APEEJAY SCHOOL, NOIDA

IMPROVEMENT OF FOOD RESOURCES

CLASS-IX

O1: What do you mean by sustainable practices?

Ans: These are the practices that fulfill the needs of present generation ,keeping in mind
the requirement of the future without disturbing the environment

Q2: Name three fodder crops.

Ans: Berseem, oats, Sudan grass

Q3: How has the increase in the production of food grains been achieved?
Ans: It has been achieved by the following practices
1) Crops variety improvement – use of high yielding varieties which are disease
resistant, respond well to the fertilizers and produce good quality high yield .
2) Crop production improvement
 Use of improved farming practices, technology and agriculture implements
 Use of fertilizers
 Improved irrigation system
3) Crops protection management
 Use of pesticides and fungicides to protect the crop.
 Use of weedicides to kill the weeds

Q4 What are the desirable character in a crop variety. How can we achieve it?
Ans The desirable characters are disease resistance, response to fertilizers, higher yield,
early maturing, improved quality and biotic and abiotic resistance.
It can be achieved by:
1. Hybridization: It is a process of cross-breeding two different varieties of
crop plants each having a desired character to obtain a new a new plant
having the desired character. The crossing may be intervarietal ,intergeneric
or inter specific.
2. Genetic engineering: This technology transfer genes from one organism to
another so as to modify the latter. They are called genetically modified
organisms or GMOs

Q5 : Differentiate between

1) MACRONTRIENTS 2) MICRONUTRIENTS
 They are required in large quantities  They are required in small
quantities
 Eg. nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,  E.g. iron manganese, Boron,
calcium, magnesium zinc, copper, molybdenum,
chlorine
2)Manure 2) Fertilizer
 It is semi decomposed organic matter  It is chemical formulation
 It is prepared from natural materials like plant  It is synthetic being formed from
and animal residues chemical salts
 It is not nutrient specific  It is nutrient specific
  It is required in large quantity
 It is bulky and is difficult to transport to long
distances
 It contains humus and helps in maintaining soil
texture and aeration
 It is environment friendly
2) Mixed cropping
 Seeds of different crops are mixed before
sowing
 There is no pattern of sowing
 Crop specific pesticides cannot be sprayed
 Harvesting of different crops is difficult
 There is mixing of produce
 Eg. Wheat + gram, wheat+ mustard,
groundnut + sunflower
 It is required in small quantity
 It is concentrated and is easily
transported to long distances
 It does not contain humus and
harm the soil texture
 Excessive use harms the
environment
 Eg urea,
Inter cropping
 Seeds of different crops are not mixed.
they are sown separately
 The different crops are sown in separate
rows in a regular pattern
 Crop specific pesticides can be sprayed
easily
 Harvesting of crops is easy
 No mixing of produce

 Eg. Soyabean + maize, finger

millet+cowpea

Q6: What is organic faming?

Ans: It is a farming system with minimal or no use of chemicals as fertilizers, herbicides,
pesticides and with a maximum input of organic manures, recycled farm-wastes,
biofertilizers with healthy cropping system

Q7: What is crop rotation? What are its advantages?

Ans : The growing of different crops on a piece of land in a pre-planned succession is
known as crop –rotation .E.g. maize – mustard
Cotton – sugarcane – pea
Advantages –
1. It replenishes the soil naturally
2. Attacks by the pest is minimized
3. It helps in weed control
4. leads to increase in crop production

Q8: What are weeds? Why should they be removed? Give some weed control methods.
Ans: Weeds are the unwanted plants in the cultivated fields. Eg Xanthium, Parthenium
 They compete for food, space and light with the crop plants.
 They take up nutrients and reduce the growth of the crop.

Weed control methods

 Mechanical removal or uprooting
 Preventive methods like crop rotation, inter cropping.
 Chemical method – use of weedicide like metachlor, 2-4D
Q9.What are the factors responsible for losses of grains during storage?
Ans: Factors responsible for storage losses are
1. Biotic Factors: They include the living organisms that harm the storage grains.
Eg; insects, rodents, fungi, mites, bacteria.
2. Abiotic Factors: It includes inappropriate moisture and temperature in the place of
storage.

Q10. How do the above factors harm the stored grains?

Ans: These factors cause degradation in the quality, loss in weight, poor germinability,
discoloration of produce and poor marketability.

Q11. What preventive and control method will you use for storing the grain to prevent the
loss?
 Cleaning of produce before storage
 Proper drying of produce first in sunlight and then in shade
 Fumigation using chemicals that can kill pests

Q12. Define:
1. Compost: It is a mixture of organic matter derived from vegetable waste,
garbage, sewage, domestic waste etc. The mixture is placed in large pits and
allowed to decompose.
2. Vermi-composting: When the compost is prepared by using earthworms to hasten
the process of decomposition of plants and animal refuse
3. Green Manure: It is manure formed inside the soil from young green crop plants
ploughed back into the soil. Eg: sun hemp, guar. These plants help in enriching
the soil in nitrogen and phosphorus.

Q13. What is pasturage & and how is it related to honey production?

Ans. The flowers available to the bees for nectar and pollen collection are called
pasturage. Value and quality of honey depends upon the pasturage. The pasturage and
flora may be different according to the geographical location and sowing season. The
type of flora determines the quality of honey.

Q14. What is composite fish culture? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
composite fish culture?
Ans. In composite fish culture more than one type of compatible fishes are cultured
simultaneously in same pond. Example Catalas are surface feeders, Rohus are middle
zone feeders, Mrigals and Common Carps are bottom feeders and Grass Carp feed on
weeds, together these species can use all the food in the pond without competing with
each other.

Advantages:
1) the species do not compete for food among them due to their different types and food
habits.
2) The food available in the entire pond is utilized.
3) fish yield from the pond is increased.
Disadvantages:
1) Most of these fish breed only during monsoon.
2) Good seeds are not available every time.

Q15. Differentiate between broilers & layers.

Ans.
Broilers Layers
They are for meat They are for eggs
Daily food requirement of broilers is rich in Layers are fed with restricted and
Protein & Vitamin A & K calculated vitamins, minerals and micro
nutrients.

Q16.Differentiate between Roughage and Concentrates.

Roughage Concentrate
Animal feed that is high in fibre & contains Animal feed that is low in fibre & contains
less amount of protein is called roughage. relatively high levels of protein is called
concentrate.

Q17.What are additives? Mention their importance.

A.17. Cattle need balanced ration containing all nutrients in proportionate amount.
Besides such nutritious food material, certain feed additives containing micronutrients
promote the health & milk output of dairy animals.

Q.18.Why is white leghorn considered a highly reputed breed of poultry?

A.18. It is the most popular because of its small size &long eggs. This breed requires less
feed for its maintenance.

Q19.Give example of the following

1. Exotic Fishes - Silver Carp & grass carp
2. Indian bee-Apis cerana indica
3. Italian bee-Apis mellifera
4. Indian fishes – Catla & Rohu
5. Indigenous Breed of poultry -Aseel
6. Exotic Breed of poultry – Leghorn

Q20.Define
1. Capture Fishing: Process of obtaining fish from natural resources is called capture
fishing. While the fish farming is called culture fishery.
2. Mariculture: Culturing of marine fishes in coastal H2O on commercial basis is
called mariculture.
3. Aquaculture: Fish farming in inland H2O bodies is called aqua culture

Q20. Continuous use of fertilizers in an area can destroy the soil fertility. How?
Ans. Because the organic matter in the soil is not replenished and micro-organisms in the
soil are harmed by the fertilizers used.

Q21. What are the advantages of using manure over fertilizers?

Ans. 1 They contain large quantity of organic matter and also supplies nutrients to the
soil.
 3. It improves the soil texture.
4. The organic matter in the manure increases the water holding capacity of sandy
soil.
5. The organic matter also helps in drainage and avoids water logging in clayey soil.
6. It protects our environment as it is biodegradable
7. It also helps in recycling the farm waste.

Q22. Write a short note on animal feed.

Ans. Page 210, II column, II para

Q23. What are the desirable traits for which variety improvement is done in poultry?
Ans. Page 211, I column, I para

Q24. How is capture fishing different from culture fishing?

Ans. Obtaining fish from nature resources is called capture fishing. Culturing fish in
artificial resource is called culture fishing.

Q25. Give reasons

i) Farmers prefer short duration or early maturing crops.
Ans. This allows farmers to grow multiple rounds of crops in a year. It also
reduces the cost of crop production.
ii) Continuous use of fertilizers in an area can destroy soil fertility.
Ans. This is because the micro-organisms in the soil are harmed by the
fertilizers and the organic matter in the soil is not replenished.