Class 9 Biology Improvement in Food Resources

CBSE Class 9 Biology chapter on Improvement of Food Resources describes the quality improvement and management of food resources including crop production, animal husbandry, livestock, poultry, amongst others. Students get to learn about crop improvement, protection of crops from harmful pesticides, biotic and abiotic factors which impact crop production and so on. Looking for MCQs, important questions and chapter summary for Class 9 Science chapter on Improvement of Food Resources? Here are the comprehensive study notes on Improvement of Food Resources to help you cover all the essential points and revision notes for your exam.

Improvement in Crop Yields

The major group of activities for the improvement in food resources are as follows:

1. Improvement of crop variety 
2. Improvement in crop production
3. Properly managing crop protection  

Genetic engineering is now widely used to improve the quality of crops. Here, two different breeds of a crop are genetically edited or fused together. This fusion results in a new variant of a crop having the good qualities of the parent crops. 

Crop Variety Improvement 

The next section in the Class 9 Biology chapter on Improvement of Food Resources covers the topic of crop variety improvement. Here are the prominent ways to improve crop variety:

• Increasing the productivity of crop per acre
• Improving quality as quality tends to vary from one crop to another
• Abiotic and Biotic resistance 
• Changes in Maturity duration 
• Developing varieties for improved adaptability
• Desirable characteristics related to agronomics

Improving Crop Production

Production practices for improvement in food resources can be of different levels. For instance, it may include no-cost production, low-cost production, and high-cost production. The most popular ways to improve crop production as covered in Class 9 Biology chapter on Improvement of Food Resources are as follows:

• Nutrition Management 
  Plants need thirteen nutrients to survive and grow. There are six macronutrients, i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and sulphur, which are required in large quantities. On the other hand, there are seven micronutrients, i.e. Iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum and chlorine which a plant needs in small amounts. These are soil nutrients and apart from them, plants also need air and water to nourish and grow.

• Manures and Fertilizers
  Manure plays a role in the improvement in food resources. It is classified as vermicompost and compost.  There is another kind of manure known as green manure. On the other hand, fertilizers are commercially produced plant nutrients that supply potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. The use of fertilizers should be limited, as they do not replenish the natural organic matter.
  
• Organic Farming
  It is a form of cultivation where the quality of the crop is improved without the use of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers. 
  
• Importance of Irrigation
  Crops must get the right amount of water when they are growing because they can increase the crop yield and bring more and more agricultural land under irrigation for improvement in food resources. The water supply to agricultural lands is dependent on the kind of water resources available. It includes wells, canals, tanks, and rivers. Monsoon in India is often irregular and farming is largely dependent on rain. As a solution to this problem, alternative ways of irrigation have to be sought out. Use of deep tubules and making canals that will direct river water into agricultural fields are some of the best solutions.  
  
• Cropping Pattern
  There are different ways to harvest the maximum yield and accomplish improvement in food resources from a piece of land. These include mixed cropping and intercropping. They ensure that available nutrition in the soil is best utilized. These methods also prohibit the infestation of pests.     

Crop Protection 

Studying Class 9 Biology chapter on Improvement of Food Resources, you must also go through the various ways to facilitate crop protection. As field crops can be easily infected by weeds, insects, pests and diseases, it’s important to protect the crops from such destruction. Here are the major points you need to remember while studying crop protection:

• Pest Attack 
  There are three ways in which pests attack crops. They may cut the leaf and root system, suck the cell sap from different parts of the plants, or bore into the stem and fruits. Keeping pests at bay is an important factor for improvement in food resources.
  
• Storage of Grains
  As far as improvement in food resources is concerned, control and preventive measures are used for storing grains for future use. It is inclusive of strict cleaning of the produce before storing it.  Proper storage of grains involves activities like cleaning the produce before storing and then drying the grains in sunlight followed by chemical fumigation. 

Animal Husbandry

The improvement of food resources must also include management of meat production. This chapter in Class 9 Biology provides scientific ways of managing livestock. Animal Husbandry is important for improving the quality of meat. It increases the production of livestock to meet an ever-increasing demand. Here are ways to improve various meat, fish, and other animal resources:

Cattle Husbandry

As per the Class 9 Biology chapter on Improvement of Food Resource, Cattle Husbandry is carried out for two purposes, i.e. milk production, and draught labour in agricultural lands. Food requirements of dairy animals are of two types. One is maintenance requirements and the other is milk-producing requirements. To control diseases in cattle, vaccinations are used against major bacterial and viral diseases.  

Poultry Farming

Moving to the next section in the Improvement of Food Resources, you will get to study about poultry farming. The objective of poultry farming is to improve the quality of domestic fowl to enhance the production of chicken meat and eggs. Hence, breeds of improved quality are farmed and developed to produce surplus eggs and meat.

Boiler and Egg Production

Here chickens are fed with vitamin-rich fodders for enhancing the growth rate and feed efficiency. Good management practices are important. The meat of Broiler Poultry birds has a high demand in the market.  

Fish Production

It entails the production of fish and shellfish like prawns. As per the chapter on Improvement of Food Resources, fishes are harvested in two ways. 

1. Capture fishing from natural resources 

Fish can be caught from: 

• Natural open water sources, like rivers and deep seas. Popular species examples are pomfret and tuna.
• Closed water sources, like ponds. They provide a decent yield of sweet water fishes like Catlas and Rohuea.
• Inland fisheries or lagoons, which are a meeting point of seawater and freshwater. The only limitation of an inland fishery is that most of the fishes found are seasonal and remain absent the rest of the year.   

2. Culture fishery, also known as fish farming

In this type of fishing, either the combination of a rice crop with fish grown in water is opted for or more intensive fish farming is the best option for composite fish culture systems. Local as well as imported fish species can be used in both these systems.

Bee- Keeping

Beekeeping is concerned with the production of surplus honey. It requires low investment and provides farmers with an additional source of income. Besides honey, they also provide wax, which is used in various mechanical preparations.    

Improvement of Food Resources MCQs & Important Questions

Now that you are familiar with the study notes on Class 9 Biology chapter- Improvement of Food Resources, let’s practice what we have learnt. Here are some MCQs and important questions on Improvement of Food Resources in Class 9:

1. What are the macronutrients that improve crop production.
2. How do weeds affect crops?
3. What is Fish Culture?
4. Name a method of crop production that produces surplus yields.
5. Why are fertilizers used in agricultural fields?
6. What makes crop rotation and intercropping an essential necessity? 
7. How animal husbandry is useful? 

Hence, we hope that you found our study notes on Class 9 Biology – Improvement of Food Resources informative and useful! Confused about finding the right career path or which stream to take after 10th? Reach out to our Leverage Edu counsellors and experts and we will help you find the right stream of study which aligns with your career aspirations! Sign up for a free session with us today!