NCERT Book Class 9 Science Chapter 12 Improvement in food resources

C hapter 12
IMPROVEMENT IN FOOD RESOURCES
We know that all living organisms need food. disturbing the balances maintaining it. Hence,
Food supplies proteins, carbohydrates, fats, there is a need for sustainable practices in
vitamins and minerals, all of which we require agriculture and animal husbandry.
for body development, growth and health. Also, simply increasing grain production
Both plants and animals are major sources for storage in warehouses cannot solve the
of food for us. We obtain most of this food problem of malnutrition and hunger. People
from agriculture and animal husbandry. should have money to purchase food. Food
We read in newspapers that efforts are security depends on both availability of food
always being made to improve production and access to it. The majority of our
from agriculture and animal husbandry. Why population depends on agriculture for their
is this necessary? Why we cannot make do livelihood. Increasing the incomes of people
with the current levels of production? working in agriculture is therefore necessary
India is a very populous country. Our to combat the problem of hunger. Scientific
population is more than one billion people, management practices should be undertaken
and it is still growing. As food for this growing to obtain high yields from farms. For
population, we will soon need more than a sustained livelihood, one should undertake
quarter of a billion tonnes of grain every year. mixed farming, intercropping, and integrated
This can be done by farming on more land. farming practices, for example, combine
But India is already intensively cultivated. As agriculture with livestock/poultry/fisheries/
a result, we do not have any major scope for bee-keeping.
increasing the area of land under cultivation. The question thus becomes – how do we
Therefore, it is necessary to increase our increase the yields of crops and livestock?
production efficiency for both crops and
livestock. 12.1 Improvement in Crop Yields
Efforts to meet the food demand by
increasing food production have led to some Cereals such as wheat, rice, maize, millets and
successes so far. We have had the green sorghum provide us carbohydrate for energy
revolution, which contributed to increased requirement. Pulses like gram (chana), pea
food-grain production. We have also had the (matar), black gram (urad), green gram (moong),
white revolution, which has led to better and pigeon pea (arhar), lentil (masoor), provide us with
more efficient use as well as availability of milk. protein. And oil seeds including soyabean,
However, these revolutions mean that our ground nut, sesame, castor, mustard, linseed and
natural resources are getting used more sunflower provide us with necessary fats (Fig.
intensively. As a result, there are more 12.1). Vegetables, spices and fruits provide a
chances of causing damage to our natural range of vitamins and minerals in addition to
resources to the point of destroying their small amounts of proteins, carbohydrates and
balance completely. Therefore, it is important fats. In addition to these food crops, fodder crops
that we should increase food production like berseem, oats or sudan grass are raised as
without degrading our environment and food for the livestock.

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