Chapter 1: Crop Production and Management
1.0 Introduction to Crop Production and Management
- Food Requirement: All living organisms require food for energy to carry out vital body functions like digestion, respiration, and excretion.
- Plants: Can synthesize their own food (autotrophs).
- Animals & Humans: Cannot make their own food; obtain it from plants, animals, or both (heterotrophs).
- Large-Scale Food Production: Providing food for a large population requires regular production, proper management, and distribution.
1.1 Agricultural Practices
- History: Till 10,000 B.C.E., people were nomadic, gathering raw fruits/vegetables and hunting.
- Emergence of Agriculture: Later, they learned to cultivate land and produce crops like rice and wheat, leading to 'Agriculture'.
- Crop Definition: When plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale.
- Examples of Crops: Wheat crop means that all plants grown in a field are that of wheat.
- Crop Types: Cereals, vegetables, and fruits, classified by growing season.
- Climatic Diversity in India: Temperature, humidity, and rainfall vary across regions, leading to a rich variety of crops.
1.1.1 Cropping Patterns
- Kharif Crops:
- Sowing Season: Rainy season (June to September).
- Examples: Paddy, maize, soyabean, groundnut, cotton.
- Rabi Crops:
- Sowing Season: Winter season (October to March).
- Examples: Wheat, gram, pea, mustard, linseed.
- Summer Crops: Pulses and vegetables are grown during summer at many places.
1.2 Basic Practices of Crop Production
- Crop Cultivation: Involves several activities undertaken by farmers over a period of time.
- Agricultural Practices List:
- (i) Preparation of soil
- (ii) Sowing
- (iii) Adding manure and fertilisers
- (iv) Irrigation
- (v) Protecting from weeds
- (vi) Harvesting
- (vii) Storage
- Paddy in Winter: Cannot be grown in winter because it requires a lot of water, therefore it is grown only in the rainy season.
1.3 Preparation of Soil
- First Step: The preparation of soil is the initial step before growing a crop.
- Key Task: Turning and loosening the soil to allow roots to penetrate deep and breathe easily.
- Benefits of Loosening Soil:
- Facilitates root penetration and easy breathing.
- Aids growth of earthworms and microbes, which further loosen soil and add humus.
- Brings nutrient-rich soil to the top for plant use.
- Tilling/Ploughing: Process of loosening and turning the soil, done by a plough.
- Plough Material: Made of wood or iron.
- Dry Soil: May need watering before ploughing.
- Crumbs: Big clumps of soil in a ploughed field, which need to be broken.
- Levelling: Done with a leveller, beneficial for sowing and irrigation.
- Manure Addition: Sometimes added before tilling for proper mixing and moistening the soil before sowing.
1.3.1 Agricultural Implements for Soil Preparation
- Purpose: To break soil clumps for better yield before sowing.
- Main Tools: Plough, Hoe, and Cultivator.
1.3.1.1 Plough
- Historical Use: Used since ancient times for tilling, adding fertilisers, removing weeds, and turning soil.
- Construction: Made of wood (traditional) or iron, drawn by animals (bulls, horses, camels).
- Components:
- Ploughshare: Strong triangular iron strip.
- Ploughshaft: Long log of wood, main part.
- Handle: At one end of the shaft.
- Beam: Attached to the other end of the shaft, placed on animals' necks.
- Modern Trend: Indigenous wooden ploughs are being replaced by iron ploughs.
1.3.1.2 Hoe
- Function: Simple tool used for removing weeds and loosening the soil.
- Construction: Long rod of wood or iron with a strong, broad, bent iron plate fixed at one end, acting like a blade.
- Operation: Pulled by animals.
1.3.1.3 Cultivator
- Modern Ploughing: Done by tractor-driven cultivators.
- Advantages: Saves labour and time.
1.4 Sowing
- Importance: Crucial part of crop production.
- Seed Selection: Before sowing, good quality, clean, healthy, high-yield seeds are selected.
1.4.1 Selection of Seeds Process
- Method: Damaged seeds become hollow and lighter, hence float on water.
- Benefit: Good method for separating good, healthy seeds from damaged ones.
1.4.2 Tools Used for Sowing Seeds
1.4.2.1 Traditional Tool
- Shape: Like a funnel.
- Mechanism: Seeds filled into the funnel pass down through two or three pipes with sharp ends, which pierce the soil to place seeds.
1.4.2.2 Seed Drill
- Modern Use: Used for sowing with tractors.
- Advantages: Sows seeds uniformly at equal distance and depth, ensures seeds are covered by soil, and protects them from birds.
- Efficiency: Saves time and labour.
1.4.3 Seedling Transplantation and Spacing
- Nursery Growth: Seeds of some plants (e.g., paddy, forest plants, flowering plants) are first grown in nurseries.
- Transplantation: Seedlings are manually transplanted to the field when grown.
- Appropriate Spacing: Necessary to prevent overcrowding of plants.
- Benefits of Spacing: Ensures sufficient sunlight, nutrients, and water from the soil.
- Overcrowding Prevention: A few plants may need to be removed to prevent it.
1.5 Adding Manure and Fertilisers
- Definition: Substances added to soil in the form of nutrients for the healthy growth of plants.
- Nutrient Depletion: Continuous cultivation of crops makes the soil poor in nutrients.
- Manuring Purpose: Farmers add manure to fields to replenish soil nutrients.
- Result of Insufficient Manuring: Weak plants.
1.5.1 Manure
- Nature: Organic substance.
- Origin: Obtained from the decomposition of plant or animal wastes (e.g., cattle dung).
- Preparation: Farmers dump waste in pits; microorganisms cause decomposition.
- Vermicomposting: A method of making compost using earthworms.
- Advantages of Manure (Organic):
- Enhances soil's water-holding capacity.
- Makes soil porous, easing gas exchange.
- Increases friendly microbes.
- Improves soil texture.
- Provides a lot of humus to the soil.
- Relatively less rich in specific plant nutrients compared to fertilisers.
- Can be prepared in the fields.
1.5.2 Fertilisers
- Nature: Chemicals rich in a particular nutrient.
- Production: Produced in factories (man-made inorganic salts).
- Examples: Urea, ammonium sulphate, super phosphate, potash, NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium).
- Benefits: Help farmers get better yield of crops (wheat, paddy, maize).
- Disadvantages of Excessive Use:
- Makes soil less fertile.
- Source of water pollution.
1.5.3 Soil Nutrient Replenishment Methods
- Substituting Fertilisers: Use organic manure or leave fields uncultivated (fallow) between crops.
- Crop Rotation: Growing different crops alternately.
- Example: Northern Indian farmers grew legumes (fodder) in one season and wheat in the next, replenishing soil nitrogen.
- Rhizobium Bacteria: Present in root nodules of leguminous plants, fix atmospheric nitrogen.
1.5.4 Differences between Fertiliser and Manure
- Fertiliser:
- Man-made inorganic salt.
- Prepared in factories.
- Does not provide any humus to the soil.
- Very rich in plant nutrients (N, P, K).
- Manure:
- Natural substance from decomposition of cattle dung and plant residues.
- Can be prepared in the fields.
- Provides a lot of humus to the soil.
- Relatively less rich in plant nutrients.
1.6 Irrigation
- Importance of Water: Essential for proper growth and development of all living beings.
- Plant Water Absorption: Roots absorb water, minerals, and fertilisers.
- Plant Water Content: Plants contain nearly 90% water.
- Seed Germination: Does not occur under dry conditions.
- Nutrient Transport: Nutrients dissolved in water are transported to all plant parts.
- Crop Protection: Water protects crops from frost and hot air currents.
- Definition of Irrigation: Supply of water to crops at regular intervals to maintain soil moisture for healthy growth.
- Variability: Time and frequency of irrigation vary by crop, soil, and season.
- Summer Irrigation: Higher frequency due to increased evaporation from soil and leaves.
1.6.1 Sources of Irrigation
- Natural Sources: Wells, tubewells, ponds, lakes, rivers, dams, and canals.
1.6.2 Traditional Methods of Irrigation
- Mechanism: Water lifted from sources using cattle or human labour.
- Characteristics: Cheaper but less efficient.
- Types:
- Moat (pulley-system).
- Chain Pump.
- Dhekli.
- Rahat (Lever system).
- Pumps: Commonly used for lifting water, run by diesel, biogas, electricity, and solar energy.
1.6.3 Modern Methods of Irrigation (Water-Economical)
- Purpose: To use water economically.
- Main Methods: Sprinkler System and Drip System.
1.6.3.1 Sprinkler System
- Usefulness: More useful on uneven land where water is insufficient.
- Mechanism: Perpendicular pipes with rotating nozzles join main pipeline; water under pressure sprinkles like rain.
- Applications: Lawns, coffee plantations, and several other crops.
1.6.3.2 Drip System
- Mechanism: Water falls drop by drop directly near the roots.
- Best Technique For: Watering fruit plants, gardens, and trees.
- Advantage: No water wasted; a boon in regions with poor water availability.
1.7 Protection from Weeds
- Weeds Definition: Undesirable plants that grow naturally along with the crop.
- Weeding Definition: The removal of weeds.
- Necessity of Weeding: Weeds compete with crops for water, nutrients, space, and light, affecting crop growth.
- Other Impacts of Weeds: Can interfere with harvesting and be poisonous to animals and humans.
1.7.1 Weed Control Methods
- Tilling: Before sowing, helps uproot and kill weeds, which then dry and mix with soil.
- Timing: Best time for removal is before weeds produce flowers and seeds.
- Manual Removal: Physical uprooting or cutting close to the ground using tools like a khurpi.
- Seed Drill Use: Can also be used to uproot weeds.
- Weedicides: Chemicals (e.g., 2,4-D) sprayed in fields to kill weeds without damaging crops.
- Weedicide Application: Diluted with water and sprayed with a sprayer.
- Safety Precautions: Farmers should cover their nose and mouth during spraying due to potential health effects.
1.8 Harvesting
- Definition: The cutting of crop after it is mature.
- Process: Crops are pulled out or cut close to the ground.
- Maturation Time: Cereal crops typically take 3 to 4 months to mature.
- Methods in India:
- Manually: By sickle.
- By Machine: Harvester.
1.8.1 Threshing and Winnowing
- Threshing Definition: Separation of grain seeds from the chaff in harvested crops.
- Combine Machine: A machine that acts as both a harvester and a thresher.
- Stubble Burning Concerns: Leftover stubs are sometimes burned, causing pollution and potential fire hazards to crops.
- Winnowing: Farmers with small land holdings separate grain and chaff by winnowing.
1.8.2 Harvest Festivals
- Significance: A period of great joy and happiness, celebrating the efforts that bore fruit.
- Examples in India: Pongal, Baisakhi, Holi, Diwali, Nabanya, and Bihu.
1.9 Storage
- Importance: Essential to protect harvested grains from moisture, insects, rats, and microorganisms.
- Moisture Control: Freshly harvested grains have high moisture; must be dried in the sun before storage to prevent spoilage and attack.
- Home Storage: Farmers store grains in jute bags or metallic bins, often using dried neem leaves.
- Large-Scale Storage: Done in silos and granaries to protect from pests.
- Chemical Treatments: Required for large quantities in godowns to protect from pests and microorganisms.
1.10 Food from Animals
- Animal Contributions: Animals provide different kinds of food (e.g., milk from cow, buffalo, goat).
- Coastal Diets: Many people in coastal areas consume fish as a major part of their diet.
- Fish Benefits: Good for health; cod liver oil from fish is rich in vitamin D.
- Animal Rearing: Animals reared at home or in farms need proper food, shelter, and care.
- Animal Husbandry Definition: Rearing animals on a large scale for food and other products.
Key Learnings and Keywords
- Agricultural Practices: Necessary for providing food to growing population.
- Crop Definition: Same kind of plants cultivated at a place.
- Crop Categories: Rabi and Kharif crops, based on seasons.
- Soil Preparation: Tilling and levelling soil using ploughs and levellers.
- Sowing: Planting healthy seeds at appropriate depths/distances for good yield, often using seed drills.
- Soil Enrichment: Replenished with organic manure and fertilisers.
- Irrigation: Supply of water to crops at appropriate intervals.
- Weeding: Removal of unwanted plants (weeds).
- Harvesting: Cutting mature crops manually or by machines.
- Threshing: Separating grains from chaff.
- Storage: Proper grain storage to protect from pests/microorganisms.
- Animal Husbandry: Rearing animals for food on a large scale.
- KEYWORDS:
- AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
- ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
- CROP
- FERTILISER
- GRANARIES
- HARVESTING
- IRRIGATION
- KHARIF
- MANURE
- PLOUGH
- RABI
- SEEDS
- SILO
- SOWING
- STORAGE
- THRESHING
- WEEDS
- WEEDICIDE
- WINNOWING