How a crop variety is improved, and how nutrients, irrigation and cropping patterns raise the yield. Then protecting a crop from weeds, pests and disease, and storing the grain.
3 lessons, about 1 h 25 min3 simulations11 problems3 practice questionsPython in every lesson
Created by StemPy LabIndia must grow more food on the land it has, so it must raise the yield from each hectare. Breeders make better crop varieties by hybridisation, crossing two parent plants, or by genetic modification, adding a useful gene. They aim for a higher yield, better quality, resistance to stress, a shorter time to ripen, wider adaptability and a useful plant shape.
A plant needs 16 nutrients: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from air and water, and 13 from the soil. Manure, compost and green manure add organic matter and some nutrients, and fertilisers add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Farmers also bring water by wells, canals, river lifts and tanks, and choose a cropping pattern.
Weeds, insect pests and diseases lower the harvest. Farmers protect a crop by preparing the field well, sowing in time, inter-cropping, rotating crops, using resistant varieties and, with care, pesticides. After the harvest, living and non-living factors spoil stored grain, so it is cleaned, dried and fumigated.
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