Do you know how the rate of crop yield in India has increased four-time higher as compared to 1964? The improvement in crop yield is the result of innovations in the agriculture sector, the use of organic fertilizer, better-improved tools, new methods of farming, and good quality of seeds.

Successful crop production depends upon one we choose different types of seeds, modify, or manage various factors which are important for improving the production of a crop. Read on to explore various approaches of improvement in crop yield to fulfil the demand for food for the growing population.

What is Crop Yield?

In agriculture, crop yield is the measurement of the quantity of farm or crop produced per unit of area of land. It is usually expressed in kilograms per hectare.

Crop Production

Various types of crops are grown in a larger area for various types of resources.  The various types of crops and their usages are mentioned in the table below:

Types of Crops	Examples	Usages
Cereal Crops	Gram, Green Pea, Pigeon Pea, Lentils, etc.	Cereal crops provide us with carbohydrates.
Pulses	Gram, Green Pea, Pigeon Pea, Lentils, etc	Pulses provide us with proteins.
Oilseed Crops	Groundnuts, Sunflower, Soyabean, Mustard, etc.	Oil, Fats, and Fatty Acids we get from oilseed crops.
Fruits and Vegetable Crops	Orange, Apple, Mango, Cabbage, Potato, Brinjal, etc.	We get vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and roughage from fruits and vegetable crops.
Spices	Chilly, Turmeric, Black pepper, Cardamom, etc.	They are used for enhancing the palatability of food.
Fodder Crops	Oat, Berseem, etc.	Green fodder to the cattle.

Study About Agricultural Practices Here

Need for Improvement in Crop Yield

1. The demand for food and fodder has been increasing due to the rise in population and livestock. 
2. Due to urbanization the availability of land for producing crops is decreasing. So there is more demand to produce crops.
3. Nowadays, people are more aware of their health, so they want to add more grains like jowar, ragi, bajra, oats, etc., in their regular diet to keep them fit, which increases the demand for growing various crops.
4. It is necessary to increase the variety of crops to produce disease-resistant offspring of the crops.

Approaches to Improve Crop Yield

Crop yield is achieved by various practices in farming and the major group of activities for improving crop yields can be divided into three stages, which are:

1. Crop variety improvement
2. Crop production improvement
3. Crop protection management

1. Crop Variety Improvement

In this high-demand market, the initial challenge is to find a crop variety that will provide a higher rate of yield. We can find different varieties of the crop by breeding for various important features such as disease resistance, fertilizer response, higher yields, and product quality. The improvement in crop variety can be made in the following ways: 

a. Crop improvement by Hybridization: One way to include a desirable character in crop varieties is hybridization which refers to crossing between two dissimilar plants. These crossings may take place between different varieties, between two different species of the same genus, or between different genera. 

b. Crop improvement by introducing a gene: The other way of crop improvement is to yield genetically modified crops by introducing a gene that provides desired characteristics. Farming practices and crop yield are also very much related to weather, so crop varieties which are suitable in diverse climatic conditions are useful. Objectives of high yield or some factors for which variety improvement is made are:

i. Higher yield: We can get a higher yield by increasing the productivity of the crop per acre of land area.

ii. Improved quality: Crop quality is improved. The quality of crops varies from one crop to another, like baking is important in wheat, protein quality in pulses, and oil quality in oilseeds.

iii. Biotic and abiotic resistance: To cultivate the biotic and abiotic resistant crop, this can survive diseases, insects and drought, salinity, waterlogging, heat, cold, frost.

iv. Wider adaptability: Wider adaptability of crop varieties will help in stabilizing crop production under different climatic conditions.

v. Change in maturity duration: Crop varieties with shorter life cycles are more economical, allowing farmers to grow multiple rounds of crops in a year. Production cost also goes down.

vi. Desirable Agronomic Traits: Higher productivity can be developed by developing varieties of crops that contain the desirable agronomic traits to sustain the various threats during the production process.

2. Crop Production Management

Crop production management depends on farmers, their purchasing capacity for seeds, tools, technologies which decide the cropping system and production of the crop. Directly we can say the money of financial conditions that allow farmers to do production practice at ‘no cost, ‘low cost,’ or ‘high cost.’ 

a. Nutrient Management

Nutrients are very much important for the crop life cycle, which it gets from air, soil, and water. The plant needs nutrients like oxygen-carbon, which is supplied by air, water is the source of hydrogen, and the other thirteen nutrients come from the soil. The plant needs some nutrients in large quantities and some in less for its growth and well-being.
Nutrients which require in large quantities are known as Macronutrients like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other nutrients are known as Micronutrients like iron, magnesium, boron, zinc, etc. Manure and fertilizers are used to enrich the soil, which will provide nutrients to crop and increase yield.

i. Manure: Manure is useful in enriching the soil by providing nutrients, and organic matter also increases soil fertility. In manure, we use biological waste, which again protects our environment from the excessive use of fertilizers. There are mainly three types of manure: (a) Compost manure, (b) Green manure (c) Farmyard manure.
ii. Fertilizers: Fertilisers are specially supplied nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are commercially produced plant nutrients. Fertilizers provide good vegetable growth and give rise to a healthy plant. The application of fertilizers should be careful in terms of dose and time.

Fig: Manure and Fertiliser

b. Irrigation

Water is very much important for crop yielding; crop productivity is directly dependent on timely monsoons in most areas. Sufficient rainfall can be observed in most of the growing season, but sometimes due to unexpected monsoon or poor monsoon, crop yielding failed to its best outcome. Under this circumstance, many other different kinds of irrigation processes are used. Depending upon the water resources available to agricultural lands, irrigation systems are wells, canals, tanks, rivers. Rainwater harvesting and watershed management are nowadays used to improve the water available for crop yielding.

Fig: Methods of Irrigation

c. Cropping Patterns

Different cropping patterns are used to get maximum output from the same piece of land.

i. Mixed cropping: Mixed cropping is the cropping pattern when two or more crops are yield simultaneously on the same piece of land to reduce the risk of failure of one of the crops. Example: wheat + gram, wheat + mustard, or groundnut + sunflower.

Fig: Mixed Cropping

ii. Intercropping: Intercropping is a process of yielding when two or more crops are growing simultaneously on the same field in a definite pattern. A few rows of a crop alternate with a few rows of a second crop. In this process, crops of the different requirements of nutrients are chosen; this will ensure maximum utilization of nutrients.

Fig: Inter Cropping

iii. Crop rotation: The process of growing different types of crops on the same land in a pre-planned succession is known as crop rotation. Two or three crops can easily grow in a year if crop rotation is done properly.

Fig: Crop Rotation

3. Crop Protection Management

Crop protection before and during the cultivation: Crops are infested by many weeds, insect pests, and diseases. These will damage the crop if we can’t control them at the right time, and the crop will lose its growth, and hence its productivity gets hampered. Usage of pesticides protects the crop from diseases caused by pathogens. Weeds take up the nutrients and reduce the growth of the crop. Weed control methods include mechanical removal. Preventive methods such as proper preparation of seedbeds, timely seeding of crops, intercropping, and rotation of crops also help in weed control.
Crop protection after the cultivation: After maturity, the crops need to be harvested. The harvesting is generally done through threshing and winnowing. The storage of grains is very much important. Factors of grain loss are insects, rodents, fungi, bacteria, and inappropriate moisture. The temperature of the storage place is vital. Prevention and control measures should be used before grains are stored for future purposes.

Summary

Improvement in crop yield is gained with the help of several years of experience and different farming practices. There are various techniques in the current era which are used by farmers to improve the production and quality of a crop. The crop variety can be improved by choosing proper seeds with the help of breeding and hybridization, better nutrient management, irrigation, and cropping patterns, and by protecting crops from different diseases, pests, weeds, and natural damages. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1. What are the different cropping patterns?
Ans:  Mixed cropping, Intercropping, and crop rotations are the different cropping patterns.

Q.2. Mention different irrigation systems.
Ans: Wells, canals, tanks, rivers are the different irrigation systems. Rainwater harvesting and watershed management are also newly added.

Q.3. How can we enrich the soil with nutrients?
Ans: By using manure and fertilizers, we can enrich the soil with nutrients.

Q.4. What are Kharif season and rabi season?
Ans: Kharif season is the season of rain, consisting of five months, June to October. Rabi season is the winter season, having time from November to April.

Q.5. How can we obtain a good variety of seeds?
Ans: Good variety of seeds can be obtained with the help of breeding and hybridization.

Study The Concept Of Harvesting Here

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