CBSE Notes Class 9 Science Chapter 12 - Improvement in Food Resources

Food is any substance or material eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin. Food contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals which are ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life.

1.0The Growing Need for Food Security

• India's population continues to grow, putting immense pressure on food production systems. 
• The country already requires over a quarter of a billion tonnes of food grain annually to sustain its population, which is expected to rise as the population increases. 
• One might think that expanding farmland could be a solution, but India is already heavily cultivated. 
• The scope for increasing the land area under cultivation is limited, which makes enhancing productivity the only viable option to meet future food demands.

2.0Challenges in Food Production

• More than merely increasing the quantity of food produced is required. 
• Malnutrition and hunger persist in many parts of the country despite ample food supplies. 
• This problem stems from the economic inability of large portions of the population to purchase food, highlighting the need for improved food security. 
• Ensuring that people have access to food requires higher production, better distribution, and enhanced incomes for those involved in agriculture.
• Most of India's population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. 
• To improve food security, it is essential to raise farmers' income through better yields, diversified farming practices, and sustainable resource use. 
• Integrated farming—combining agriculture with activities such as livestock rearing, poultry farming, fisheries, and beekeeping—can provide additional income and stability to farmers, helping them weather the risks of crop failure or market fluctuations.

Agriculture 

• It is an applied biological science which deals with the production of plants and raising of livestock for human use. 

Crop variety improvement:

• The traditional method of crop improvement is by sexual hybridization, making crosses between two genetically dissimilar or diverse plants with desirable characteristics. 
• At fertilization, the genetic information from each parent recombines, so characteristics from each parent are inherited in the offspring. 
• However, many other features are also inherited, along with the desirable ones. In order to obtain improved variety the following steps should be taken. 
• Choice of parents : Select two varieties of crop plants, each of which has at least one desirable quality, such as high yield or resistance to disease. 
• Cross breeding : Pollen grains of plants of one variety are dusted over the stigmas of plants of the other variety and vice-versa. It produces a new variety which has good characteristics of both the parents. 

Crop production management:

• For successful crop production thorough understanding of how crops develop and grow, the various factors that affect crop growth and development and how each factor can be modified or managed are essential. 
• Plant responses to soil conditions and atmospheric environment must be exploited to the maximum to produce a high yield per unit area of land. 
• The following are some of the factors that if managed well will help in increasing crop production : 
• Nutrient management 
• Irrigation
• Cropping patterns

Nutrient management :

• It is controlling the selection, timing and amount of nutrient supply to the crops. 
• Plant nutrients are inorganic raw materials that the plant absorb from their surroundings and utilize the same in building up their organic matter. 
• Deficiency of these nutrients affects physiological processes in plants including reproduction, growth and susceptibility to diseases.

Irrigation 

• The process of artificial supplying of water to crop at different intervals is called irrigation. The time and frequency of irrigation varies from crop to crop, soil to soil and season to season. 

Cropping patterns 

• Different ways of growing crops can be used to give maximum benefit. 
• There are models of raising crops which help in obtaining maximum benefit from the same piece of land, reducing risk of crop failure, disease and infestation. 
• Three common types of cropping patterns are mixed cropping, intercropping and crop rotation. 

Crop protection management

• In fields, crops have to be protected from weeds, insects, pests and disease causing organisms like fungi. 
• All these cause damage to crop plants so much that most of the crop is lost. 
• Thus, crops can be protected by the following methods : 
• Use of pesticides, insecticides, weedicides. 
• Use of resistant varieties. 
• Crop rotation and other cropping systems. 
• Summer ploughing. 

Storage of grains 

• Storage losses in agricultural produce can be very high. Factors responsible for such losses are - 
• Biotic factors : e.g. insects, microorganisms, mites, birds, rodents and other animals.
• Abiotic factors : e.g. moisture, humidity and temperature. 
• These factors cause degradation in quality, loss in weight, poor germinability, discolouration of produce, all leading to poor marketability. These factors can be controlled by proper treatment and by systematic management of warehouses

3.0Animal husbandry

• The scientific management of livestock which deals with the feeding, caring and breeding of domesticated animals is called animal husbandry. 
• The farming of animals also needs planning to meet their basic requirement to maintain health and control the diseases. 
• However, expanding population and scaling demands have resulted in the limitation in livestock breeding. 
• Therefore there is a need to improve these techniques which could ensure sustained supply of animals for the rising population without affecting their existence.

1. Cattle farming 

• Cattle husbandry or cattle farming is carried out primarily for two reasons: milk production by milch animals and for agricultural work, such as ploughing, tilling, irrigation etc, by draught animals. 
• However, they are also domesticated for leather production and meat yield. Indian cattle mainly include cows (Bos indicus) and buffaloes (Bos bubalis). 

2. Poultry Poultry (poult = chicken) 

• It is the breeding of fowls for egg production and meat which are supposed to be the best sources of proteins and fats. 
• Along with these birds, nowadays, other birds such as ducks, geese, pigeons, turkeys etc., are also reared for increased production of eggs and meat. 
• The birds reared for egg production are called eggers or layers while those for meat purpose are known as broilers.

3. Fisheries 

• Fisheries are establishments connected with capture, prevention, exploitation and utilization of various types of fish, prawn, lobsters, oysters etc. Depending upon the mode of obtaining fish, fisheries are of two types
• Capture fishery - The fish is caught from natural water, both marine and inland. Modern technology is used in capturing fish.
• Culture fishery/fish farming - It is the culture of aquatic organisms with controlled environment and scientific knowledge for commercial production. 

4. Beekeeping 

• Bee keeping is the rearing, care and management of honey bees for obtaining honey, wax and other substances. 
• Honey is an economically important product obtained from the honeybees. It is widely used hence, bee-keeping is practiced at a large scale. 
• Beekeeping requires very low investments making it an additional income generation activity. 
• Further, this practice is a source of beeswax which is used in different medicines and cosmetics. 
• Bee-keeping is one of the oldest agricultural pursuits of man. Honey is mentioned as a medicine in ancient Indian literature. 
• Now, honeybees have reached the highest degree of domestication. 
• The modern scientific method for the production of honey and beeswax is known as apiculture.