Important Notes for NEET Biology Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

For the survival of all species, Food is essential. It is important to increase and enhance Food Production in order to respond to the needs of a growing population. Biological values have a significant role to play in our attempts to improve Animal Husbandry and plant breeding in order to improvise the Production of Food. Several new techniques will play a key role in further developing Food Production, such as embryo transfer technology and tissue culture techniques.

Animal Husbandry

Animal Husbandry is the branch of science that aims for human advantages in the practice of breeding, farming, and care of farm Animals such as cattle, dogs, sheep, and horses. Animal Husbandry refers to the raising of livestock and selective breeding. It is an Agricultural branch.

For their livelihood, a large number of farmers are dependent on Animal Husbandry. Animals, primarily bullocks, are the main source of power for both farmers and dryers, in addition to providing milk, meat, and hides. 

Animal Husbandry is the care and management, for profit by humans of farm Animals, in which genetic attributes and behaviour are further developed, considered to be beneficial to humans.

Types of Animal Husbandry

A breed is a group of Animals of the same species that have similar features and appearance and are related in descent.

Two Forms of Breeding are Inbreeding and Outbreeding. 

1. Inbreeding: 

It refers to male-female breeding and 4 to 6 generations of the same breed. Superior males and superior females are chosen and mated for the same.

• Inbreeding encourages homozygosity and, as in Mendel's experiment, is necessary to develop pure lines or true breeding organisms. 

• Inbreeding destroys undesirable genes, and develops superior genes. 

• Depression of inbreeding stems from continual inbreeding. Here, productivity decreases, as well as fertility, which can be restored by mating with superior Animals that are not related.

2. Outbreeding: 

It can be defined as the mating of Animals that are not closely related. There may be three forms of this: 

• Out-crossing: It is a mating of the same breed, which have different ancestors.  This helps to overcome depression from inbreeding. 

• Cross-breeding: It helps to combine two breeds with superior characteristics. Superior males of one breed are mated with superior females of another breed for this reason.

• Interspecific breeding: In this kind, the mating between the females and males of two different related species. The offspring usually have characters from both sides of the parents and can be used for economic advantages. Yet sterile progenies are typically the outcome of interspecific breeding.

Fisheries

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

Aquaculture is used for commercial use by breeding and rearing aquatic flora (fish, molluscs, crustaceans) and fauna (aquatic plants and algae). In the oceans, rivers, or lakes, extensive aquaculture is carried out, while intensive aquaculture is carried out in ponds and tanks.

Bee-keeping (Apiculture)

It is the care of a honey bee beehive for the manufacture of honey. Honey is a compound rich in nutrients derived from beehives. In different industries, beeswax is used to prepare cosmetics, polishes, etc. The most common honey bee species is Apis indica.

Plant Breeding

Plant breeding can be one of the strategies and can be studied under strategies for enhancement in Food Production notes.

• Plant breeding is an artificial process to achieve desired characteristics such as high yield, superior quality, and resistance to disease in plant species. 

• The Green Revolution includes increased Food Production to meet the needs of the population. India's green revolution was created by M. From S. Swaminathan. For this reason, modern methods and techniques are used, such as the use of fertilizers, pesticides, high-yielding crops, irrigation equipment, etc. 

• High-yield wheat and rice varieties have significantly contributed to an increase in the Production of Food grains.

• In order to increase yield, enhance quality, tolerance to environmental stress, resistance to different pathogens and pests, plant breeding is conducted. Worldwide, governments and different businesses run plant breeding programs.

The measures that are taken to produce a new plant genetic variety are: 

• Variability Collection - It involves the collection of all given crop varieties. All the various alleles are collected for all of a plant's genes. It is known as the germplasm collection. 

• Identification and selection of parents - For the desired characteristic, the germplasm is evaluated.

• Cross hybridization - Two desired characters are mixed, e.g. a plant with a high protein content is cross-bred for disease resistance plants. 

• Selection and testing of superior recombinants - In order to get homozygosity, hybrids with desired characters are picked and self-pollinated for different generations. In the next generation, this guarantees that characters do not segregate.

• Proper quality control for yield and other characteristics such as disease tolerance is carried out for the commercialization of new cultivars. For this reason, the crop is grown in a research area and under regulated conditions.

Evaluation is followed for three consecutive seasons by testing in farmers' fields across the world.

Plant Breeding for Improved Quality of Food

Here are some more strategies for enhancement in Food Production-

1. Biofortification

Biofortification is defined as the method of breeding nutrient-rich crops. The quality and content of protein, oil, vitamins, micronutrients, and minerals have been increased by crops with improved nutritional value. Many varieties of vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals have been published by IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) in New Delhi.   

2. Single-cell Protein (SCP)

Single-cell protein is one of the protein sources and can fulfill the nutrient needs of the ever-increasing population of humans and Animals. For example: Due to its high growth rate and biomass Production, the bacteria Methylophilus methylotrophus can generate 25 tonnes of protein. An increasing industry is the large-scale processing of edible mushrooms.

3. Tissue Culture

Tissue culture is the method of forming a portion of the plant to shape the whole plant. Totipotency is known as the ability of an explant (part of the plant) or a cell to regenerate the whole plant

• Micropropagation is a method of using tissue culture to grow thousands of plants. The medium needs to be nutrient-rich.

• Somaclones: Each of the tissue culture-developed plants is referred to as somaclones and is similar to the parent plant. Many Food crops, such as tomatoes, apples, bananas, etc., have been developed using tissue culture methods on a commercial scale.

• Somatic hybridization: This is the mechanism by which naked protoplasts (a plasma membrane protoplastic, after digestion of the cell wall) are fused with cells of two different varieties of plants with desirable characteristics. The plants which are grown using this method are called somatic hybrids. Pomato was produced with potatoes and tomatoes, but did not have the desirable combination of characteristics to be commercially used.

Brief into Food Production

Important notes for NEET Biology Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production help students and NEET aspirants revise and practice well before appearing for the exams.

Food being an essential item, it is imperative and important to enhance Food Production while responding to the growing needs of the population. Animal Husbandry, Plant Breeding and technologies like genetic engineering, tissue culture and embryo transfer have increased the yield to a great extent.

Animal Husbandry includes the raising and breeding of livestock like cattle, cows, buffaloes, sheep, etc as well as poultry, fisheries and farming. The care and management for profit, by humans of farm Animals, is Animal Husbandry. For selecting good breeds with high yielding potential, dairy farm and poultry farm management is of great importance. Breed refers to a group of animals belonging to the same species which have common features. Inbreeding and Outbreeding are the two types of breeding.

The breeding and rearing of fish, aquatic flora and fauna for commercial use is Aquaculture. Ponds and tanks are used for intensive aquaculture, whereas oceans, lakes and rivers are used for intensive aquaculture. 

An increase in the production of fishes and other marine animals is what the Blue Revolution is related to.

For the manufacture of honey, the care for the Honeybee beehive is what Beeking is about. Also Known as Apiculture. Got from beehives, honey is something that is rich in nutrients.

The breeding of plants to get the required characteristics in the plant species, like higher yield, good quality, and resistance to disease, is what Plant Breeding is about, and is an artificial process. Plant breeding is conducted in order to achieve higher yields,  to increase the quality,  to check tolerance to individual stress and to check the resistance to different pests.

Conclusion

With the ever-growing population, the enhancement of Food Production has become a big necessity. The yield has been increased manifolds by plant breeding, Animal Husbandry, and new technologies such as tissue culture, genetic engineering, embryo transfer. Plant breeding for improved quality of Food may include the strategies such as Biofortification, Single-cell protein (SCP), and Tissue Culture.