Improvement in Food Resources

Improvement in Food Resources

• Various practices are used to increase crop, fish, milk, and oil production scientifically.
• Green Revolution: increase in food grain production.
  • Father of Green Revolution in India: M.S. Swaminathan
• Blue Revolution: increase in fish production.
• White Revolution: increase in milk production.
• Yellow Revolution: increase in oil production.
• Golden Revolution: increase in pulse production.

Different Types of Crops

• (A) Based on Nutrients*

• Cereals: high carbohydrate content, providing energy.

  • Examples: Wheat, Maize, Rice, Barley, Rye, Oats, Sorghum

• Pulses: rich in protein.

  • Examples: Gram (Chana), Black gram (Urad), Green gram (Moong), Pigeon gram (Arhar), Lentil (Masoor)

• Oil-yielding Plants: provide fatty acids.

  • Examples: Groundnut, Castor, Cotton, Sunflower, Coconut, Mustard, Sesame, Linseed, Niger

• Vegetables, Spices & Fruits: contain vitamins, minerals, and some protein, carbohydrates, and oil.

  • Examples: Spices - Ginger, Turmeric, Cloves, Pepper, Fennel, Coriander, Cumin

• Fiber-yielding Plants:

  • Examples: Cotton, Jute

• Beverages: low nutritional value, but stimulating.

  • Examples: Tea, Coffee

• Fodder Crops:

  • Examples: Berseem, Sudan grass, Oat grasses

• (B) Based on Growing Season*

• Kharif Crops: grown during the rainy season (June-October).

  • Examples: Paddy, Soyabean, Arhar, Maize, Cotton, Urad, Moong

• Rabi Crops: grown during the summer season (November-April).

  • Examples: Wheat, Gram, Peas, Mustard, Linseed

Crop Variety Improvement

• Key steps to improve crop yield:
  • Higher yield.
  • Better quality.
  • Disease and insect resistance
  • Increased tolerance to different weather conditions
  • Improved responses to fertilizers.
  • Hybridisation: combining desirable traits from different varieties
    • Intervarietal, Interspecific, Intergeneric
  • Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Crop Production Management

• Nutrient Requirements:
  • Macronutrients (needed in large amounts): Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sulfur (S)
  • Micronutrients (needed in small amounts): Iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Boron (B), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Chlorine (Cl)
• Sources of Nutrients: Air (Carbon, Oxygen), Water (Hydrogen), Soil (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, B, Zn, Co, Mo, Cl).

Crop Protection Management

• Weeds: unwanted plants that compete with crops in the field
  • Weed control methods: manual removal, chemical herbicides (e.g., 2,4-D), biological control
• Insects, pests, and diseases: cause damage to crops. Methods include resistant varieties, optimum sowing time, crop rotation, deep ploughing, and using insecticides, fungicides, and other control methods.

Crop Rotation

• The practice of growing different types of crops alternately in the same field to maintain soil fertility and minimise pest issues.

Organic Farming

• Farming method that avoids chemical fertilizers and pesticides, reliant on crop rotation, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, and biological pest control instead.

Animal Husbandry

• The science of caring for and raising animals, focusing on feeding, providing shelter, health, and breeding.
  • Aims to provide a proper nutrition to our growing population.

Different Types of Cattle

• Milch animals: produce milk (e.g., cow, buffalo, goat).
• Meat and egg-yielding animals: produce meat and eggs (e.g., goat, sheep, pig, fish, chicken).
• Draught animals: used for work (e.g., horse, bullock, camel, donkey).
• Hair and skin-yielding animals: produce hair and skin (e.g., sheep, goat, rabbit).

Cattle Farming

• Purpose: milk production and bullock labour (tilling, irrigation).
  • Breeds of cattle (Indigenous and Exotic): Milk breeds, Draught breeds, Dual purpose breeds

Feeding of Cattle

• Feed types: roughage & concentrate
• Balanced feed is crucial for proper health and productivity.

Breed Improvement

• Natural breeding (random, controlled cross breeding)
• Artificial breeding (Insemination)

Poultry Farming

• Production of meat and eggs using birds (chickens, ducks, turkeys, pigeons).
  • Indigenous breeds and Exotic breeds.

Fish Farming (Pisciculture)

• Rearing and breeding fish in ponds, tanks, etc.
  • Capture fisheries, Culture fisheries
  • Marine, inland, and brackish-water fisheries

Composite Fish Culture (Polyculture)

• Rearing multiple fish species in the same water body