Compost and vermi-compost: Decomposition of farm waste in pits, using earthworms in vermi-compost.
    • Green manure: Ploughing green plants like sun hemp into the soil to enrich it with nitrogen and phosphorus.
Fertilizers
  • Commercially produced plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium).
  • Ensure good vegetative growth.
  • Factor in higher yields of high-cost farming.
  • Applied carefully to avoid water pollution and soil fertility destruction.
  • Continuous use can harm soil microorganisms.
  • Consider short-term benefits of fertilizers vs. long-term benefits of manure.
Organic Farming
  • Minimal or no use of chemicals.
  • Maximum input of organic manures and recycled farm wastes.
  • Use of bio-agents (e.g., blue-green algae) and bio-pesticides (e.g., neem leaves).
  • Healthy cropping systems (mixed cropping, inter-cropping, crop rotation).
  • Beneficial in pest control and providing nutrients.
Irrigation
  • Most Indian agriculture is rain-fed.
  • Poor monsoons cause crop failure.
  • Ensuring water supply at the right stages increases yield.
  • Different irrigation systems are adopted based on water resources:
    • Wells: Dug wells and tube wells, water lifted by pumps.
    • Canals: Receive water from reservoirs or rivers, divided into distributaries.
    • River Lift Systems: Water drawn directly from rivers.
    • Tanks: Small storage reservoirs.
  • Rainwater harvesting and watershed management increase water availability and reduce soil erosion.
  • Building check-dams increases ground water levels.
Cropping Patterns
  • Different ways of growing crops for maximum benefit:
    • Mixed cropping: Growing two or more crops simultaneously (e.g., wheat + gram).
      • Reduces risk of failure.
    • Inter-cropping: Growing two or more crops in a definite pattern (e.g., soyabean + maize).
      • Ensures maximum nutrient utilisation and prevents pest spread.
    • Crop rotation: Growing different crops in a pre-planned succession.
      • Maintains a balance of nutrients.
      • Can grow two or three crops a year.

Crop Protection Management

  • Field crops are infested by weeds, insect pests, and diseases.
  • Weeds compete for food, space, and light.
    • Examples: Xanthium, Parthenium, Cyperus rotundus.
  • Insects attack roots, stems, leaves, or suck cell sap.
  • Diseases are caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
  • Control methods:
    • Pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides).
      • Excessive use can be poisonous and cause pollution.
    • Mechanical removal of weeds.
    • Preventive methods: Proper seedbed preparation, timely sowing, intercropping, and crop rotation.
    • Use of resistant varieties and summer ploughing.
Storage of Grains
  • Storage losses can be high due to biotic (insects, rodents, fungi) and abiotic (moisture, temperature) factors.
  • Factors cause degradation in quality, loss in weight and poor germinability.
  • Preventive and control measures:
    • Cleaning the produce.
    • Drying in sunlight and shade.
    • Fumigation.

Animal Husbandry

  • Scientific management of animal livestock, including feeding, breeding, and disease control.
  • Includes cattle, goat, sheep, poultry, and fish farming.
  • Demand for milk, eggs, and meat is increasing.
  • Livestock production needs to be improved with humane treatment.

Cattle Farming

  • Done for milk and draught labor.
  • Indian cattle species: Bos indicus (cows) and Bos bubalis (buffaloes).
  • Milk-producing females are milch animals; those for farm labor are draught animals.
  • Milk production depends on the lactation period.
  • Exotic breeds (e.g., Jersey, Brown Swiss) for long lactation periods.
  • Local breeds (e.g., Red Sindhi, Sahiwal) for disease resistance.
  • Cross-breeding to combine desired qualities.
  • Proper cleaning and shelter for health and clean milk production.
  • Regular brushing and well-ventilated sheds.
  • Sloping floors for dryness and cleaning.
  • Food requirements:
    • Maintenance requirement.
    • Milk producing requirement.
  • Animal feed:
    • Roughage (high in fibre).
    • Concentrates (low in fibre, high in protein).
  • Balanced rations and feed additives for health and milk output.
  • Cattle diseases reduce milk production; parasites (external and internal) and infectious diseases (bacteria and viruses) affect health.
  • Vaccinations are given against major diseases.

Poultry Farming

  • Raising domestic fowl for egg production (layers) and chicken meat (broilers).
  • Improved breeds are developed through cross-breeding between Indian (e.g., Aseel) and foreign (e.g., Leghorn) breeds.
  • Desirable traits:
    • Number and quality of chicks.
    • Dwarf broiler parent.
    • Summer adaptation.
    • Low maintenance.
    • Reduction in egg-laying bird size.
  • Broiler ration is protein-rich with adequate fat and vitamins A and K.
  • Good management practices: Temperature, hygiene, poultry feed, disease prevention and control.
  • Housing, nutritional, and environmental requirements differ for broilers and layers.
  • Poultry diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and nutritional deficiencies.
  • Proper cleaning, sanitation, spraying of disinfectants, and vaccination are essential.

Fish Production

  • Fish is a cheap source of animal protein.
  • Includes finned fish and shellfish (prawns, molluscs).
  • Two ways to obtain fish:
    • Capture fishing (natural resources).
    • Culture fishery (fish farming).
  • Water source and be seawater or freshwater.
Marine Fisheries
  • India has a 7500 km coastline and deep seas.
  • Popular marine fish: Pomphret, mackerel, tuna, sardines, Bombay duck.
  • Caught using fishing nets from boats.
  • Yields increased using satellites and echo-sounders.
  • Marine fish farmed in seawater: Mullets, bhetki, pearl spots, prawns, mussels, oysters, seaweed.
  • Oysters are cultivated for pearls.
  • Mariculture: Culture fisheries to meet demand.
Inland Fisheries
  • Freshwater resources: Canals, ponds, reservoirs, rivers.
  • Brackish water resources: Estuaries, lagoons.
  • Capture fishing is done, but yield is not high.
  • Aquaculture is the main source of fish production.
  • Fish culture combined with rice crop.
  • Intensive fish farming in composite fish culture systems.
  • Local and imported fish species used together.
  • Combination of five or six fish species in a single pond.
  • Species with different food habits are selected:
    • Catlas (surface feeders).
    • Rohus (middle-zone feeders).
    • Mrigals and Common Carps (bottom feeders).
    • Grass Carps (weed feeders).
  • Increases fish yield from the pond.
  • Problem: Fish breed only during monsoon; seed collected from the wild may be mixed with other species.
  • Solution: Breeding fish in ponds using hormonal stimulation ensures pure fish seed supply.

Bee-Keeping

  • Bee-keeping for honey production is an agricultural enterprise.
  • Low investment, additional income for farmers.
  • Beehives are a source of wax for medicinal preparations.
  • Local bee varieties: Apis cerana indica, A. dorsata, A. florae.
  • Italian bee variety (A. mellifera) for increased honey yield.
  • Italian bees:
    • High honey collection capacity.
    • Sting less.
    • Stay in beehive for long periods.
    • Breed well.
  • Bee farms or apiaries are established.
  • Value and quality of honey depend on pasturage (flowers available for nectar and pollen).
  • Kind of flowers determines the taste of the honey.