Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

Improvement in food production comprises techniques and approaches to increase the amount as well as the quality of food, which arise due to an increasing population worldwide. The chapter, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production, is an important part of the Class 12 syllabus of biology. This article will help the student prepare for competitive entrance exams like NEET, AIIMS, nursing, and other paramedical entrance exams. It covers various strategies, including plant breeding, animal husbandry, and biotechnology applications, which have revolutionised agriculture and food production.

What is Food Enhancement?

Food enhancement is the varied techniques that are used to enhance food productivity through biological, chemical as well as technological means. All of these are done with the purpose of raising crop yields, the productivity of livestock and agricultural sustainability. Traditional strategies include plant breeding and animal husbandry while modern strategies include genetic engineering and biotechnology.

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Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

It is, therefore, significant that students understand the strategies for food production because such topics crop up very frequently in competitive examinations. Some of the most vital strategies are as follows:

Plant Breeding

In plant breeding, desirable characteristics in plants are selected and bred together to be able to produce improved varieties.

• The technique is applied in developing resistant crops against certain diseases, pests, and environmental stresses such as drought and heat.
• Improvements are also made in crop productivity and in nutrient value.
• Plant breeding can be one of the greatest strategies and can be even studied under strategies to improve food production notes.
• Crop production is the process of achieving the desired characteristics such as high yield, high quality, and resistance to various plant diseases.
• The Green Revolution included increasing food production to meet the needs of the people.
• India's Green Revolution was created by Sir M.S. Swaminathan.

For such reasons, modern methods and techniques are used, such as the use of

• fertilisers
• pesticides
• high yielding plants
• irrigation equipment

High-yielding wheat varieties and rice have had a significant impact on the increase in grain production

In order to increase yields, improve quality, tolerate environmental stress, and resistance to various pathogens and pests, plant breeding is done. All over the world, various governments and businesses are running their own crop production programs.

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The steps taken to produce a variety of plant genes are:

• Variety of Collections- Includes collections of all kinds of given plants. All the various alleles are collected in all genes of the plant. It is known as the germplasm collection.
• Parent identification and selection- With the desired feature, the germplasm is examined.
• Cross hybridization- Two desired characteristics are mixed, e.g. a high-protein plant is born to disease-resistant plants.
• Selection and testing of high-quality recombinants For homozygosity, hybrids with desirable traits are selected and pollinated for different generations. For the next generation, this ensures that the characters do not part.
• Proper control of crop quality and other factors such as disease tolerance is done to market new plants. For this reason, the crop is grown in the research area and under controlled conditions.

The testing is followed for three consecutive seasons by testing in the agricultural sectors around the world.

Plant Breeding for Improved Food Quality

Here are some strategies to improve food production:

Biofortification

Biofortification is usually defined as the reproduction of nutrients.

The level and content of various nutrients like proteins, oils, vitamins, micronutrients, minerals, etc have been enhanced by improved nutritional plants. Various vegetables that are rich in vitamins and minerals have been published by IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) in New Delhi.

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• NCERT notes Class 12 Chemistry
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Single-cell protein (SCP)

Single-cell protein is one of the most important sources of protein and can meet the nutritional needs of an ever-increasing human population. Example: Due to the high rate of growth and production of biomass, the bacterium Methylophilus methylotrophus can produce 25 tons of protein. The growing industry is the processing of edible mushrooms on a large scale.

Animal Husbandry

Animal husbandry relates to breeding and rearing animals for the multiplication of meats, milk, eggs, and wool. It concerns the improvement of the genetic features of animals by selective breeding. Animal management also encompasses disease prevention measures, and feed quality improvement to enhance productivity.

Animal husbandry is a branch of science that aims at human benefits by breeding, farming, and caring for various farm animals like cattle, sheep, horses and even dogs. Animal husbandry means domestication and breeding of your choice. It is an agricultural sector.

To support themselves, most farmers depend on livestock. Animals, especially bulls, are a major source of energy for farmers, in addition to providing milk, and meat.

Animal husbandry care and management, for the benefit of humans on farm animals, when genetic and behavioural improvements are further developed, are considered beneficial to humans.

Types of Animal Husbandry

A breed is a group of animals of the same species that have the same characteristics and appearance and are genetically related.

Two types of breeding are Inbreeding and Outbreeding.

Inbreeding

Refers to male and female reproduction and 4 to 6 generations of the same species. High male and high female are selected and included in the same.

• Inbreeding promotes homozygosity and, as in Mendel's experiment, is needed to develop clean lines or real breeding organisms.
• Breeding destroys undesirable genes, and it creates high genes.
• Breeding stress is caused by continuous breeding. Here, production decreases, as well as reproduction, which can be restored by contact with higher unrelated animals.

Outbreeding

It can be described as a union of animals that are not closely related. There may be three types of this:

• Out-crossing: Mating of the same species, with different ancestors. This helps to overcome the stress from inbreeding.
• Cross-breeding: It is helpful to combine two types of breed with higher characteristics. Higher males of the same species are associated with higher females of another breed for this reason.
• Interspecific breeding: In this breed, mating occurs between females and males of two different related species. Usually, features appear from both parents and can be used for economic benefits. However, infertile generations are often the result of a variety of reproductions.

Fisheries

The rise in the development of fish and other marine animals is associated with the Blue Revolution.

Aquaculture is used for commercial breeding and rearing of aquatic plants (fish, molluscs, crustaceans) and animals (aquatic plants and algae). In seas, rivers, or lakes, extensive aquaculture is practised, while deep-water farming is practised in ponds and tanks.

Beekeeping (Apiculture)

It is the care of the honeycomb to make honey. Honey is a highly nutritious compound found in beehives. In various industries, beeswax is used to prepare cosmetics, polishes, etc. The most common bee species are Apis indica.

Tissue Culture

Tissue culture is a biotechnology-based technique in which the tissues of plants are grown in an artificial environment to give rise to new plants. This is one of the most important techniques for mass multiplying desirable traits in plants and can, therefore, be effectively used to propagate rare or endangered species.

Tissue culture is a method of making part of a plant to give shape to the whole plant.

• Totipotency is usually known as the ability of an explant (part of a plant) or cell to regenerate an entire plant.
• Micropropagation is one of the methods of using tissue culture, usually to grow thousands of plants. The medium needs to be a little nutritious.
• Somaclones: Each advanced tissue plant is called somaclones and resembles mainly the parent plant. Various food crops such as tomatoes, apples, bananas, etc. are developed using commercial production methods.
• Somatic hybridization: This is the process by which nude protoplasts (plasma membrane protoplastic, after grinding a cell wall) are combined with cells of two types of plants with desirable characteristics.
• Plants grown by using such methods are known as somatic hybrids.
• Pomato was produced with the help of potatoes and tomatoes, but it lacked the desirable combination of ingredients to be used commercially.

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

Biotechnology has revolutionized food production. This is because it enables scientists to introduce specific traits in crops, for example, herbicide resistance or pest resistance, as exemplified by Bt cotton. These genetically engineered crops enhance yield and reduce chemical pesticide application.

How to Enhance Food Production?

Farmers and scientists employ a combination of traditional methods and modern approaches towards the improvement of food production:

• Development of high-yielding varieties and breeds that are also disease-resistant through plant breeding.
• Sustainable farming practices like organic farming, crop rotation and soil health for long-term productivity.
• Modern Use of genetic engineering and tissue culture for the development of varieties that have the potential to yield at much higher levels and also resist biotic and abiotic stresses.

Important Topics of Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production for NEET and CBSE

Given below are some important topics from the chapter Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production:

Class 12 Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

Important methods covered by the chapter Strategies for Improvement in Food Production Class 12 include plant breeding, tissue culture, and applications of biotechnology in agriculture. This topic helps the students understand the scientific principle involved in food production and its importance in addressing global food security.

Strategies for Improvement in Food Production NEET Questions

It is important for students studying for the NEET that they understand the strategies used to enhance food production. Among the most frequently asked questions in the NEET exams include those on plant breeding techniques, animal husbandry methods, and the role of biotechnology in food production enhancement. Meanwhile, PYQs tend to place much emphasis on what happens during the process of tissue culture and genetic engineering.

MCQs on Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

MCQs based on strategies for the enhancement of food production are commonly asked in NEET and other competitive exams. In this, MCQ tests the knowledge of various crop and animal improvement techniques and how genetic engineering is applied in agriculture.

• High-yielding varieties
• Selective breeding in animals
• Tissue culture techniques
• Genetically modified crops

Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production PYQ NEET

The students preparing for NEET should practice the previous year's questions on this topic since questions on food production strategies come quite often. The PYQs bring familiarity among the students with the kind of questions that might appear in the examination, like questions about biotechnology, plant breeding, animal husbandry, etc.

NCERT Solutions Subject-wise link:

• NCERT solutions for class 12 Physics
• NCERT solutions for class 12 Chemistry
• NCERT solutions for class 12 Mathematics
• NCERT solutions for class 12 Biology

Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production PDF

For a detailed study, students may refer to the pdf resources of strategies for enhancement in food production. These PDFs provide very comprehensive notes, diagrams, and solved MCQs that help in a better understanding of the concepts. The PDFs usually have study materials covering all types of strategies like plant breeding, biotechnology, and animal husbandry.

NCERT Exemplar Solutions Subject-wise link:

• NCERT exemplar solutions for class 12 Physics
• NCERT exemplar solutions for class 12 Chemistry
• NCERT exemplar solutions for class 12 Mathematics
• NCERT exemplar solutions for class 12 Biology

Types of Questions on Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

The table given below indicates the types of questions asked from strategies for enhancement in food production:

Weightage of Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production in Exams

The table given below indicates the weightage of questions asked from strategies for enhancement in food production in various exams:

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