Improvement in Food Resources Class 9 Notes

Improvement in Food Resources Class 9 Notes – To meet the increasing demand for food, it’s essential to improve both the quantity and quality of food resources. We obtain food from plants and animals through agriculture and animal husbandry, respectively. It’s crucial to implement sustainable practices in these areas to ensure environmental protection and natural balance.

Examples of sustainable practices include mixed farming, intercropping, and integrated farming, which prioritize scientific management for increased yield and improved crop variety without damaging the ecosystem.

To increase the demand of food some execution of programmes like the White Revolution and the Green Revolution has launched to produced successful results in supplying the growing demand for food production.

• Green Revolution – The Green Revolution in India was launched in the 1960s to increase agricultural productivity and improve food security. It involved the adoption of high-yielding varieties of seeds, use of fertilizers and pesticides, and modernization of irrigation methods.
• White Revolution – The White Revolution in India, also known as Operation Flood, was a successful initiative launched in the 1970s to increase milk production and make milk more readily available to the population. The program involved the establishment of milk cooperatives and the use of modern technology and breeding techniques to improve milk yields.

Improvement in Food Resources Class 9 Notes

Improvement in Crop Yields

Various crops offer us various nutrients and need particular climatic conditions to grow. In contrast to rabi crops, which are grown in the winter, kharif crops are grown during the wet season. Since 1952, food grain output in India has increased significantly because the use of improved seeds, better crop management techniques, and crop loss prevention.

The major groups of activities for improving crop yields can be classified as –

1. Crop variety improvement
2. Crop production improvement
3. Crop protection management

Crop variety improvement

• Higher yield: Developing crop varieties that produce more per acre to increase productivity.
• Improved quality: Developing varieties that meet specific quality requirements such as baking quality in wheat, protein quality in pulses, oil quality in oilseeds, and preserving quality in fruits and vegetables.
• Biotic and abiotic resistance: Developing varieties that are resistant to diseases, insects, nematodes, drought, salinity, waterlogging, heat, cold, and frost, which can all reduce crop production.
• Change in maturity duration: Developing varieties that have a shorter duration from sowing to harvesting, allowing for multiple rounds of crops in a year, reducing production costs and harvesting losses.
• Wider adaptability: Developing varieties that can be grown under different climatic conditions in different areas to stabilise crop production.
• Desirable agronomic characteristics: Developing varieties with desirable agronomic characteristics such as tallness and profuse branching for fodder crops, and dwarfness in cereals to reduce nutrient consumption and increase productivity.

Crop production improvement

Farms in India vary in size and resources, affecting the farming practices and technologies used. Financial capacity determines the inputs and yields, with higher inputs leading to higher yields. Production practices range from no cost to high cost, depending on the farmer’s resources.

Nutrient Management

Nutrient management helps to manage nutrients in agriculture to optimize plant growth while minimizing environmental impacts. It involves practices such as soil testing, nutrient application, crop rotation, cover cropping, and conservation tillage.

Manure

Animal waste used as fertiliser in agriculture, such as urine and faeces, is referred to as manure. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are crucial for plant growth, are high in manure.

Manure are classified as –

• Composting – is a process where agricultural waste, such as livestock excreta, vegetable waste, animal refuse, domestic waste, sewage waste, straw, and eradicated weeds, are decomposed in pits to create compost. Compost is a nutrient-rich organic material that can be used as a fertilizer.
• Vermicomposting – is a type of composting where earthworms are used to speed up the decomposition process of plant and animal refuse. The resulting organic material is called vermicompost.
• Green manure – is a technique where plants such as sun hemp or guar are grown and then plowed into the soil before crop seeds are sown. These green plants turn into green manure, which enriches the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus.

Inorganic Fertilizers / Chemical Fertilizers

• Inorganic fertilizers are synthetic fertilizers that are manufactured from non-living materials, such as minerals or chemical compounds.
• They typically contain concentrated amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK), which are essential nutrients for plant growth.
• Inorganic fertilizers can be formulated to provide specific ratios of NPK, depending on the type of crop and soil conditions.
• Inorganic fertilizers are generally more readily available to plants compared to organic fertilizers, which need to be broken down by microorganisms before they can be used by plants.
• Inorganic fertilizers can be applied through various methods such as broadcasting, banding, and foliar application.
• Overuse or misuse of inorganic fertilizers can lead to soil acidification, nutrient imbalances, and environmental pollution, such as groundwater contamination.
• To prevent these negative impacts, careful management and monitoring of inorganic fertilizer use is necessary.

Difference between manures and inorganic fertilizers

Irrigation

Irrigation is the technique of providing crops or other plants with artificial watering to promote their growth and development. Because rainfall is insufficient or unreliable, irrigation is required to provide crops with the water they need. There are various irrigation techniques, such as –

• Wells: There are two types of wells, dug wells and tube wells. Dug wells collect water from shallow water-bearing strata, while tube wells tap into deeper strata. Water is lifted from wells using pumps for irrigation.
• Canals: This is an extensive irrigation system in which canals receive water from rivers or reservoirs. The main canal is divided into branch canals and distributaries to irrigate fields.
• River Lift Systems: In areas where canal flow is insufficient or irregular, water is directly drawn from rivers to supplement irrigation in nearby areas.
• Tanks: These are small storage reservoirs that intercept and store the run-off of smaller catchment areas.

Cropping Patterns

Cropping patterns refer to the arrangement of crops and the sequence in which they are grown in a particular area over a period of time. Type of Cropping Patterns are –

• Monoculture – involves growing only one crop in a particular area.
• Mixed cropping – involves growing two or more crops together in the same field.
• Intercropping – involves growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same field, but in separate rows or strips.
• Crop rotation – involves growing different crops in a particular field in a specific sequence over a period of time to maintain soil fertility and reduce pest and disease problems.

Crop protection management

Crop protection management refers to the practices and strategies used to protect crops from pests, diseases, weeds, and other threats that can reduce crop yields and quality.

Methods used for control crop protection problem are –

• Insect pests damage crops by cutting the root, stem, and leaf, sucking cell sap, and boring into stem and fruits.
• Diseases are caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses transmitted through soil, water, and air.
• Pesticides like herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides are commonly used to control weeds, pests, and diseases, but overuse can be harmful to the environment and other species.
• Mechanical removal and preventive measures such as proper seed bed preparation, timely sowing of crops, intercropping, crop rotation, and the use of resistant varieties can also control weeds and pests.
• Summer ploughing is a preventive measure that destroys weeds and pests by deep ploughing during summers.

Storage of Grains

Pests and poor storage conditions are just two examples of biotic and abiotic factors that can contribute to storage losses in agriculture. A reduction in the quality and marketability of agricultural products may result from these circumstances. Proper care and organised administration of warehouses are required to stop these losses. Before storing grains for later use, preventive and control procedures can be implemented, such as washing, drying, and fumigation.

Animal Husbandry

Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with the breeding, feeding, and management of domestic animals, such as cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry, for the production of meat, milk, eggs, wool, and other products.

Cattle Farming

Cattle rearing is a common practice among farmers in India, mainly for milk production and as draught animals for agricultural work. The two main species of cattle reared are Bos indicus (cow) and Bos bubalis (buffalo).

• Exotic breeds of cows like Jersey and Brown Swiss and buffalo like Murrah and Jaffarabadi are reared for their ability to produce milk for extended periods.

• Indian breeds like Red Sindhi, Rathi and Sahiwal are known for their resistance to disease and their effectiveness as draught animals in areas prone to drought.

Many hybrids are also raised in India to combine the desirable traits of different breeds.

Poultry Farming

Poultry farming is a type of animal husbandry focused on raising domestic fowl for egg and chicken meat production. Breeds of poultry can be classified as English breeds (e.g.,Red Caps), Mediterranean classes (e.g., Leghorns and White Leghorns), and American breeds (e.g., Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire) Indian breeds of poultry include Busra Chittagong, Aseel, and Ghagus.

• Poultry farming involves the production of eggs and chicken meat.
• Layers are birds that are reared for their egg-laying ability, while broilers are raised for their meat.

Fish Production

Fishing is the activity of collecting fish for human use. Fish is an important part of the diet in coastal regions since it is an excellent source of protein. Aquaculture is the practise of catching fish from a variety of sources, such as the sea, freshwater bodies, or estuaries. Among the several sorts of fisheries are:

• Marine Fisheries: In this category of fishing, fish are taken from salty areas like oceans and seas.
• Inland Fisheries: In this kind of fishing, fish are taken out of freshwater ponds, lakes, and rivers.

Bee-keeping

Beekeeping or apiculture is the practice of raising bees to produce honey and wax, which has become a lucrative agro-based activity. In India, there are exotic bee varieties like Apis mellifera and Apis adamsoni, as well as indigenous varieties like Apis cerena indica or the Indian bee, and Apis dorsata, also known as the Rock bee.

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