Sustainable agriculture and crop improvement — lesson. Biology CBSE Live product, Class 9 (2025-26).

All living organisms need food for energy, growth, and repair, which comes from plants and animals through farming and animal rearing.

Revolution:

To meet the growing population’s needs, India increased food production through revolutions:

Green Revolution – More food grains with modern farming.
White Revolution – Increased milk production.
Blue Revolution – More fish and marine products.
Yellow Revolution – Higher edible oil seed production.

Overuse of land, water, and soil during these revolutions harmed the environment, so sustainable farming is necessary.

Types of crops:

Crops are the plants that are grown by farmers in a larger area for food or other uses.

Crops include:

Cereals – Rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, barley, millets (provide carbohydrates)
Pulses – Gram, peas, black gram, green gram, pigeon pea, lentils (provide proteins)
Oilseeds – Groundnut, sesame, soybean, mustard, castor, linseed, sunflower (provide fats)
Fruits and vegetables – Provide vitamins, minerals, and small amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
Fodder crops – Oats, berseem, sudangrass (grown for livestock).

Crop growth requirements:

Crops need suitable climate, temperature, and sunlight for growth, as photosynthesis depends on sunlight.

Crop seasons in India:

Kharif (June–October): Paddy, maize, pigeon pea, soyabean, groundnut, cotton, black gram, green gram.
Rabi (November–April): Wheat, peas, gram, mustard, linseed.
Zaid (March–June): Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber.

High yield approaches:

Important!

Food grain production increased four-fold (\(1952–2010\)) with only \(25%\) more cultivable land.

High yield is achieved by improving crop varieties, managing crop production, and crop protection.

Improvement in crop variety:

Selection based on disease resistance, fertilizer response, product quality, and yield. Crop improvement is done for better yield, quality, stress resistance, shorter maturity, wider adaptability, and desirable agronomic traits. Varieties should perform well under different climatic and soil conditions.

Methods:

Hybridisation is crossbreeding plants (intervarietal, interspecific, intergeneric).
Gene introduction is creating genetically modified crops.

Farming and crop production management in India:

Farming in India ranges from small to large farms, and practices depend on land, finances, and access to technology. Production also depends on capital, classified as no-cost, low-cost, or high-cost farming. Crop production management involves nutrient management, irrigation, and cropping patterns to improve yield.

Nutrients for plants:

Plants need \(16\) essential nutrients:

Macronutrients (Required in large amounts) – Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur
Micronutrients (Required in small amounts) – Iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, chlorine
Sources of the given nutrients air (carbon, oxygen), water (hydrogen, oxygen), soil (rest of the nutrients)

Various sources of nutrients supplied to plants

Importance of nutrients:

Deficiency affects plant growth, reproduction, and disease resistance; manure and fertilizers are used to increase yield.

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