Careers in Agriculture
The science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products.
Food Crops – Crop Variety Improvement
The food we eat keeps us strong and healthy. Food provides us with the nutrients and energy that we need for the proper functioning and growth of the body. As human beings are incapable of synthesizing food, we depend on plants and animals for our food. The population explosion has led to a greater demand for basic requirements such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. Another impact of population on food crop production is land exploitation. Thus, cultivation has been limited to a small area.
In order to meet the demands with limited resources, we need to apply a greater effort. Crop variety improvement, crop production improvement and crop protection management are three major ways to improve food crops production.
Let us have a look at food crops and different methods of crop variety improvement.
Food Crops
Food crops are crops that contribute to the world’s major food supply. They comprise grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits, legumes, spices, herbs, beverages, etc.
Grains are a major source of human food. They serve as a staple food for the majority of population. These include rice, wheat, maize, barley, etc.
Legumes and dried beans have a longer shelf-life and are economical. Thus, they can be used in seasons when food is scarce.
Seeds and nuts are the powerhouses of energy and a concentrated form of food.
Herbs have a strong flavour. These mainly comprise leaves, stems, flowers, roots and seeds
Food Rainbow
No one food or food group provides all the nutrients our bodies need, so eating a variety of foods is important. Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables generally have more nutrients, and eating at least one fruit or vegetable from each colour group (red, orange/yellow, green, blue/purple and white) gives our bodies the range of healthy vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that make and keep our bodies healthy.
Plant Parts
We get energy from plants in two ways: by eating the seeds or by eating parts of the mature plant. Most plants have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. These plant parts all have a role in keeping a mature plant healthy and helping it reproduce.
Roots help provide support by anchoring the plant and absorbing the water and minerals plants need to create their nutrients. Roots can also store sugars and carbohydrates that the plant uses to carry out other functions. Plants can have a taproot system, like a carrot, or a fibrous root system, like lettuce.
Stems carry water and minerals from the roots to the leaves, and carry the food produced by the leaves to other parts of the plant. These require two types of tubes made up of different kinds of cells: xylem cells move water and phloem cells move food. Stems also provide support for the plant and can move the leaves toward the sunlight that is needed to produce food. Most plants can be divided into one of two general categories, based on their stems: herbaceous (short, soft plants) or woody (tall, stiff plants).
Leaves come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all have one job: to make food for the rest of the plant.
Flowers help the plant reproduce so that more plants can be made.
Fruit can be thought of as a swollen flower. Apples, oranges, and even tomatoes, cucumbers and beans, are types of fruit because they have seeds inside them. Fruit is meant to be eaten so that its seeds are dispersed by the animal that eats it. Seeds can also be left behind, but with material that will help them grow into new plants.
Seeds contain everything needed for it to become a mature plant: a tiny plant (embryo) with leaves, stems, root parts and the food it needs to begin growing. This is all wrapped up in a seed coat, which protects the embryo from microbes and other invaders, and prevents the inside from drying out.
Test your knowledge on Food Crops
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