Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production- Animal Husbandry, Breeding

Food Production Enhancement Strategies: Could you survive for several days without eating? What if you were told that the entire world’s supply of food has run out? Our population is growing at a rapid pace. How do you believe we’ll be able to meet the food needs of everyone on the planet? In order to generate food on a vast scale, we would need to develop numerous ways for improving food production. How do you believe we’ll be able to do this? This article will inform you about all of the current techniques for improving food production.

Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production: Overview

We rely on both plants and animals for our food requirements. As we know, the world population is increasing at a very fast rate. Thus, it is necessary to enhance food production from both animal and plant sources in order to meet the increasing demand. Biological principles employed in animal husbandry, animal breeding and plant breeding have a major role in our struggles to increase food production. Several new techniques like embryo transfer technology and tissue culture techniques are playing a vital role in further enhancing food production. Let’s understand these technologies in further detail.

Animal Husbandry

Animals that are intentionally kept in an agricultural setting for the benefit of humans are referred to as livestock. Animal husbandry is a specialised branch of agriculture that deals with the rearing and breeding of livestock. It is a vital skill that can be learnt and applied by farmers as it is more of a science than of art. Animal husbandry deals with the rearing of livestock which includes animals like cows, buffaloes, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, camels, pigs, etc. These animals provide products like milk, meat, wool, etc., that are beneficial to humans. It is extended to poultry farming, fishery, apiculture, etc.
It is estimated that \({\rm{70\% }}\) of the world’s production of livestock is from India and China. But, their contribution to the world farm is very low, i.e. only \({\rm{25\% ,}}\) their productivity per unit is too low. A professional boost can be given to the traditional practices to overcome the problems faced by the farmers. Continue reading to know about various farmings and their management techniques.

Fig: Animals Involved in Animal Husbandry

Management of Farms and Farm Animals

Farmers must improve their conventional practices for the care and upbringing of livestock as well as, they must utilise the new technologies for the betterment of quality and productivity. Selection of desirable breeds, proper cleanliness and hygiene of both the animals and the handler, and regular check-up by veterinary doctors are the most important steps. There are several farms and their management techniques, some of these:
1. Dairy farm
2. Poultry farm
3. Apiculture
4. Fish culture (Pisciculture)

Dairy Farm: The dairy farm includes the rearing of animals, mostly cattle, for the production of milk and its products for human consumption. Dairying includes processes and techniques involved for the increase in the yield and an improvement in the quality of milk. The cattle feed consists of two components, Roughage and Concentrates. Roughage includes fodder, silage, hay, and straw. They have a large number of fibre contents and low nutritional value. The concentrate used in the cattle feed is a mixture of substances that are rich in nutrient contents.

Poultry Farm: The term ‘poultry’ is referred to the rearing of domesticated fowl (birds), i.e. chicken, ducks, geese, turkeys and some varieties of pigeons for their meat and eggs. Poultry birds reared for meat are called broilers, and the female birds raised for eggs are called layers. Feeding materials depend on the age and weight of the poultry as well as the season. It includes bajra, jowar, barley, maise, wheat, rice bran, oil cake, fish meal, bread, green the residue of vegetables, salt, vitamins and minerals.

Apiculture: Apiculture is the rearing and maintenance of honey bees for the production of honey and beeswax. Apiaries or bee farms are large areas established to culture bees. The artificial box where the bee colony is maintained and managed is called a hive. Products obtained from honey bees are of great importance due to their medicinal and other befitting qualities. There is a big rise in demand for honey over the years making it more important to work on large production of it. In India, the commonly domesticated species are Apis mellifera and Apis Indica.

Fish culture or pisciculture: It is the practice of rearing fish that involves farming, rearing and selling of improved breeds of aquatic fishes. Aquaculture is the production of useful aquatic plants and animals like fishes, prawns, shrimps, lobsters, crabs, molluscs by the proper utilisation of small and large water bodies. The rearing of dietetically compatible species is one of the fundamental principles in fish culture. Blue Revolution refers to the time of intense growth in the worldwide aquaculture industry from the mid- \({\rm{1960s}}\) to the present. These are some common fishes and their scientific names that are in high demand.

Fig: Various Types of Farms in Animal Husbandry

Animal Breeding

A breed is a group of animals related by family and similar in most characters such as overall appearance, features, size, configuration, etc. For example, Red Dane, Jersey, Brown Swiss are foreign breeds of cows and Leghorn is an improved breed of chicken. Animal breeding techniques aim at improving the quality of the breeds and adding in desired traits. It is an important aspect of animal husbandry, which aims to increase the yield of animals and improve the desirable qualities, e.g., disease resistance, superior quality products, increased reproduction, productivity and growth rates.

Types of Animal Breeding

Animal breeding can be classified into two types on the basis of the relation between the individuals involved:
1. Inbreeding: Mating between closely related species within the same breed for \(4\) to \(6\) generations is called inbreeding. In simple words, it is the cross between the same breed. Mating is done between a superior male with a superior female of the same breed. The major disadvantage of inbreeding is it raises the risks of different diseases as well as decreases the chances of survival and reproduction among the produced offspring.
2. Outbreeding: Mating of animals within the same breed but having no common ancestors in either of their pedigree for \(4\) to \(6\) generations is called outbreeding. The off-springs obtained from the out-breeding is known as out-cross. Outbreeding is further classified into three types:
a. Out-crossing: It is mating between unrelated members of the same breed, but have no common ancestors in \(4-6\) generations. The resulting individual is known as an outcross.
b. Cross-breeding: It refers to the cross of superior make of one breed with a superior female of another breed. For E.g. Bikaneri (ewes) crossed with Merino (rams) produce Hissardale (sheep).
c. Interspecific hybridisation: This refers to the crossing between male and female animals of two different species. E.g., Mule and Hinny.

Fig: Flowchart for Types of Breeding

3. Advanced Methods of Breeding: There are three advanced methods of breeding; continue reading to know more about these techniques:

a. Controlled breeding experiments: In controlled breeding, native cows are crossed with superior quality of imported bulls in natural breeding. The introduction of semen (sperm) in the body (vagina) of females by artificial means is called artificial insemination (AI). This technique helps to overcome several problems of normal mating.
b. Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer Technology (MOET): It is a programme for herd improvement in breeds of animals like cattle, sheep, etc. In this technique, a cow is administered hormones with FSH-like activity to induce follicular maturation and superovulation. Instead of one egg which they normally yield per cycle, they produce \(6-8\) eggs. The fertilised egg of \(8-32\) cells can be transferred to receptive surrogate mothers. The genetic mother is available for another round of superovulation.
c. Transgenesis: This technique involves the transfer of genes into special cells or embryos. In this case, the unfertilised egg is enucleated by treating it with cytochalasin-B, and the blastula stage nuclei are obtained from embryo donors.

Plant Breeding

The development of a new variety of plants with desirable characters from the existing ones is called Plant Breeding. We all might have heard of the Green Revolution that was responsible for our country to not only meet the national requirements in food production but also helped even to export it during the \({\rm{1970s}}{\rm{.}}\) The Green revolution was highly dependent on plant breeding techniques for the development of high-yielding and disease-varieties in wheat, rice, maise, etc. Dr M.S. Swaminathan is the father of plant breeding in India.

The main steps of breeding new genetic variants are as follows:
1. Collection of variability
2. Evaluation and selection of parents
3. Cross hybridisation among the selected parents
4. Selection and testing of superior recombinants
5. Testing, release and commercialisation of new cultivars
Methods of breeding for disease resistance varieties include,
1. Screening germplasm,
2. The hybridisation of selected parents,
3. Selection and evaluation of the hybrids, and
4. Testing and release of new varieties.

Objectives of Plant Breeding

1. The prime purpose of plant breeding is to improve the characteristics of plants so that they become more useful economically. Some of the objectives may be summed below:
2. Higher yield of grain, fodder, fibre, sugar, oil etc., and developing hybrid varieties of crops like jawar, bajra, etc.
3. Improving the quality of crops in terms of size, shape, colour and other characters.
4. Production of disease-resistant and pest-resistant varieties.
5. Increase in growth and reproduction rate of the plants.
6. Addition or removal of quality, e.g., dwarf, fertiliser response, etc., can be achieved.
7. Development of thermal and photo insensitivity in some crops to extend their cultivation to new areas.
8. Development of crops that can grow in more than one season.

Mutation Breeding

The mutation is the process by which genetic variations are created by changing the base sequences within the genes resulting in the creation of a new character or trait which is not found in the parental type. The mutation is sudden heritable changes in an organism other than those due to Mendelian segregation and recombination. Though it is a natural process, we can induce mutations artificially through the use of chemicals or radiations (like gamma radiations). The selection and usage of the plants that have the desired character or trait as a source in plant breeding are called mutation breeding.

Biofortification

Biofortification is the process of breeding staple crops to produce higher levels of essential nutrients with the help of selective breeding or genetic modifications. It is the process of breeding crops with higher levels of proteins, fats, and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. It is the most practical means to improve public health.

Single Cell Protein

More than \({\rm{25\% }}\) of the human population is suffering from hunger and malnutrition. One of the alternate sources of proteins for animal and human nutrition is Single Cell Protein (SCP). Microbes are being grown on an industrial scale as a source of good protein. Microbes such as Spirulina can be grown easily on materials such as wastewater from potato processing plants that contain starch, straw, molasses, animal manure and even sewage to produce large quantities and can serve as food rich in protein, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins. This also helps to reduce environmental pollution. It has been calculated that a \({\rm{250 \;Kg}}\) cow produces \({\rm{200 g}}\) of protein per day. In the same period, \({\rm{250\;g}}\) of microorganisms such as Methylophilus methylotrophus in a day can be expected to produce \(25\) tonnes of protein due to its high rate of biomass production and growth.

Tissue Culture

The growth or development of plant or animal tissues in the culture medium is called tissue culture. Plant tissue culture is widely used in order to enhance food production. The ability to create an entire plant from any cell or explant is called totipotency. A part of the plant is kept in a nutrient medium under sterile conditions. The medium contains a carbon source, some specific salts, vitamins, amino acids, auxins and certain growth regulatory elements. A large number of plants can be generated in a very short period with the help of plant tissue culture. This is called micropropagation. Each of these plants is a clone of the original plant. A plant obtained from meristem culture is from viruses or any other infectious matter.

The cell wall of plants can be condensed to form a protoplast surrounded by the plasma membrane. These protoplasts are fused to produce somatic hybrids. Somatic hybridisation techniques can be used to obtain hybrids that are not possible by sexual reproduction. For example, tomato-potato hybrid (Pomato), rice-carrot hybrid, etc. Anther culture can be used to get haploid plants. These plants can be further used for crossing or in research. Embryo culture is also used to grow embryos that may not survive ordinarily.

Fig: Tissue Culture

Summary

Food is necessary for the existence of every organisms. In order to meet the requirements of a rising population, it is critical to increase and improve food production. Biological values play an important part in our efforts to enhance animal husbandry and plant breeding so that we may boost food production. Embryo transfer technologies and tissue culture techniques, for example, will play a vital part in the future development of Food Production.

The increasing demand for food from animals and animal products both in terms of quality and quantity has been fulfilled by healthy animal husbandry practices. Animal husbandry is the practice of taking care and breeding domestic animals by applying scientific principles. These practices include the management of farm and farm animals and animal breeding. There has been a remarkable growth in the practice of apiculture or beekeeping due to the high nutritive value of honey and its medicinal importance. Aquaculture is another nourishing industry meeting the demand for aquatic foods like fish, fish products and other aquatic animals. Plant breeding may be used to create varieties that are resistant to pathogens and insect pests. This method is used to increase the yield of the food and also the protein content of the plant foods and thereby enhance the quality of food.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production

Q.1. Why are strategies for enhancement in food production important?     
Ans: It is crucial to increase and expand food production in order to fulfil the requirements of a growing population. Biological technologies have a significant role to play in our endeavours to improve animal husbandry and plant breeding in order to enhance the production of food from both plant and animal sources.

Q.2. What is food enhancement?     
Ans: Increase in the production of food in order to reach increasing demand by using modern technologies is called food enhancement. Breeding, animal husbandry and modern technologies such as tissue culture, genetic engineering, embryo transfer are used in the food enhancement process.

Q.3. What are the three options to increase food production?        
Ans: There are many modern technologies or options used to increase food production; three main options are; Animal husbandry, plant or animal breeding and biofortification.

Q.4. What is inbreeding?
Ans: Breeding between animals of the same breed is called inbreeding. Superior males and superior females of the same breed are identified and mated in pairs. Inbreeding increases homozygosity and exposes harmful recessive genes that are eliminated by selection.

Q.5. What is Biofortification? Give an example.                      
Ans: Biofortification is the process of breeding staple crops to produce higher levels of essential nutrients with the help of selective breeding or genetic modifications. It is the process of breeding crops with higher levels of proteins, fats, and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. For example, biofortification of a wheat variety called Atlas 66, this variety has high protein content in comparison to the existing wheat.

Learn About Apiculture Here

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