BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

Animal Husbandry

 Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. It deals with the care
and breeding of livestock such as buffaloes, cows, pigs, horses, sheep, camels and goats which are
useful to humans.
 Farm management is the controlled and scientific handling of farm animals in their rearing, grooming,
caring, feeding and breeding to give a much-needed boost to food production.

Cattle
Farming

Animal Poultry
Fisheries
Husbandry Farming

Bee
keeping

Dairy/Cattle Farming
 The breeding of wild animals for specific purposes is called domestication, and such animals are
called domestic animals.
 Animals domesticated for companionship at home are called pets.
 Animals domesticated to obtain food and other valuable products are called livestock.
 In dairy farm management, we deal with processes and systems which increase yield and improve
quality of milk.

Selection of good resistant breeds with high-yielding potential

Proper housing of cattle with adequate water and disease-free shed

Feeding of cattle in a scientific manner

Stringent cleanliness and hygiene while milking, storage and transport of the milk and its
products

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Types of Cattle Breeds

Cattle Breed Use Examples

Draught  They are primarily used for drawing Malir, Nageri, Hallikar
Breeds bullock carts, ploughing land and
transport of materials.
Dairy Breeds  They are high milk yielders. Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Gir, Deoni
Dual Purpose  They are good milk yielders. Tharparkar, Kankrej, Dang
Breeds  The males are good for draught
purposes.

Shelter and Feeding

Shelter Feeding

•Well-lit and well-ventilated •Feed should contain essential

•Properly covered sheds components needed for the growth,
•Sloping floor development and general maintenance
•Spacious shelter of the body
•Arrangement for fresh, clean drinking •Roughage: Animals get roughage from
water hay, green fodder, silage, berseem,
Lucerne and cowpea.
•Arrangement for the disposal of the
animal waste •Concentrates: Animals get concentrates
from grains and seeds of bajra, maize,
•Location of shelters away from rice, jowar and barley which are rich in
residential areas and waste disposal carbohydrates.
sites

Poultry Farming

 Poultry is the raising of chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese for meat and eggs.
 The egg-laying chickens are called eggers or layers. Examples: Rhode Island leghorns and white
leghorns are good layers.
 Chickens reared for obtaining meat are called broilers. Examples: Ross and Peterson chickens give
great meat.

Components of Poultry Farming

Selection of disease-free and suitable breeds

Proper and safe farm conditions

Proper feed and water

Good hygiene and health care

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Types of Poultry Breeds

Poultry Breed Examples

Indigenous Breeds Aseel
Exotic Breeds White leghorn, Rhode Island Red
Cross-breeds HH-260, IBL-80, B-77

Poultry Care

 Raising of chickens in wire cages.

 Provision of clean drinking water.
 Regular cleaning of droppings of birds.
 Provision of proper feed containing maize, soy, rice bran, cereals and groundnut cakes.

Beekeeping/Apiculture

 Beekeeping or apiculture is the artificial rearing of honey bees

or the maintenance of colonies of honey bees by humans to
obtain honey and other commercially important products.
 The place where bees are kept is called a bee yard or apiary.

Important Points for Successful Beekeeping

 Suitable location for keeping beehives
 Knowledge of methods of catching and hiving of swarms
 Skill of management of beehives during different flowering seasons
 Knowledge of handling and collection of honey and bees wax

Fisheries/Pisciculture
 Fisheries is an industry concerned with the catching, rearing, processing and selling of fish, shell fish
and other aquatic animals.
Marine Fishery Inland Fishery
•It involves fish production in marine •It involves fish production in freahwater
waters. and brackish waters.
•Popular marine fish varieties are •The fresh water fish include Rohu,
pomfret, Bombay duck, mullet, shellfish, Catla, Mrigal and Tilapia.
mackerel

Economic Importance of Fisheries

 Fishes form the staple diet in the coastal areas.
 They serve as a cheap source of animal protein.
 Fisheries provide income and employment to farmers and fishermen.
 It helps in the enhancement of food production.
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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Animal Breeding

 Controlled mating followed by selection to obtain superior genotype of domesticated animals is known
as animal breeding.

Objectives of Animal Breeding

Increased yield and Longer productive life

Resistance to various
better quality of and higher Higher growth rate
diseases
animal products reproductive rate

Types of Animal Breeding

Inbreeding Out-crossing

Animal Breeding

Outbreeding Cross-breeding

Interspecific
hybridisation

Inbreeding  It refers to the mating of more closely related individuals within the
same breed for 4–6 generations.
Breeding strategy:
 Identification and mating superior males and superior females of the
same breed in pairs.
 Assessment, evaluation and identification of superior males (bulls) and
females are identified from the progeny.
 The process is repeated for 4-6 generations.
Disadvantages:
 Loss of vigour, decrease in weight, tougher meat, reduced resistance
to diseases, and decreased life span and milk production in dairy cows.

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Outbreeding  It is the mating between unrelated animals belonging to the same

breed or different breeds of the same species or between individuals of
different species.
Out-crossing:
 It is the practice of mating animals within the same breed but having no
common ancestors up to 4-6 generations.
Cross-breeding:
 It is the mating of animals with superior males of one breed and
superior females.
Interspecific hybridisation:
 Male and female animals of two different but related species are
mated.
Controlled Breeding  This method involves the collection of semen from a desired male
Experiments parent and its injection into the reproductive tract of the selected
female.
Artificial insemination:
 The semen of the chosen male is collected and injected into the
reproductive tract of the selected female by the breeder.
Advantages:
 The spread of certain diseases can be controlled.
 It is economical.
 The semen can be frozen and used afterwards.
Multiple ovulation and embryo transfer technology (MOET):
 In this technique, a cow with desirable characters is administered with
FSH which induces follicular maturation and superovulation.
 A number of follicles undergo maturation producing 6-8 eggs.
 As the eggs are ready, the female is inseminated with the selected
male either naturally or by its semen.
 The fertilised eggs at the 8-32-cell stage are recovered non-surgically
and transferred to surrogate mothers.
 The genetic mother is again induced for another round of
superovulation.
 In MOET, high milk-yielding breeds of females and high-quality meat-
yielding bulls have been obtained with success to increase the herd
size in a short time.

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Plant Breeding

 Plant breeding is a technique of improvement of economically important crop plants and production of
new crops which are better suited for cultivation, better yield and disease resistance.

Objectives of Plant Breeding

Growing Growing
Growing high- Growing Growing pest-
improved stress-
yielding disease-free resistant
quality resistant
varieties varieties varieties
varieties varieties

Steps in Plant Breeding

Selection and testing of superior recombinants

•Selection involves picking up the better ones out of the entire crop plants.
•The selected plants are separated from the inferior one and are favoured by
reproducing them under controlled conditions.
•The seeds so formed from selected plants are harvested.

Introduction of genetic variations

•Differences or variations in the gene composition of plants or individuals of a group

or population are called genetic variations.
•The genetic variations can be introduced by methods such as domestication, plant
introduction, hybridisation, mutation breeding and tissue culture.

Evaluation, release and commercialisation of new cultivar

varieties

•The newly developed hybrid varieties are cultivated in research fields and
evaluated for yield, quality and nutritional contents.
•Only those selected varieties are released for cultivation in a given area which fulfill
the criteria for selection.

Multiplication of improved seeds

•The improved varieties of seeds are free of weeds, pathogens and are of high
order of purity.
•These seeds are released to farmers in different agricultural regions.

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Importance of Plant Breeding

Plant Breeding for  Breeding and development of disease-resistant cultivars or varieties

Disease Resistance enhances food production and reduces dependence on fungicides
and bactericides.
 There are various steps of conventional breeding techniques such as
screening the germplasm, hybridisation of selected parents, selection
and evaluation of the hybrids and testing and release of new varieties.
 Common disease-resistant crop varieties: Pusa swarnim, Pusa
Komal, Pusa Sadabahar.
 Mutation Breeding: Use of induced mutations for crop improvement is
known as mutation breeding. In mung bean, resistance to yellow
mosaic virus and powdery mildew were induced by mutations.
Plant Breeding for  Biochemical, morphological or physiological characteristics are used
Developing Resistance for insect resistance in host
to Insect Pests crop plants.
 High aspartic acid and low nitrogen and sugar content in maize lead to
resistance to maize
stem borers.
 Common pest-resistant varieties: Pusa Sem 2, Pusa sawani.
Plant Breeding for  It involves breeding of crops with the introduction of high-level
Improved Food Quality vitamins, vegetables and fruits.
Biofortification:
 Breeding of crops with higher levels of vitamins, minerals or proteins
and healthier fats is called biofortification.
 Breeding for improved nutritional quality is carried out with the
objective of improving
o Protein content and quality
o Oil content and quality
o Vitamin content
o Micronutrient and mineral content
 The crops commonly produced by biofortification are golden rice,
sorghum, maize hybrids and wheat variety Atlas 66 with high protein
content.

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Single Cell Protein

 The term ‘single cell protein’ refers to dried microbial cells or total protein extracted from pure
microbial cell culture which can be used as food supplement for humans or animals.
 Microbial biomass is an important substrate required for single cell protein which can be grown on
wastewater from potato-processing plants containing starch, straw and molasses. The biomass
produces food rich in proteins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins.
 Common microbes used for SCP production are Spirulina, Methylophilus methylotrophus, Candida
utilis and Fusarium graminearum.

Significance of Single Cell Protein

Can be used as a protein-rich supplement of human diet.

Can potentially reduce the pressure on agriculture.

Can be aimed to reduce environmental pollution.

Tissue Culture

 Plant tissue culture is a technique of growing plant cells, tissues or organs in a sterilised
nutrient/culture medium under controlled environmental conditions.
 The plant part used for tissue culture is called explant (shoot bud, leaf, petiole, anther or ovule).
 The capacity to generate a whole plant from any plant or explant is called totipotency.
 Cellular totipotency is the ability of a cell to give rise to a complete plant when cultured in a suitable
culture medium at appropriate temperature and aeration conditions.

Culture Medium

Inorganic Organic Growth

salts nutrients hormones
Provide essential Provide energy,
Make the medium
micro and amino acids and
solid
macronutrients vitamins

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 BIOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCEMENT IN FOOD PRODUCTION

Applications of Tissue Culture

 Micropropagation
 Production of disease-free plants
 Anther culture
 Embryo culture of successful hybridisation
 Induction and selection of mutants
 Rapid clonal propagation
 Somaclonal variation
 Protoplast culture and somatic cell hybridisation

Micropropagation

•It is a technique used for rapid vegetative multiplication of plant material

to produce vast quantities.
•Each of these plants will be genetically identical to the original plant from
where they were grown which are called somaclones.

Production of disease-free plants

•Plants are raised by tissue culture from the shoot tips (which are free
from pathogens) of infected plants.

Protoplast culture and somatic hybridisation

•Protoplasts can be isolated from leaves, callus and suspension cultures

which are grown on agar.
•When a hybrid is produced by the fusion of somatic cells of two varieties,
it is known as a somatic hybrid and this process is called somatic
hybridisation.

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