Food Resources & Crop Production

Overview of Food Resources

• Food comes mainly from agriculture and animal husbandry.
• India, with over a billion people, needs over 250 million tons of grain yearly.
• Farming and animal raising must become more efficient.
• The green and white revolutions boosted food production but strained natural resources.
• Sustainable agriculture involves mixed forming, combining crops with livestock, poultry, fisheries, or beekeeping.

Crop Variety Improvement

• Crop types include cereal crops, pulses crops, and vegetable and fruit crops.
• Cereal crops provide carbohydrates, pulses and nuts provide protein, and oil seeds provide fats.
• Vegetables, spices, and fruits provide vitamins and minerals.
• Demand for food production is constantly increasing.
• India's food grain production increased four times from 1952 to 2010 with only a 25% increase in land.

Methods for Increasing Crop Production

• Crop variety improvement involves developing new crop varieties using techniques to enhance yield, disease resistance, and environmental adaptability.
• Higher yield means getting more produce from the same land area.
• Good quality products have high market demand and lead to profit.
• Baking quality in wheat, protein in pulses, oil quality in oil seeds, and preserving quality in fruits and vegetables are important.
• Biotic factors: diseases, insects, and nematodes decrease production.
• Abiotic factors: drought, salinity, water logging, heat, cold and frost reduce crop produce.
• Varieties resistant to these problems improve crop production.
• Shorter crop duration enables multiple crop rounds, also reduces costs.
• Adaptable crop varieties stabilize food supply across different environments.
• Fodder crops are better when tall with many branches.
• Wheat and rice better when short (dwarf) as they use fewer nutrients.

Developing New Crop Varieties

• New varieties are developed using hybridization and genetic modification methods.
• Hybridization involves crossing genetically different plants for new varieties.
• Intervarietal hybridization involves crossing between different varieties.
• Interspecific hybridization involves crossing species of the same genus.
• Intergeneric hybridization involves crossing different genera.
• Genetic modification introduces desired genes using genetic engineering.
• Genetically modified crops give good results with good seeds and agricultural practices.

Crop Production Improvement

• Crop Production practices are of three types: no cost, low cost, and high cost.
• No cost production relies on traditional methods with saved seeds and organic manure.
• Lowcost production uses improved seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides judiciously.
• High cost production maximizes yields using genetically modified seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and machinery.
• Crop Production depends on nutrients supplied, irrigation, and cropping patterns.
• Plants need 16 nutrients for growth: carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen from air and water; remaining 13 from soil.
• Macronutrients needed in large quantity by the plants and micronutrients needed in small quantity by the plants.
• Soil fertility is boosted by adding manure and fertilizers.
• Manure is a natural soil booster made from animal waste and plant waste.

Types of Manure

• Compost decomposes waste like dung and vegetable scraps in pits.
• Wormy compost uses earthworms to decompose plant and animal waste.
• Green manure involves plowing plants like sun hemp into the soil as mulch.
• Fertilizers provide plants with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
• Excessive irrigation can wash away fertilizers.
• Too many fertilizers harms the soil.
• Using manure alongside fertilizers helps soil health.
• Organic forming avoids chemicals, uses manure, recycled waste, and bioagents.
• Neem leaves and turmeric are used for grain storage and pest control.

Irrigation Methods

• Irrigation is the artificial water supply using tubes, pumps, and sprays.
• Most Indian crops depend on rainfall and timely monsoons.
• Wells are of two types: dug wells and Tube Wells.
• Canals get water from rivers or reservoirs; the main Canal splits into smaller ones.
• River lift systems lift water directly from rivers for irrigation.
• Tanks store rainwater in small areas.
• Watershed management includes building small dams to retain rainwater and raise groundwater levels.

Cropping Patterns

• Mixed cropping grows two or more crops together, such as wheat with gram or mustard with ground nut.
• Intercropping grows two or more crops in patterns, like soybean with maize or finger Millet with ki.
• Crop rotation involves growing different crops in order on the same land.

Crop Protection Management

• Weeds compete with crops for nutrients, space, and light.
• Insects harm crops by cutting roots, sucking sap, or boring stems and fruits.
• Diseases from bacteria, fungi, and viruses affect plant health.
• Control methods include herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.
• Mechanical weed removal involves physically removing weeds.
• Preventive measures include seed bed preparation, sowing, intercropping, and crop rotation.
• Summer plowing and resistant plant varieties help prevent pests.

Storage of Grains

• Storage losses are caused by insects, rodents, fungi, mites, and bacteria.
• Quality degradation, weight loss, poor germination, and discoloration occur.
• Inappropriate moisture and temperatures also cause losses.
• Practices to prevent losses: cleaning before storage, drying, and fumigation.

Animal Husbandry

• Management of animal livestock, including feeding, breeding, and Disease Control.
• Includes cattle, goats, sheep, poultry, and fish farming.
• Increased population leads to higher demand for milk, eggs, and meat.

Cattle Farming

• Cattle are raised for milk production and farm work.
• Indian cattle types include cows (boss indicas) and buffalos (boss bubalis).
• Cows that produce milk are called milch animals; work animals are called drought animals.
• Milk production depends on the lactation period. Also can be extended with foreign breed.
• Foreign breeds like Jersey and Brown Swiss have longer milk production.
• Local breeds like Red Sindhi and Sahiwal are strong and resistant to diseases.
• Cross breeding combines Daisy and foreign varieties.
• Cows and buffalos need clean spaces and shelter.
• Animals need regular brushing and well ventilated sheds.
• Dairy animals require food for maintenance and milk production; diet includes rough AG and concentrates.
• cattle require a well balanced diet with all nutrients in right proportions
• Micronutrient additives can enhance health and milk production.
• Regular feeding and normal posture indicate health.
• Vaccinations prevent diseases caused by parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

Poultry Forming

• Poultry forming is for eggs (layers) and chicken meat (broilers).
• Crossbreeding like Aseel (Indian) and Leghorn (foreign) occur to create new breeds.
• New chicken varieties should have more and better quality chicks as well as dwarf Broiler parents for efficient commercial chick production and ability to handle summer heat
• Broiler chickens receive vitamin Rich supplementary food.
• Attention is given to stopping mortality and Feathering and carcass quality in broilers.
• Effective poultry management maintains temperature, hygiene, and disease prevention.
• Housing, nutrition, and environmental needs differ between broilers and egg layers.
• Broiler diets include protein rich and with high levels of vitamin A and K.
• Poultry diseases result from viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and nutritional deficiencies.
• Cleaning, sanitation, and disinfectant spraying are necessary.
• Vaccination prevents infectious diseases in poultry.

Fish Production

• Fish is a lowcost protein source from finned fish and shellfish.
• Fish live in seawater or freshwater.
• Capture fishing involves catching fish from the wild.
• Fish farming involves raising fish in controlled environments.
• Marine fishes include pom filet, mael, tuna, Serin, and Boma.
• Satellites and echo Sounders help locate large fish schools.
• Sea water fish farming involves mullets, beki, Pearl Spots, prawns, muscles, and oysters.
• mariculture develops marine species cultured in controlled environments.
• Inland Fisheries are freshwater resources like canals, ponds, reservoirs, and rivers.
• Brackish water areas like estuaries and Lagoons are good for fishing.
• Aquaculture is used in Inland water bodies.
• Fish farming is sometimes done with rice crops together in paddy fields.
• Composite fish culture involves different fish types in a single Pond.
• Scientists use hormones to induce fish breeding in ponds.

Beekeeping

• Beekeeping raises bees to make honey.
• Beekeeping doesn't need a lot of money so farmers often do it to earn extra income,
• Besides honey, beehives provide wax used in medicines.
• Different types of bees for honey include Indian bee, Rock bee, and little bee.
• Italian bees are preferred for commercial honey production, and collectors of a lot of honey and are mostly stingless.
• Bee forms (apiaries) are established for large-scale honey production.
• Honey quality and taste depend on the flowers visited by bees.