Introduction
Food supplies proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, which are required for body development, growth and health.
Both plants and animals are major sources of food.
Green Revolution:
Green revolution is a programme introduced in many countries to increase the food production by use of modern technology, proper irrigation, improved seeds, etc.
White Revolution:
White revolution is a programme in India introduced to increase the production of milk in India.
This revolution made countries self-sufficient in their production.
Improvement in Crop Yield
Crops | Examples | Source of |
Cereals | Wheat, Rice, Maize, Millets, Sorghum. | Provide carbohydrates for energy |
Pulses | Gram (Chana), Pea (Matar), Black gram (Urad), Green gram (Moong), Pigeon pea (arhar), Lentil (Masoor) | Provide protein |
Oilseeds | Soyabean, Groundnut, Sesame, Castor, Mustard, Linseed and Sunflower | Provide necessary fats |
Vegetables | Tomato, Spinach, Green leafy vegetables, Carrot, etc. | Provide range of vitamins and minerals in addition to small amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats |
Spices | Chilly, Cardamon, Black pepper, etc. | Provide range of vitamins and minerals in addition to small amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats |
Fruits | Apple, Banana, Orange, Water melon, etc. | Provide range of vitamins and minerals in addition to small amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats |
- Fodder crops like berseem, oats, sudan grass are raised for livestock feeding.
Crop Season
Different crops require different climatic conditions (temperature, moisture, etc.), different photoperiod (related to duration of sunlight) for their growth and completion of life cycle.
Type of crop | About | Examples | Sowing period | Harvesting period |
Kharif crop | Crops that are grown in rainy seasons | Paddy, soyabean, pigeon pea, maize, cotton, green gram, black gram | June-July | September-October |
Rabi crops | The crops that are grown in the winter seasons | Wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed | October-December | April-June |
Zaid crops | Also called summer crop, as grown in summer season | Seasonal fruits, Vegetables, Fodder crops. | March-July | March-July |
Approaches which enhance the crop yield are as follows:
Crop variety improvement
Crop production improvement
Crop protection management
Crop Variety Improvement
Some of the factors by which improvement can be done are:
Hybridisation: it is a process of crossing between tow or more genetically dissimilar plants to produce a new variety with good properties of the both crops.
Higher yield: to increase the productivity of the crop per acre.
Improved quality: Quality of crop product vary from crop to crop. Example, oil in oilseeds, protein quality in pulses.
Biotic and Abiotic factors: Crop production can go down due to biotic (diseases, insects, nematode, etc.) and abiotic (drought, salinity, water logging, heat, etc.) stresses under different situations.
Change in maturity duration: The shorter the duration of the crop from sowing to harvesting, the more economical is the variety. It also reduces the cost of crop production.
Uniform maturity makes the harvesting process easy and reduces losses during harvesting.
Wider adaptability: Varieties of wider adaptability will help in stabilizing the crop production under any environmental conditions.
Desirable agronomic characteristics: This helps give higher productivity. Tallness and profuse branching are desirable characters for fodder crops. Dwarfness is desired in cereals.
Crop production management
It involves different practices carried out by farmers to achieve higher standards of crop production.
The different practices are:
(i) Nutrient management: Like other organisms, plants also require some elements for their growth. These are called nutrients.
The deficiency of these nutrients affects physiological processes in plants like reproduction, growth, yield and susceptibility of diseases.
Sources | Nutrients |
Air | Carbon, oxygen |
Water | Hydrogen, oxygen |
Soil | (I) Macronutrients: (They required in large quantities) Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur. (II) Micronutrients: (They require in small quantities) Iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, chlorine. |
These nutrients can be enriched in the soil by supplying Manure and Fertilizers.
Manure | Fertilizers |
These are organic substances | These are inorganic substances |
They are made up of natural materials | They are made up of chemical substances |
Have less amount of nutrients | Have high amount of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, etc.) |
These are cost effective | These are costly |
Manure is slowly absorbed in plants as they are insoluble in water | These are easily absorbed in plants as they are soluble in water |
They are environment friendly | They may harm the environment |
Difficult to store and transport | It is easy to store and transport |
Increases soil fertility and improves soil structure | It harms soil structure and decreases soil fertility |
Types of Manure:
Compost: The process in which waste material like livestock excreta (cow dung, etc.), kitchen waste, plant remains, etc, is decomposed in pits is known as composting.
Vermi-compost: Compost is also prepared by using earthworms to hasten the process of decomposition of plant and animal refuse. This is called vermi-composting.
Green manure: Some plants like Sun Hemp or Gaur are grown and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil.
This provides green manure and enrich the soil by nitrogen and phosphorous.
(i) Irrigation: The process of supplying water to plants is called irrigation.
Types of Irrigation:
Wells | There are two types of wells: (I) Dug wells: Water is collected from water bearing strata. (II) Tube wells: Tap water from the deeper strata From these wells, water is lifted by motor-pumps for irrigation. |
Canals | This system receives water from one or more reservoirs or from rivers. |
River lift systems | Areas where canal flow is insufficient or irregular the lift system is more rational. This system is useful for irrigation in areas close to rivers. |
Tanks | These are small storage reservoir |
Rain water harvesting | It is accumulation of water in tanks for later use. This also prevents soil erosion. |
(i) Cropping Patterns:
Mixed Cropping |
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Inter Cropping |
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Crop Rotation |
1. Soil fertility is maintained. 2. It controls pests and weeds. 3. Several crops can be grown in succession with only one soil preparation. |
What is Cropping Pattern?
Crop Protection Management
To protect the crops against diseases caused organisms and other harming factors is called crop protection.
Methods used to control problems:
(i) Pest control during growth: Pest is any destructive organism which can destroy or harm crops or products obtained from.
Types of Pests:
a. Weeds: Unwanted plants in the cultivated field. Example, Xanthium (gokhroo), Parthenium (gajar ghas), Cyperinus rotundus (motha).
Post Harvesting Practices.
b. Insects: It attack plants in three ways:
i. They cut root, stem and leaf.
ii. They suck the cell sap from various parts of the plant
iii. They bore into stem and fruits. They affect heath of crop and reduce yields.
c. Pathogens: Any organism such as bacteria, fungi and viruses which causes diseases in plants are called pathogens.
They are transmitted through air, water, soil.
(ii) Storage of grains: For getting seasonal foods throughout the year, they are stored in storage. But the food, may get destroyed and wasted through various means:
(a) Biotic Problem: Due to living organism like insects, birds, mites, fungi, bacteria.
(b) Abiotic Problem: Due to non-living factors like moisture, inappropriate temperature, etc.
These causes degradation in quality, loss in weight, poor germinability, discoloration.
Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry is scientific management of livestock and maintenance of animals for commercial purposes. Animals are raised for milk, meat and eggs.
Cattle Farming
Cattle Husbandry is done for two purposes – milk and draught labour for agricultural work such as irrigation, tilling and caring.
There are mainly two cattle species of India, Bos indicus – Cow and Bos bubalis – Buffaloes.
The Indian breeds like Red Sindhi, and Sahiwal are reared for disease resistance and drought labour.
The exotic breeds of cows like Jersey, and Brown Swiss are reared for extended lactation.
Poultry Farming
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which is undertaken to raise domestic fowl for the production of egg and chicken meat.
Aseel, Busra Chittagong, and Ghagus are examples of the Indian varieties of poultry.
Broiler: Birds grown for obtaining meat is called Broilers.
Layers: Birds grown for obtaining eggs are called Layers.
- Mostly broiler and layer are cross breed.
Fish Production
Fishery deals with the procurement of fish for consumption. Fish is a good source of protein and forms the diet of people living in the coastal area. Fish can be obtained from the sea, freshwater bodies or even estuaries.
Different modes of fisheries:
Capture Fishing: Naturally living fishes in various water bodies are captured.
Culture Fishing: Fish of desired variety are cultivated in confined areas to get maximum yield. This is known as aquaculture.
Mariculture: Aquaculture can be done in rivers, lakes, ponds, etc. when it is done in oceans is called Mariculture.
The different types of Fisheries are:
Marine fisheries — Marine fishery deals with fishing in the oceans and seas. Apart from fishes, it also deals with other seafood such as prawns, lobsters and crabs.
Inland fisheries — Inland fishery deals with fishing in rivers, lakes and tanks. Rohu, Catla, Mrigal, Grass carp, etc are very popular varieties of fishes reared in freshwater.
Bee-Keeping
Beekeeping, also called apiculture is the rearing of bees for the production of honey and wax.
Some of the exotic varieties reared in India are Apis mellifera, Apis adamsoni.
Apis cerena indica, commonly known as the Indian bee and Apis dorsata, known as Rock bee. Both are an indigenous variety.