Improvement in Crop Yields

• Cereals such as wheat, rice, maize, millets and sorghum provide us carbohydrate for energy requirement.

• Pulses like gram (chana), pea (matar), black gram (urad), green gram (moong), pigeon pea (arhar), lentil (masoor), provide us with protein.

• And oil seeds including soyabean, ground nut, sesame, castor, mustard, linseed and sunflower provide us with necessary fats.

• Vegetables, spices and fruits provide a range of vitamins and minerals in addition to small amounts of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

kharif and rabi crops.

• In addition to these food crops, fodder crops like berseem, oats or sudan grass are raised as food for the livestock.the kharif season from the month of June to October,

• and some of the crops are grown in the winter season, called the rabi season from November to April. Paddy, soyabean, pigeon pea, maize, cotton, green gram and black gram are kharif crops, whereas wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed are rabi crops.

practices involved in farming

If we think of the practices involved in farming, we can see that we can divide it into three stages.

• The first is the choice of seeds for planting.

• The second is the nurturing of the crop plants.

• The third is the protection of the growing and harvested crops from loss

crop yields can be classified as:

• Crop variety improvement

• Crop production improvement

• Crop protection management

Organic farming is a farming system with minimal or no use of chemicals as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides etc. and with a maximum input of organic manures, recyled farm wastes, and bio-agents, with healthy cropping systems

Mixed farming is a system of farming on a particular farm which includes crop production, raising of livestock etc.

CROP VARIETY IMPROVEMENT

Some of the factors for which variety improvement is done are

• Higher yield: To increase the productivity of the crop per acre.

• 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.

• Biotic and abiotic resistance: Crops production can go down due to biotic (diseases, insects and nematodes) and abiotic (drought, salinity, water logging, heat, cold and frost) stresses under different situations. Varieties resistant to these stresses can improve crop production.

• Change in maturity duration: The shorter the duration of the crop from sowing to harvesting, the more economical is the variety. Such short durations allow farmers to grow multiple rounds of crops in a year. Short duration also reduces the cost of crop production. Uniform maturity makes the harvesting process easy and reduces losses during harvesting

• Wider adaptability: Developing varieties for wider adaptability will help in stabilising the crop production under different environmental conditions. One variety can then be grown under different climatic conditions in different areas

• 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

• In India, as in many other agriculture-based countries, farming ranges from small to very large farms.

• Different farmers thus have more or less land, money and access to information and technologies. In short, it is the money or financial conditions that allow farmers to take up different farming practices and agricultural technologies.

• There is a correlation between higher inputs and yields.

• Thus, the farmer’s purchasing capacity for inputs decides cropping system and production practices.

• Therefore, production practices can be at different levels.

• They include ‘no cost’ production, ‘low cost’ production and ‘high cost’ production practices

NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

• Nutrients are supplied to plants by air, water and soil. There are several nutrients which are essential for plants.

• Air supplies carbon and oxygen, hydrogen comes from water, and soil supplies the other thirteen nutrients to plants.

• Amongst these, some are required in large quantities and are therefore called macro-nutrients. The other nutrients are used by plants in small quantities and are therefore called micro-nutrients

• Deficiency of these nutrients affects physiological processes in plants including reproduction, growth and susceptibility to diseases. To increase the yield, the soil can be enriched by supplying these nutrients in the form of manure and fertilizers

MANURE-Manure contains large quantities of organic matter and also supplies small quantities of nutrients to the soil.It is prepared by the decomposition of animal excreta and plant waste.

• Manure helps in enriching soil with nutrients and organic matter and increasing soil fertility.

• The bulk of organic matter in manure helps in improving the soil structure. This involves increasing the water holding capacity in sandy soils.

• In clayey soils, the large quantities of organic matter help in drainage and in avoiding water logging. In using manure we use biological waste material, which is advantageous in protecting

• our environment from excessive use of fertilizers

Manure can be classified as:

• Compost and vermi-compost-The process in which farm waste material like livestock excreta (cow dung etc.), vegetable waste, animal refuse, domestic waste, sewage waste, straw, eradicated weeds etc. is decomposed in pits is known as composting

• The compost is rich in organic matter and nutrients. Compost is also prepared by using earthworms to hasten the process of decomposition of plant and animal refuse. This is called vermi-compost.

• Green manure: Prior to the sowing of the crop seeds, some plants like sun hemp or guar are grown and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil. These green plants thus turn into green manure which helps in enriching the soil in nitrogen and phosphorus.

IRRIGATION

• Several different kinds of irrigation systems are adopted to supply water to agricultural lands depending on the kinds of water resources available. These include wells, canals, rivers and tanks

• Wells: There are two types of wells, namely dug wells and tube wells. In a dug well, water is collected from water bearing strata. Tube wells can tap water from the deeper strata. From these wells, water is lifted by pumps for irrigation.

• Canals: 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.

• River Lift Systems: 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: These are small storage reservoirs, which intercept and store the run-off of smaller catchment areas.

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

• This involves building small check-dams which lead to an increase in ground water levels.

• The check-dams stop the rainwater from flowing away and also reduce soil erosion.

CROPPING PATTERNS

• Mixed cropping-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. This reduces risk and gives some insurance against failure of one of the crops.

• Inter-cropping-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). The crops are selected such that their nutrient requirements are different. This ensures maximum utilisation of the nutrients supplied, and also prevents pests and diseases from spreading to all the plants belonging to one crop in a field. This way, both crops can give better returns.

• crop rotation-The growing of different crops on a piece of land in a pre-planned succession is known as crop rotation. Depending upon the duration, crop rotation is done for different crop combinations. 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.

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 are unwanted plants in the cultivated field, for example, Xanthium

Generally insect pests attack the plants in three ways:

• they cut the root, stem and leaf,

• they suck the cell sap from various parts of the plant,

• they bore into stem and fruits. They thus affect the health of the crop and reduce yields

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.

• Weed control methods include mechanical removal. Preventive methods such as proper seed bed preparation, timely sowing of crops, intercropping and crop rotation also help in weed control.

• Some 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 pest

STORAGE OF GRAINS

• Storage losses in agricultural produce can be very high. Factors responsible for such losses are biotic— insects, rodents, fungi, mites and bacteria, and abiotic— inappropriate moisture and temperatures in the place of storage.

• These factors cause degradation in quality, loss in weight, poor germinability, discolouration of produce, all leading to poor marketability.

• These factors can be controlled by proper treatment and by systematic management of warehouses.

• Preventive and control measures are used before grains are stored for future use. They include strict cleaning of the produce before storage, proper drying of the produce first in sunlight and then in shade, and fumigation using chemicals 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.

CATTLE FARMING

Cattle husbandry is done for two purposes—

• milk and draught labour for agricultural work such as tilling, irrigation and carting. Indian cattle belong to two different species, Bos indicus, cows, and Bos bubalis, buffaloes.

• Milk-producing females are called milch animals (dairy animals), while the ones used for farm labour are called draught animals. Milk production depends, to some extent, on the duration of the lactation period, meaning the period of milk production after the birth of a calf. So, milk production can be increased by increasing the lactation period. Exotic or foreign breeds (for example, Jersey, Brown Swiss) are selected for long lactation periods, while local breeds (for example, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal) show excellent resistance to diseases. The two can be cross-bred to get animals with both the desired quality

The food requirements of dairy animals are of two types:

• maintenance requirement, which is the food required to support the animal to live a healthy life.

• milk producing requirement, which is the type of food required during the lactation period.

Animal feed includes:

• roughage, which is largely fibre

• concentrates, which are low in fibre and contain relatively high levels of proteins and other nutrients.

POULTRY FARMING

Poultry farming is undertaken to raise domestic fowl for egg production and chicken meat. Therefore, improved poultry breeds are developed and farmed to produce layers for eggs and broilers for meat.

The cross-breeding programmes between Indian (indigenous, for example, Aseel) and foreign (exotic, for example, Leghorn) breeds for variety improvement are focused on to develop new varieties for the following desirable traits—

• number and quality of chicks.

• dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production.

• summer adaptation capacity/ tolerance to high temperature;

• low maintenance requirements

• reduction in the size of the egg-laying bird with ability to utilise more fibrous cheaper diets formulated using agricultural by-products.

FISH PRODUCTION

• Fish may be obtained from marine resources as well as inland resources.

• To increase production of fish, they can be cultured in marine and inland ecosystems.

• Marine fish capture is done by fishing nets guided by echosounders and satellites.

• Composite fish culture system is commonly used for fish farming.