This document summarizes Kumar Aksh's project on improving food resources. It discusses several topics related to sustainable and organic agriculture including crop seasons, cropping patterns like mixed cropping and intercropping, nutrient management through manure and fertilizers, animal husbandry, poultry, fish, and bee keeping. The document emphasizes utilizing natural resources effectively to meet changing human needs while maintaining environmental quality and conserving resources.

1. PROJECT
ON
IMPROVEMENT IN FOOD RESOURCES
Name: Kumar Aksh

2. Introduction
• All living organisms require food for their existence.
• among all the living organisms, only green plants are
autotrophs, i.e., they make their own food.
• In fact, green plants perform a basic metabolic activity, called
photosynthesis, in which by using sunlight green plants
combine carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to produce
carbohydrates (food).
• In contrast to green plants, animals and human beings are
heterotrophs, i.e, they depend on plants for food.
• Since immemorial time, human beings have been doing farming
and rearing animals to meet their food requirements.
• Plants are gift of nature as food to humans and to most animals.

3. Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainability means keeping an effort going continuously.
So, sustainable agriculture means successful management
of resources for agriculture to satisfy the changing human
needs, while maintaining or enhancing the quality of
environment and conserving natural resources.

4. Advantages of Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is an agriculture production and distribution
system that
• Achieves the integration of natural biological cycles and controls.
• Protects and renews soil fretility and the natural resource base.
• Optimizes the management and use of farm resources.
• Reduces the use of non-renewable resources and purchased
production inputs.
• Provides an adequate and dependable form of income.
• Promotes opportunity in family farming and farm communities.

5. Organic Farming
It is a practice of raising unpolluted crops through the use of
manures, biofertilizers and biopesticedes with healthy cropping
systen that provide optimum nutrients to plants and keep the pests
and weed under control. In organic farming there is little or no use of
chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Biofertilizers include
the nitrogen fixing organisms (bacteria and blue-green algae) and
mineral solubilizing bacteria. Healthy cropping include mixed,
intercropping and crop rotation. These cropping systems help in
controlling insects pests and weeds.

6. Advantages of Organic farming
• It does not cause pollution of any component of our
environment.
• Farm wastes are recycled.
• The food obtained from organic farming are free from
pesticides and toxic chemical.
• Organic farming maintains soil health.
• The cropping system of organic farming keeps insects
pests and weeds under check.

7. Crop Seasons
Various crops require different climatic conditions, temprature and
photoperiod, for their growth and completing their life cycle.
In northern India, there are two distinct season crops:
• Kharif season crops. These crops are grown in rainy seasons,
i.e., kharif season from the month of June to October. For
example, paddy, soyabean, arhar, maize, millet, cotton, urad and
moong are kharif season crops.
• Rabi season crops. These crops are grown in winter season,
i.e., rabi season from November to April. For example, wheat,
gram, peas, mustard, linseed, sugarcane are rabi season crops.

8. Cropping Pattern
These are models of raising crops which help in obtaining
maximum benifit from the same piece of land, reduce risk of
crop failure, disease and infestation. Three common types
of cropping pattern are
i. mixed cropping
ii. intercropping
iii. crop rotation

9. Mixed cropping
• Objective of mixed cropping. The basic objective in mixed cropping
is to minimise the risk and insure against the crop failure due to
abnormal weather conditions.
• Crop combination used in mixed cropping. In India, the following
combination of crops are used by farmers in mixed cropping:
i. Maize+Urad bean
ii. Cotton+Moong bean
iii. Groundnut+Sunflower
iv. Shorgum+Pigeon pea
v. Wheat+Chick pea
vi. Barley+Chick pea

10. Advantages of Mixed Cropping
• The risk of total crop failure due to uncertain monsoon is
reduced.
• Farmers tend to harvest a variety of produce such as
cereal, pulses or vegetables or fodder to meet the various
requirements of family or of an agricultural farm.
• Due to complementary effect of component crops, yield of
both crops is incresed, e.g., wheat and gram.
• Fertility of soil is improved by growing two crops
simultaneously.
• Chances of pest infestation are greatly reduced.

11. Intercropping
Intercropping is a practice of growing two or more crops
simultaneously in same field in definite row pattern with the
objective of increasing productivity per unit area. The
practice of intercropping is adopted by small farmers and
where farmers have least access to irrigation. Intercropping
is an improved version of mixed cropping. All crop
combination in mixed cropping can be practiced in
intercropping. But row pattern is definite, i.e., 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3.

12. Advantages of Intercropping
• It makes better use of natural resources of sunlight, land
and water.
• Soil erosion is effectively arrested.
• Since the seeds of two crops are not mixed before
sowing, fertilizers can be placed as per the need of the
crops.
• Since the seed maturity period of these crops vary, the
different crops can be harvested and threshed seperately.
• The produce of each crop can be marketed and
consumed seperately.

13. Crop Rotation
If we grow a crop continuously in same field for many years,
it results into various problems such as (i) depletion
(deficiency) of same types of nutrients and (ii) build up
diseases and insect-pests.
Crop rotation can be defined as the practice of growing of
different crops on a piece of land in a preplanned
seccession.

14. Advantages of Crop Rotation
• It controls pests and weeds. Most pathogens survive on
crop residue, but only for a limited time and most
pathogens do not infect multiple crops. By naturally
breaking the cycles of weeds, insects and diseases, the
application and cost of insecticides may be reduced.
• crop rotation reduces and need of fertilizers e.g., nitrogen
supply is maintained in crop field when leguminous crops
are alternated with others.
• By alternation between deep and shallow rooted crops,
the soil may be utilised more completely.

15. Nutrients Management
Just as we need food for our developement, growth well-being,
plants also require nutrients for growth. Nutrients are supplied to
palnts through air, water and soil. There are sixteen nutrients which
are essential for plants. Air supplies carbon dioxide and oxygen,
hydrogen comes from water, and soil supplies the other thirteen
nutrrients to plants. Amongst these thirteen nutrients, six are
required in large quantities and are therefor called macro-nutrients.
The other seven nutrients are used by plants in small quantities and
are therefore called micro-nutrients.

16. Manure
Manure contains large quantities of organic matter and also supplies
small quantities of nutrients to soil. Manure is prepared by the
decomposition of animal excreta and plant waste. Manure helps in
enriching soil with nutrients and organic matter and increasing soil
fertility. The bulk of organic matter in manure helps in improving the
soil structure. This involves increasing the water holding capacity in
sandy soils. In clayey soils, the large quantities of organic matter
help in drainage and in avoiding water logging.

17. Fertilizers
Fertilizers are commonly produced plant nutrients. Fertilizers supply
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are used to ensure
good vegetative growth (leaves, branches and flowers), giving rise
to healthy plants. Fertilizers are a factor in higher yields in high-cost
farming.

18. Storage of Grains
Storage losses in agricultural produce can be very high. Factors
responsible for such losses are biotic - insects, rodents, fungi, mites,
and bacteria, and temprature in the place of storage. 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 systematic management of warehouse.

19. Animal Husbandry
The branch of agriculture that deals with feeding, caring and
breeding of domestic animals is called animal husbandry.husbandry
means to use a resource carefully without waste. Thus, animal
farming or animal hubandry requires planning for domtestic animal's
breeding, shelter, helth ,deseas control and proper economic
utilization. Our domestic animals or livesstock includs those animals
which are raised for farm purposes,e.g., cattle [cow,bull or ox],
buffelo, yak, horse, ass, goat and camel etc.

20. Poultry Farming
Poultry farming is undertakento raise domestic fowl for and chicken
meat.Therefore, improved poultry breeds are deveioped and farmed to
produce layers for eggs and broilers for meat.
The cross -busreeding programmes between indian [indigeno , for
example,Aseel] and foreign[ exotic ,for example, leghorn]breeds for variety
improvment are focused on to devlop new variety for the following desirable
traits -
1-number and quality of chikcks :
2-dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production:
3-summer adaption capacity /tolerance to high temprature:
4-low maintanance requirement:
5- reduction in size of egg -iaying bird with ability to utilize more fibrous
cheaper diets formulated using agricultural by - products

21. Egg And Broiler Production
Broiler chickens are fed with vitamin-rich supplementary feed for
good growth rate and better feed efficiency. Care is taken to avoid
mortality and to maintain feathering and carcass quality. They are
produced as broilers and sent to market for meat porposes.
For good production of poultry birds ,good manegment practices are
importent. These include maintenance of temprature annd hygienic
condition in housing and poultry feed, as well as prevention and
control of diseases and pests.

22. Fish Production
Fish is a cheap source of animal protein for our food. Fish
production includes the finned true fish as well as shellfish such as
prawns and molluscs. There are two ways of obtaining fish. One is
from natural resources, which is capture fishing. The other way is by
fish farming, which is called culture fishery.
The water source of the fish can be either seawater or freshwater,
such as in rivers and ponds. Fishing can thus be done both by
capture and culture of fish in marine and freshwater ecosystems.

23. Marine Fisheries
• India's marine fishery resources include 7500 km of coastline and
deep seas beyond it. Popular marine fish varieties include
pomphret, mackerel, tuna, sardines, and Bombay duck. Marine
fish are caught using many kinds of fishing nets from fishing
boats. Yields are increased by locating large schools of fish in
open sea using satellites and echo-sounders.
• Some marine fish of high economic values are also farmed in
seawater.
• As marine fish stock gets further depleted , the demand for more
fish can only be met by such culture fisheries, a practice called
mariculture.

24. Inland Fisheries
India has about 1.6 million hectare of inland waters and so
has a great potential for inland fishery. It include (i)reservoir
fishery; (ii)lake fishery; (iii)reverian fishery; (iv)pond fishery;
(v)estuarine fishery. Inland capture fisheries are rapidly
expanding in our country.
Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI),
Barrakpore has been set up to find out the scientific
principles which can be applied for full utilization of all the
available inland waters of the country for the maximum
production of fish for food.

25. Bee Keeping
Honey is widely used and therefore bee-keeping for making
honey has become an agriculture enterprise. Since bee-
keeping needs low investments, farmers use it as an additional
income generating activity. In addition to honey, the beehives
are a source of wax which is used in various medicinal
preparations.
The local varieties of bees used for commercial honey
production are Apis cerana indica, commonly known as the
Indian bee, A. dorsata, the rock bee and A. florae, the little bee.
An Italian bee variety, A. mellifera, has also been brought in to
increase yield of honey. This is the variety commonly used for
commercial honey productions.

26. THANK YOU