Improvement in food resources 

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.

             

Crops	Nutrients
Carbohydrates	Cereals
Proteins	Pulses
Fats	Oil seeds
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

14)                Manures and fertilizers supplement the soil with the required nutrients and thus increase crop yield.

Manures contain decomposed animal and plant wastes and increases soil nutrition and fertility.

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