Improvement in Food Resources

ODISHA ADARSHA VIDYALAYA
IMPROVEMENT IN FOOD
RESOURCES
HIMANSU
Needs for increasing food production
Our population is more than one billion and it is still drowing. We will
need more than a billion tonnes of grain every year to feed this growing
population.
Since increasing the area of land for cultivation is limited, it is necessary
to increase the production efficiency of crops and livestock.
Production efficiency can be increased by adopting scientific
management practices to improve crop yield, undertaking mixed
farming, intercropping, and integrsted farming practices like combining
agriculture with live stock, poultry, fisheries, bee-keeping etc.
Different types of crops
• Cereals like rice, wheat, maize, millets, sorghum etc. provide us
carbohydrates.
• Pulses like peas, beans, grams, lentils etc. provide us proteins.
• Oil seeds like ground nut, sesame, castor, mustard, linseed, sunflower
etc. provide us fats.
• Vegetables, spices and fruits provide us vitamins and mnerals along
with small amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
• Fodder crops like berseem, oats or sudan grass are grown as food for
livestock.
Different crops require different climatic conditions,
temperature and duration of sunlight (photoperiods)
• Kharif crops - are crops grown during the rainy season from June to
October like paddy, soyabean, maize, pigeon pea, green gram, black
gram, cotton etc.
• Rabi crops - are crops grown during winter season from November to
April like wheat, gram, peas, mustard, linseed etc.
Improvement in Crop Yield
Crop yield can be improved by three main activities. They are -
1. Crop variety improvement

2. Crop production improvement
3. Crop protection management
Crop variety improvement
Crop variety improvement is done by selecting good varieties of crops.
This is done by hybridisation. Hybridisation is the crossing between
genetically dissimilar plants to obtain crops having useful
characteristics like disease resistance, good quality and high yields.
Hybridisation may be intervarietal (between different varieties),
interspecific (between different species of the same genus) or
intergenic (between different genera).
Another way of improving crop variety is by introducing a gene to
obtain the desired characteristic. This produces genetically modified
crops.
Crop variety improvement is done for the
following
• Higher yield - to increase productivity of crop per acre
• Improved quality - improved in the nutritions
• Biotic and Abiotic resistance - to increase resistance of crops to biotic factors
like insects, diseases etc. and abiotic factors like draught, salinity, heat, cold
etc.
• Change in maturity duration - to reduce the duration between sowing and
harvesting so that farmers can grow multiple crops during the year.
• Wider adaptibility - to grow crops in different climatic conditions.
• Desirable agronomic characters - Characters like tallness and more branching
are useful for fodder crops and dwarfness is desirable for cereal crops.
Crop production management
Crop production management includes
A. Nutrient management
B. Irrigation
C. Cropping management
Nutrient management
• Sources of nutrition - Air, Water and Soil
• 16 nutrients required by plants for their proper growth. Air supplies
oxygen and carbon dioxide, water supplies hydrogen, oxygen and the
remaining 13 nutrients are obtained from the soil.
• Among the 16 nutrients, 6 are required in large quantities and are
called macro nutrients. Examples - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
calcium, magnesium and sulphur.
• the other 7 are required in small quantities and are called micro
nutrients. Examples - iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper,
molybdenum and chlorine.
What happen when there is the deficiency of
nutrients in plants ?
It affects the physiological processes in plants icluding

reproduction, growth and susceptibility to diseases.
To increase the yield, the soil can be enriched by supplying
these nutrients in the form of manure and fertilizers.
Manure Fertilizer
It is prepared by the decomposition of These are chemical substances made
plant and animal waste. commercially
It contains organic matter and nutrients. They supply nitrogen, phosphorous and
it helps to increase soil fertility. potassium and helps to increase crop
yield.
It also helps to reduce use of fertilizers Excessive use of fertilizers can reduce soil
and recycle farm waste and protects the fertility and also cause pollution.
environment.
Types of Manure
• Compost - is prepared by the decomposition of plant and animal
waste in compost pits. Compost prepared by using earthworm is
called vermicompost. Compost is rich in organic matter and nutrients.
• Green manure - Before sowing seeds in fields, some green plants sun
hemp, gaur, etc. are mixed in the soil by ploughing. These plants turn
into green manure which makes the soil rich in nitrogen and
phosphorus.
Irrigation
The supply of water to the crops is called irrigation. Water is necessary for the
proper growth of plants and helps to increase crop yield.
Different kinds if irrigation systems are used to supply water to agricultural land.
They are wells, canals, rivers, tanks, check dams etc.
1. Wells - There are two types of wells called dug wells and tube wells. In dug
wells water is collected from water bearing strata. In tube wells water is
collected from deeper strata.
2. Canals - In this system, canals receive water from reservoirs or rivers and
distribute it to fields.
3. River lift systems - In this system water is lifted from rivers to irrigate fields
close to rivers.
4. Tanks - These are small storage reservoirs which supply water to fields.
5. Check dams - These are used to stop rain water from flowing away and
helps to increase groundwater levels and reduce soil erosion.
Cropping patterns
Different ways of growing crops are used for maximum benefit.
These include mixed cropping, inter-cropping and crop rotation.
1. Mixed cropping - is growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same field. Eg-
Wheat + Gram, Wheat + Mustard, Groundnut + Sunflower etc. This reduces the risk
even if one crop fails.
2. Inter-cropping - is growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same field in
alternate in alternate rows. Eg- Maize + Soya bean, Millet + Cow pea etc. Crops with
different nutrient requirements are selected. This helps in better use of nutients and
prevents spreading of diseases to all plants of the same crop.
3. Crop rotation - is growing different crops in the same field in succession. Growing
leguminous crops after growing cereal crops helps to increase soil fertility. if crop
rotation is done properly, two or thre crops can be grown in a year profitably.
Crop protection management
Crops in the field are damaged by weeds, insect pests and deases.
Weeds are unwanted plats which grow in the field. Eg- Xanthium,
Parthenium, Cyperinus rotundus etc. They compete with the crop for
food, space and sunlight and use nutrients and reduce crop yield.

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ODISHA ADARSHA VIDYALAYA

1. Crop variety improvement

It affects the physiological processes in plants icluding

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