Class 9 Science Chapter 12 Question Answers - Improvement in Food Resources

Ques 1: Name any two fodder crops.
Ans:  Berseem, oats or sudan grass are raised as food for the livestock, called fodder crops.

Ques 2: What do you understand b.y photoperiod of sunlight?
Ans: Photoperiod are related to the duration of sunlight required for plant growth.

Ques 3: Name two kharif crops.
Ans: Paddy and soyabean.

Ques 4: Name two rabi crops.
Ans: Wheat and gram.

Ques 5: Define hybridisation.
Ans: Hybridisation refers to crossing between genetically dissimilar plants, to obtain, better variety of crops.

Ques 6: What are genetically modified crops?
Ans: By introducing a gene with required characters into a crop for its improvement is called genetically modified crop.

Ques 7: “Shorter the duration of the crop from sowing to harvesting, the more economical is the variety”. Give reason for this.
Ans: Due to short duration of crop growth, farmers can grow more crops in a year, and reduce the cost of drop production.

Ques 8: Name different types of crop production practices involved in India.
Ans: They are (a) no cost production
(b) low cost production
(c) high cost production.

Ques 9: Who provides nutrients to plants?
Ans: Nutrients to plants are provided by air, water and soil.

Ques 10: What are macro-nutrients?
Ans: The nutrients required by plants in larger quantity is called macro-nutrients. They are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphur.

Ques 11: Name the nutrients that plant obtain from air and water.
Ans: Air – Carbon and oxygen Water- Hydrogen and oxygen

Ques 12: State the difference between compost and vermi-compost.
Ans: The compost is obtained by decomposition of organic waste like animal excreta, plant waste etc. naturally due to decomposition by bacteria.
Vermi-compost: To hasten the process of decomposition redworms are added to this organic matter to obtain compost.

Ques 13: Name any two weeds.
Ans: Parthenium and Xanthium.

Ques 14: What causes disease in plants?
Ans:  It is caused by pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.

Ques 15: Name two Indian cattle.
Ans: Bos indicus – cows 4 Bos bubalis – buffaloes.

Ques 16:  Name two exotic breeds of cattle.
Ans: Jersey and Brown Swiss

Ques 17: Name two variety of food required for milch animals.
Ans: • Maintenance requirement – food required to keep animal healthy
• Milk producing requirement – food required for increased lactation Animal food includes roughage and concentrate also.

Ques 18:  State the meaning of capture fishing and culture fishing.
Ans: Capture fishing: It is done from natural resources.
Culture fishing: It is done by fish farming.

Ques 19: Name four marine fish varieties.
Ans: Pomphret, mackerel, tuna and sardines.

Ques 20: What is apiculture?
Ans: Keeping bee for obtaining honey commercially is called apiculture.

Ques 21: Name the products obtained from apiculture.
Ans: Honey and wax both are obtained from apiculture.

Short Answer Type Questions
Ques 1: What are the major group of activities involved for improving of crop yields?
Ans: • Crop variety improvement
• Crop production improvement
• Crop protection improvement

Ques 2: What are the different ways/ methods of hybridisation?
Ans:  Hybridisation can be
• Intervarietal – between different varieties of crops
• Interspecific – between two species of same genus
• Intergeneric – between two different genera

Ques 3: What are the main characters required in a crop during its improvement practices?
Ans: The useful characters that are required in a crop during its improvement:
(a) Disease resistance
(b) Response to fertilizer
(c) Product quality
(d) High yield.

Ques 4: State the difference between macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients.
Ans:

Ques 5: How do deficiency of nutrients affect the crop?
Ans: Deficiency of any nutrient affects physiological processes in plants including reproduction, growth and susceptibility to diseases.

Ques 6: State the difference between manure and fertilizer.
Ans:

Ques 7: What are the harmful effects of fertilizer? .
Ans: It causes soil and water pollution. Continuous use can also destroy soil fertility.

Ques 8: What is organic farming?
Ans: It is the farming in which no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides are used. But uses all organic matter for its growth like manure, neem leaves as pesticides and for grain storage.

Ques 9: State the preventive and control measures used before grains are stored.
Ans: • Cleaning of the grains
• Proper drying of the produce in sunlight, there should be no moisture.
• Fumigation of produce using chemicals that kills pest.

Ques 10: Name few varieties of bees used for commercial honey production.
Ans: Apis cerana indica – Indian bee
A. dorsata – rock bee (local varieties)
A. florae – the little bee
A. mellifera – Italian bee variety

Ques 11: What decide the quantity and quality of honey production in apiary?
Ans: For quality of honey: The pasturage, f.e., the kind of flowers available to the bees for nectar and pollen collection will determine the taste of the honey. For quantity of honey: Variety of bee used for the collection of honey. For example, A. mellifera is used to increase yield of honey.

Ques 12: How are crops useful to us? What do they provide?
Ans: Crops provide us food for our daily body nutrient. Carbohydrate for energy
requirement – Cereals such as wheat, rice, maize.
Protein for body building — Pulses like gram, lentil
Fats for energy — Oil seed like mustard, sunflower
Vitamins and minerals — From vegetables, spices and fruits
Fodder crops — For livestocks

Ques 13: What are the factors for which variety improvement of crop is done?
Ans: (a) Higher yield: It increases production of crop.
(b) Biotic and abiotic resistance: Crop should be resistant to biotic factors
like diseases, insects, pests and abiotic factor like drought, salinity, heat, cold, frost and water logging.
(c) Change in maturity duration: Short-duration maturity allows farmer to grow more crops in a year and reduces the cost of crop production.
(d) Wider adaptability: Crop’should be able to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
(e) Desirable agronomic characteristics: The tallness and dwarfness of crop. Dwarfness is required for cereals, so that less nutrients are consumed.

Ques 14: Name the sources and the nutrients supplied by them to the plants.
Ans:

Ques 15: What are manures? Give its classification.
Ans: Manures contain large ‘ quantities of organic matter and supplies small quantities of nutrients to the soil. It is prepared naturally by the decomposition of animal waste, excreta and plant waste.
• It helps in the soil enrichment with nutrients.
• It helps in improving the soil structure.
• It helps in increasing the water holding capacity in sandy soils.
• In clayey soils it helps in the water drainage and prevent water logging. Manure is classified based on the kind of biological material used to make it as :
(i) Compost
(ii) Vermi-compost
(iii) Green manure
(i) Compost: The farm waste and livestock excreta, along with vegetable waste, sewage waste, weeds, straws etc. are allowed to decompose in a pit is called compost. The compost is rich in nutrients.
(ii) Vermi-compost: When the above given matter is allowed to decompose in the pit along with some earthworms, the decomposition speeds up and is called vermi-composting.
(iii) Green manure: Some plants like sun-hemp or guar are grown and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil. This is done before the sowing of crop seeds into the field.
These green plants present in the soil acts as green manure which enriches the soil in nitrogen and phosphorus.

Ques 16: What are fertilizers? Excess use of fertilizers is not advisable, explain?
Ans: Fertilizers are obtained artificially on commercial basis. It is a chemical which contains the nutrients required for the crop to grow. Fertilizers supply various nutrients as they are nutrient specific e.g.-urea provides nitrogen. Mixed fertilizer provides any two mixture of nutrients. They are expensive but their use yield large production hence are a factor of high cost farming.
Excessive use of fertilizers are not advisable as:
(a) It leads to soil and water pollution.
(b) It can destroy the fertility of soil. As the soil is not replenished, micro¬organisms in the soil are harmed by fertilizers.

Ques 17: What are the different patterns of cropping?
Or
What are the different cropping systems?
Ans: Different ways/patterns / systems of growing crop’s are:
(a) Mixed cropping
(b) Inter-cropping
(c) Crop rotation.
Mixed cropping: It is a method in which two or more crops grow simultaneously on the same piece of land.
Example, Wheat + grain, wheat + mustard or groundnut + sunflower.
This helps in the reduction of risk factor and provides insurance against failure of one of the crops.
Inter-cropping: It is a method of growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same field in a definite patterns. A few row of one crop alternate with a few rows of second crop.
Example, soyabean + maize or bajra + lobia
Crop rotation: The growing of different crops on a piece of land in a pre¬planned succession is known as crop rotation.
The availability of moisture and irrigation facility decides the choice of crop to be cultivated after one harvest.

Ques 18:  How does insect pests attack the plant and affect it?
Ans: Insect pests attack the plants in three ways:
1. They cut the root, stem and leaf.
2. They suck the cell sap from various parts of the plant.
3.They bore into stem and fruits.
This way they affect the health of the crop and reduces yield.

Ques 19: Give different methods of weed control.
Ans: Weeds can be controlled by different methods:
(a) Weedicides: These are the chemicals sprayed on the weeds to kill them. Excessive use is poisonous and causes environmental pollution.
(b) Mechanical removal: In this method weeds are uprooted by removing manually or by machines.
(c) Preventive methods: Proper seed bed preparation, timely sowing of crops, intercropping and crop rotation helps in weed control.

Ques 20: What are the new variety/traits obtained by cross breeding of Indian and exotic breeds of poultry?
Ans: The new variety/traits obtained by cross breeding of Indian and exotic breeds of poultry are:
1. Number and quality of chicks
2. Dwarf broiler parent for commercial chick production
3. Summer adaptation capacity/tolerance to high temperature
4. Low maintenance requirements
5. Reduction in the size of the egg-laying bird with ability to utilise more fibrous and cheaper diet, formulated using agricultural by-products

Ques 21: State the difference between egg-layers and broiler.
Ans:

Long Answers Type Questions 
Ques 1: What are the various methods of irrigation in India?
Ans: Most of agriculture in India is rain-fed, several different kinds of irrigation system are adopted to supply water to agricultural lands. The resources are- wells, canals, rivers and tanks.
• Wells: Dug wells and tube wells. In dug wells water is collected from water— bearing strata.
• Tubewells: Can tap water from deeper strata.
• Canals: Most extensive irrigation system. Canals receive water from reservoirs or rivers. The main canal is divided into branch canals having further distributaries to irrigate fields.
• River lift system: Water is directly drawn from the river for supplementing irrigation in areas close to rivers.
• Tanks: These are small storage reservoirs, which intercept and store the run-off of smaller catchment areas.

Ques 2: Large amount of food grains get spoiled every year in India due to improper storage of food grains. How can this be avoided?
Ans: Food grains get spoiled by insects, fungi, rodents, bacteria, moisture, temperature in the place of storage.
Storage losses can be minimised by following preventive and control measures.
1. The seeds/grains that are to be stored should be dry, with no moisture in it.
2. The grains should be cleaned.
3. The grains should be fumigated using chemicals that kills pest.
4. The storage houses should be water proof.
5. The grains should be stored in sealed gunny bags or metal containers.
6. The bags should be stacked in order i.e. in pile for proper fumigation, and should be kept few centimetres away from the wall.
7. The ventilators if any should be closed tightly, to avoid birds visiting the storage house and destroying the grains.
8.The walls and the floor should be water-proof with no holes in it, to avoid rodents, pests.

Ques 3: Explain different types of fisheries.
Ans: The different types of fisheries are marine fisheries, inland fisheries, capture fishing, mariculture and aquaculture.
• Marine fisheries: Marine fishes are caught using fishing nets. Large schools of fishes is located by satellites. Some are farmed in sea water.
• Mariculture: Marine fishes are cultured in seawater this culture of fisheries is called mariculture.
• Inland fisheries: The fisheries done in fresh water resources like canals, ponds, reservoirs and rivers is called inland fisheries.
• Capture fishing: It is done in sea-water, estuaries and lagoons.
• Aquaculture: Culture of fish done in different water bodies is called aquaculture.

Ques 4: What are the practices used for dairy industry?
Ans: The practices required for raising daily animals to get the optimum yield are:
(i) Shelter.
(ii) feeding.
(iii) rearing of animals.
(iv) breeding.
(i) Shelter: The shelter should be clean, spacious and airy.
(ii) Feeding: Proper food is essential for dairy animals, two types of food are roughage and concentrates. Proper feed at proper time is required for dairy animals.
(iii) Rearing of animals: Providing them proper health care and protection from pathogens, diseases and proper vaccination.
(iv) Breeding: The crossing of different variety of milch animals to obtain a breed that can produce more yield of milk.

Value-based Questions
Ques 1: A group of Eco Club students made a compost pit in the school, they collected all bio-degradable waste from the school canteen and used it to prepare the compost.
(a) Name two waste that can be used for the compost and two wastes obtained from canteen which cannot be used for the compost making?
(b) What is the other important component required for making the compost?
(c) What values of Eco Club students are reflected in this act?
Ans: (a) Two waste used for compost are vegetable peels and fruit peels. Two waste material that cannot be used as compost are polythene bags and plastic items.
(b) Bacteria and fungi present in soil are the other important component for making compost.
(c) Eco Club students reflect the value of group work, responsible citizens.

Ques 2: Surjeet read an article in the newspaper that prolonged and excess use of pesticides and fertilizers leads to cancer in human beings. He also saw the increased number of cancer patients in his town. He started educating the farmers in his town to minimize or stop the use of chemicals in farming and adopt the organic farming.
(a) What is the most common pesticide used in our country?
(b) Give one difference in organic farming and chemical farming.
(c) What value of Surjeet is seen in the above act?
Ans: (a) The common pesticide is DDT.
(b) Organic farming: It is a farming system with minimal or no use of chemicals as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides etc.
Chemical farming: Generally, chemicals are used as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides etc. to increase crop yield.
(c) Surjeet showed the value of responsible person, leadership quality, initiative taker and a concerned citizen

Ques 3: Large number of Bhetki fish died and got crushed in the turbines of hydroelectric power stations while they migrated from river to sea. The environmentalist gave power plant the solution to this problem. Now all Bhetki fish is removed with the help of special technique and hence do not enter the turbines to crush and die.
(a) What is pisciculture?
(b) Suggest two different varieties of fish.
(c) What value of environmentalist is reflected in the above case?
Ans: (a) The rearing of fish on large scale is called pisciculture.
(b) Two varieties of fish are bony and cartilaginous.
(c) Environmentalist showed the value of concerned and caring individuals.

Ques 4: A group of gardening club students prepared a kitchen garden in the school campus and did organic farming to grow the vegetables. Then the students presented their group work in the assembly to spread the awareness and make students understand the importance of organic products.
(a) What is horticulture?
(b) What is green manure?
(c) State the values of gardening club students.
Ans: (a) Production of vegetables and fruits commercially is called horticulture.
(b) The green plants like guar or sun hemp are turned into the soil which enriches the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus and is called green manure.
(c) Values of gardening club students are aware individuals and responsible behaviour.