Chapter 15––>Improvement of Food Resources

Introduction

Any edible substance of plant or animal origin that provides nutritional benefits such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals to an organism when consumed is called Food.

A meal that includes adequate amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals is called Balanced diet. A balanced diet should contain pulses, fruits, vegetables, milk, iron-rich food, and other nutrient rich food in requisite proportions.

The reasons for need of improvement of food production:

• Meet the needs of growing population: The food items are grown in fields by the farmers. The demand of food is increasing with increasing population. Therefore it is necessary that the yield of crop also increases.
• Less scope of increasing the area of land under cultivation : Not all the lands around us are available for agricultural purposes. Many of them are used for residential purposes, building schools, colleges, hospitals, shopping malls and many uses other than agriculture. Therefore we need to increase the crop production using modern technologies and techniques. But at the same time we should take care that there should not be any harm to the environment.
• People are suffering from malnutrition: Producing more and more crops will not solve the problem of malnutrition. The produced crops should be accessible to all. Therefore, along with increased crop production there should be good economic conditions to ensure affordability.

Improvement in Crop Yields

Different climatic conditions including temperature and photoperiods favour the growth of different crops.

This condition also ensures the completion of their life cycle.

Crops can be broadly categorized into three types:

• The type of crops grown from the month of March to June is called Zayed crops.
• The types of crops grown in rainy season from the month of June to October are called Kharif crops. For example, Paddy, soyabean, pigeon pea, maize, cotton, green gram and black gram.
• The types of crops grown in winter season from the month of November to April are called Rabi crops.

For example, wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed.

In order to meet the growing demand of food with increasing population the improvement in crop yield is necessary. The practices involved in farming can be divided into three distinct stages.

• Choice of seeds for planting.
• Nurturing of the crop plants.
• Protection of the growing andharvested crops from loss.

Activities involved in improvement of crop yield are as follows:

• Crop variety improvement
• Crop production improvement
• Crop protection management.

Crop variety improvement

Crop variety can be improved by utilizing following methods:

• Finding a good yield crop
• Hybridization: The process of interbreeding between geneticallydivergent plants.

• Introducing a gene to genetically modify the crops by providing desired characteristics to the crops.
• Good quality seeds must be provided to the farmers.
• Taking care to prevent the biotic factors(diseases, insects and nematodes) andabiotic factors (drought, salinity, waterlogging, heat, cold and frost) that can affect the crop growth.
• Shorter maturity of the crops results in more economical variety.
• Attempts must be taken to ensure higher yield.

Manure & Fertilizers

Manure is prepared bythe decomposition of animal and plant

It helps to enrich the soil with essential nutrients and hence makes the soil fertile and rich in organic matter.

It helps to increase the water holdingcapacity in sandy soils and avoids water logging in clayey soils.

• Compost: The material obtained after the decomposition of unused material like livestock excreta, vegetable peels, animal excreta, domestic waste, sewage waste, leftover food, etc. in pits is called compost which is rich in organic matter and nutrients. And the process of making compost is called composting.

• Vermicompost: When compost is prepared by using earthworms in order to fasten the process of decomposing the plant and animal waste is called vermicompost. Again the process is called vermicomposting.
• Green manure: Some plants like guar are first grown on the cultivating fields and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil before sowing the crop seeds in order to replenish the soil with essential like nitrogen and phosphorus. This manure is called green manure.

The advantages of using manure are that they are non-toxic and eco-friendly.

Fertilizers refer to the products produced commercially to replenish the soil with essential nutrients. The fertilizers enrich the soil with nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium and ensure proper vegetative growth of healthy But continuous use of fertilizers can destroy the fertility of soil as it harms the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil.

Organic Farming

Organic farming is a method of farming using less or no amount of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides etc.

This method uses only organic matters like organic manures, farm-wastes.

It uses blue green algae in preparation of bio fertilizers.

Neem leaves, turmeric are used as bio-pesticides to store grain.

Irrigation

The process of watering plants to ensure that crops get enough quantity of water atproper phase during their growing season to increase the expected yields of any crop is called irrigation.

Wells: In adug well, water is collected from waterbearing strata. Tube wells can tapwater from the deeper strata. Water is then lifted up using pumps from these well to water the plants.

Canals: They receive water from oneor more reservoirs or from rivers. Themain canal is divided into branchcanals having further distributaries toirrigate fields.

River Lift Systems: This system is more useful in areas having insufficient or irregular canal flow as a result of inadequate reservoir release.

Tanks: These are small storage reservoirs intercepting and storingthe run-off of smaller catchment

Cropping pattern

There are two different categories of cropping pattern:

1. Mixed cropping: This approach of growing crops involves growing two or more crops concurrently on the same land. It involves giving away some insurance against failure of one of the crops. For example, wheat and gram, wheat and mustard, sunflower and ground nut, etc.

2. Inter-cropping: This approach of growing crops involves growing two or more crops concurrently on the same land in a certain pattern. The crops are grown depending upon their varied nutritional requirements such that each row contain definite crops and different from the adjacent rows to ensure maximum utilization of the nutrients present in the soil. This approach also prevents the attack of pests and spread of diseases. For example, maize and soyabean, bajra and lobea, etc.

Weeds

The unwanted plants that grow by their own in the cultivating fields and compete with required crops for food, light, space and essential nutrients present in the soil are called weeds.

For example, Parthenium (gajar ghas), Cyperinus rotundus (motha).

As they compete with all necessary requirements for growth of a plant they end up affecting the growth of the required crop plants.

To ensure good harvest they must be removed from the fields to be used for cultivation, before sowing the required crops.

Weeds, insects and pests that affect the growth of crop plants can be controlled by using herbicides, insecticides and fungicides by spraying them on the crops.

Weeds can also be removed by cutting them down.

Some other methods to prevent growth of weeds are:

• Proper seed bed preparation.
• Timely sowing of crops.
• Inter cropping and croprotation.
• Use of resistant varieties.
• Summer ploughing in which fields are ploughed deep in summers to ensure removal of weeds and pests

Storage of grains

The process of storing the crops after they are harvested for later use is called storing of grains.

Storage of grains sometimes leads to greater loses due to factors like insects, rodents, fungi, mites,bacteria, unsuitablehumidity and temperatures in the place of

Fig. A woman storing grains in a drum.

These factors must be taken care of to ensure proper storage of the good yield of crops.

Some of the preventive and control measures that can be used to store crops properly are as follows:

• Strict cleaning of the crops before storing them.
• Proper drying of the crops to make them free from moisture and inhibit the growth of microbes.
• Using Neem leaves for storing crops at a small scale.
• Using pest controlling chemicals to kill the pests hovering near the stored crops

Animal Husbandry

The branch of agriculture that focuses upon the proper feeding, shelter, health and breeding of the domestic animals is called animal husbandry.

To meet the growing the demand for food (milk, egg, meat, fish) with the growing population animal husbandry is necessary.

Cattle husbandry

The act of raising cattle like cow, buffaloes and bullocks, goat, etc. to meet the requirement of adequate milk production is called cattle husbandry.

Cattle husbandry is performed to meet two purposes—

• Dairy: to get milk.
• Draught: The animals used to perform agricultural tasks like tilling, irrigation and carting.

Cattle husbandry focuses on following agendas:

• Increasing the duration of lactation period of the cattle to ensure increased milk production.
• Ensures proper hygiene and cleanliness for the cattle.

•  Ensure proper ventilated shelter of the cattle to ensure healthy living and protect them rain, heat and cold.
• They also need to take care of the health of the cattle to ensure production of clean milk.
• It also breeding between the different cattle to get desired characteristics to ensure improvement in production. 

The food given to the diary animals are as follows:

• Roughage containing high fibre. For example, green fodder, silage, hay and legumes.
• Concentrates having low fibre buthigh levels of proteins and other nutrients. For example, oilseeds, oats, barley, gram.

Poultry farming

The act of raising domestic fowls to ensure the production of adequate number of egg, chicken and meat is called poultry farming.

The cross-breeding programmes are performed between Indian and foreign breeds to develop new varieties having some required desirable characteristics.

Poultry farming takes care of following agendas:

• To ensure well-illuminated and well-ventilated shelter for the fowls.

• Ensure that the domestic fowls are kept under proper temperature andhygiene.
• They get nutritious food.
• Prevent the chances of poultry fowl suffering from a number ofdiseases caused by virus, bacteria, fungi,parasites and nutritionaldeficiencies.

The desirable characteristics are as follows:

• Increased number of chicks.
• Good quality chicken who are capable to tolerate high temperature.
• To develop breeds with Low maintenance requirements.
• Reduced size of the egg-layingbird with the ability to utilize morefibrous cheaper diets made out of agricultural by-products.
• Broiler chickens are given vitamin-rich (vitamins A and K) food to ensure proper growth rate and better feed efficiency.

Fish production

Fish is cheap source of high protein and iodine content.

1. Marine fisheries:

The marine fishery resources include 7500kms of coast line and deep seas.

Some of the marine fish varieties are as follows:

• Pomphret
• Mackerel
• Tuna
• Sardines
• Bombay Duck
• Eel
• Salmon
• Hilsa.

They are caught by using either traditional method or modern method.

2. Inland fisheries

Inland fisheries deal with canals, ponds, reservoirs and rivers.

It also includes freshwater bodies like in rivers, canals, reservoirs and lagoons as well as brackish water fisheries.

Some of the inland fish varieties are as follows:

• Rohu
• Catla
• Mrigal
• Silver carp

A combination of five or six fish species selected according to their different fooding habits are used in a single fishpond so that they donot compete for food among them resulting in the consumption of all the available food resources in the pond.

Inland fishery is of two types- capture fishery and culture fishery.

Bee keeping

The act of rearing, raising and caring of honey bee on a large scale to obtain honey and wax from them is called apiculture.

It is preferred among agriculturists as it requires low investment and gives rise to supplementary income.

Varieties of bees used for profitable honey production are as follows:

• Apis dorsata (Rock bee)
• Apis florea (Little bee)
• Apis indica (Indian bee)
• Apis mellifica (European bee)

The quality depends upon the following factors:

• Pasturage or the kind of flowers availableto the bees to collect the nectar and pollen grains.
• Kind of flowers available determines the taste.