English: Spraying pesticide in California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Improvement in food resources Key learning
1) Agriculture and animal husbandry provide us with all our animal and plant food.
2) For feeding the ever increasing Indian population, our capacity of manufacturing crop plants and
livestock should be increased through various efforts like green revolution and white revolution.
But this should be done in a sustainable manner without destroying our environment.
3) Improving the financial status of people, especially those involved in agricultural practices is
essential to provide food security to everyone.
4) Different crops provide us with different types of nutrients.
Vitamins and minerals Vegetables, spices and fruits
5) The optimum requirement of temperature, water, light and other conditions vary for different
crops.
6) Kharif crops like paddy and cotton are grown in rainy season whereas rabbi crops like wheat and
mustard are grown in winter season.
7) Crop variety improvement, crop production improvement and crop protection management
helps to increase the crop yields.
8) A crop variety possessing several desirable characteristics should be selected to produce a good
yield.
9) Hybridisation and genetic modification techniques introduce the useful characters into crop
plants.
10) It is desirable to develop crops that can survive and give good yields in different climatic
conditions and areas.
11) The characteristics desirable in crop plants are
i) Increased yield
ii) Improved quality (particular to the crop plant)
iii) Resistance to biotic and abiotic factors, especially those harming the plant.
iv) Reduction in duration of plant maturity.
v) Broad range adaptability of the crop plant under various environmental conditions.
vi) Desired agronomic characteristics particular to a plant.
Variety improvement may be done for one or several of these characteristics.
12) In India, the land holding, financial conditions and use of modern technologies varies among
different farmers. Hence the inputs of farmers are also different, leading to differing production
practices and yields.
13) The sixteen nutrients required by plants are obtained through air, water and soil.
Source of nutrients Nutrients required by plants
Air Carbon, oxygen
Water Hydrogen, oxygen
Soil i) Macronutrients: Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium,
sulphur
ii) Micronutrients: Iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum,
chlorine
World Summit on Food Security 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
14) Manures and fertilizers supplement the soil with the required nutrients and thus increase crop
yield.
15) Manures contain decomposed animal and plant wastes and increases soil nutrition and fertility.
16) The bulk organic matter present in manure improves soil structure.
17) In composting, the biological waste material is decomposed in pits. Composting done using
earthworms is called vermi-composting.
18) In green manuring, green crops are grown, mulched by ploughing and mixed with soil to improve
soil structure and fertility.
19) The commercially produced fertilizers provide macronutrients like N, K and P and ensure healthy
growth of plants.
20) Excessive use of fertilizers causes water pollution and loss of soil fertility.
21) Best crop yields is obtained by a balance between the use of fertilizers and manures.
22) In organic farming, use of chemicals is discouraged whereas use of organic manures, bio -agents
and healthy cropping systems is encouraged.
23) Irrigation is essential to ensure agricultural success in India since our agriculture is mainly rainfed.
24) Wells, canals, rivers and tanks are some important irrigation systems in our country.
25) The source of wells is underground water whereas canals get water from rivers or reservoirs.
River lift systems draw water directly from rivers.
26) Rainwater harvesting and watershed management increases storage of rain water for later use in
agriculture.
27) Risk of crop failure is reduced in mixed cropping wherein two or more crops are grown together
on the same field.
28) Two or more crops with different nutritional requirements are grown on the same farm in intercropping so as to utilize maximum nutrients and prevent spread of diseases and pests.
29) In crop rotation, different crop combinations are grown on the same field in a pre -planned
succession so as to get maximum returns.
30) Weeds, pests and diseases can destroy large amounts of crop plants.
31) Weed removal from crop fields is essential since they use up the requirements of crop plants like
food, space, light etc.
32) Insect pests and plant pathogens attack different parts of the plant and thus reduce crop yields.
33) Pesticides are used to control weeds, insects and diseases, but they should be used only as much
as needed to avoid environmental pollution and health hazards.
34) Several preventive methods can be adopted to carry out pest and weed control.
35) Biotic and abiotic factors can cause huge storage losses of food grains and can be taken care of
by proper treatment.
36) It is better to use preventive and control methods for protecting crops such as proper cleaning
and drying of the crops followed by fumigation, rather than treatment measures.
37) Due to the food needs of the ever increasing human population, animal husbandry, especially of
cattle, goat, sheep, poultry and fish, is gaining a lot of importance.
38) In India, cows and buffaloes are used for draught labour and producing milk and are called
draught animals and milch animals respectively.
39) Long lactation period is a desirable quality in milch animals.
40) Exotic breeds showing long lactation is cross bred with local breeds showing resistance to
diseases to obtain high quality breeds.
41) For good health and milk production, proper cattle management is required such as shelter,
feeding, breeding and disease control.
42) The cattle shelter should be well-ventilated, hygienic and dry.
43) Cattle food should include roughage and concentrates in balanced amounts and are required for
English: Liquid manure spreader – Professional Institute of Agriculture and Environment “Cettolini” of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) – Associated School of Villacidro (Sardinia, Italy) Italiano: Carrobotte spandiliquame – Istituto Professionale Statale per l’Agricoltura e l’Ambiente “Cettolini” di Cagliari – Scuola associata di Villacidro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
the healthy maintenance as well as milk production of the cattle.
44) Cattle diseases are caused by external and internal parasites as well as by bacteria and viruses.
These affect the health as well as milk production of the animals and can be largely controlled
through vaccinations.
45) Poultry farming targets egg production and broiler production for chicken meat.
46) Cross-breeding is done between the Indian and foreign breeds of poultry to obtain improved
varieties containing desirable traits such as tolerance to high temperature, dwarf broiler parent,
low maintenance requirements and reduction in size of the layers.
47) The shelter, feeding and other requirements of broilers and layers differ from each other.
48) The diet of broilers is planned with the aim of achieving good growth rate and quality of carcass
whereas the diet of layers is aimed to achieve large number and high quality of eggs.
49) Broiler diet is rich in proteins and vitamins, along with the required amount of fat.
50) The poultry shelter should be hygienic, well-lighted and maintained at appropriate
temperatures.
51) Poultry need to be protected from various diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites
and nutritional deficiencies, through proper treatment, sanitation and vaccination.
52) In fish production, both the finned true fish as well as shellfish are obtained from marine or fresh
water through capture fishing or culture fishery.
53) India’s marine fishery resources are the vast coastlines and extensive seas; the freshwater
resources are canals, ponds, reservoirs and rivers whereas the brackish water fishery resources
are estuaries and lagoons.
54) In India, marine fishes such as pomphret, tuna, mackerel and sardines are located through
satellites and echo sounders and captured using fishing nets.
55) Marine fish farming of high economic value fishes like mullets, oysters and prawns are done in
sea water.
56) Fresh water fish production is mainly carried out through aquaculture.
57) Composite fish culture system is used commonly for fresh water fish farming. In this system, five
English: Irrigation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
or six fish species with different food habits are farmed together in a single pond, so as to
increase the yield of fish.
58) Since high quality fish seed is not always available, fish are nowadays bred using hormonal
stimulation, thus ensuring continuous supply of the seed.
59) Bee-keeping is a low investment activity carried out by farmers to obtain honey and wax.
60) Apis cerana indica, Apis dorsata and Apis florae are the Indian bee varieties whereas Apis
mellifera is an Italian variety used for commercially producing honey.
61) The availability of sufficient amount of pasturage as well as the type of flowers decides the
quality of honey.
Note Blast 