AMITY UNIVERSITY JHARKHAND

1. AMITY UNIVERSITY JHARKHAND Subject: Environmental Science (101) Module II: Natural Resources FOOD RESOURCES By: Dr. SwetaSinha

2. Food is an essential requirement for the human survival. Each person has a minimum food requirement. The main components of food are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals and vitamins. “Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support to the body”. Types of Food Supply Historically humans have dependent on three systems for their food supply. 1. Croplands: It mostly produces grains and provide about 76% of the world's food. Examples: Rice, wheat, maize, barley, sugarcane, potato, etc.,

3. 2. Rangelands: It produces food mainly from the grazing livestock and provide about 17% of the world’s food. Examples: Meat, milk, fruits, etc., 3. Oceans: Oceanic fisheries supply about 7% of the world's food. Examples: Fish, prawn, crab, etc.,

4. Major Food Sources Agriculture Animal husbandry Types of Crops: Cereals-Wheat, Rice, Maize etc. (source of carbohydrates) Pulse- Gram, Pea, Black gram (source of protein) Oil seeds- Soyabean, Mustard, (source of fat) Vegetables- spices, fruits etc (source of vitamins & mierals) Rice, wheat and maize are the major grains, provide more than 50% of the calories people consume.

5. World Food Problem 1) NATURAL DISASTERS : Climate change is having an increased impact on food production as droughts and flooding become more frequent and more severe. Shrinking access to fertile land and water may trigger refugee crises and conflicts. 2) POVERTY : Ultimately, the main reason why most people are unable to feed themselves is not that food is unavailable but they cannot afford it.   3)GLOBAL FOOD PRICES: Rising global food prices affect people's ability to buy enough to feed their families., especially the urban poor, who can spend as much as 80 percent of their income on food.  4) UNCONTROLLED POPULATION : “the balance of production and consumption” of foodstuffs is also a problem. So, if the world population grows up in current pace, the amount of production of cereal crops is said to be unable to catch up with the population in the future. 5) UNDERNOURISHMENT : It is the lack of sufficient calories in food. According to FAO estimate, the average minimum daily requirement over the whole world is about 2,500 calories per day. People who receive less than this calorie requirement are said to be undernourished.

6. 6) MALNOURISHMENT : It relates to the deficiency of such nutrients in food as proteins, vitamins or essential chemical elements. In poorer countries , people get malnourished because they cannot afford a healthy diet like meat, fruit , milk and milk products and such lead to a variety of health problem like goitre, anaemia etc. 7) OVERNUTRITION : An intake of excessive calories and this problem affects the rich , developed countries of the world. Consumption of excessive calories too leads to health problems , like obesity, high blood pressure and heart problem.

7. 8 ) INDIAN SCENARIO : Although India is the third largest producer of staple crops, an estimated 300 million Indians are still undernourished. Our food problems are directly related to population. “Every year our food problem is killing as many people as were killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II”

8. Undernourished - Less than 90% • Seriously undernourished - Less than 80% • Malnutrition – Lack of nutrition Thus chronically under nourished and malnourished people is disease prone and are too weak to work or think clearly.

9. IMPECTS OF OVERGRAZING AND AGRICULTURE Overgrazing is a process of, "eating away the forest vegetation without giving it a chance to regenerate", India leads in livestock population in the world. The huge livestock population requires more grazing land or pasture area. Very often we find that the livestock is grazing on a particular piece of grassland, which exceeds the carrying capacity.

10. Impacts of Over-Grazing 1) Soil erosion : Due to overgrazing by cattle, the cover of vegetation almost gets removed from the land. When the grasses are removed , the soil becomes loose and susceptible to the aviation of wind and water. 2) Land Degradation : Overgrazing leads to multiple actions resulting in loss of soil structure, hydraulic conductivity and soil fertility as explained below : 2.1) The humus content of soil decreases and overgrazing leads to organically poor, dry, compacted soil. 2.2) Overgrazing removes the vegetal cover over the soil and the exposed soil gets compacted due to which the operate soil depth decline. 2.3) Due to trampling by cattle the soil loses infiltration capacity , which reduces percolation of water into the soil and more water gets lost from the ecosystem.

11. 2.4) Organic recycling also declines in the ecosystem because not enough detritus or litter remains on the soil to be decomposed. 3) Loss of useful species : Overgrazing adversely affects the composition of plant population and their regeneration capacity. 4) Floods : Soil erosion leads to floods. The soil cannot check the flow of rain water and that causes floods. 5) Reduction in plant diversity : The cattle like to eat certain plants, and leave the others results of destruction of certain plant species.

12. Agriculture Types of Agriculture The two major types of agricultural systems are Traditional agriculture Modern agriculture

13. It involves small plot, simple tools, surface water, organic fertilizers and a mix of crops. TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE • Impacts • Shifting cultivation • Depletion of nutrients (cutting & burning the trees) • Soil erosion • Deforestation

14. Effects (or) impacts of Traditional agriculture a. Deforestation: Cutting and burning of trees in forests to clear the land for cultivation results in loss of forest cover. b. Soil erosion: Clearing of forest cover exposes the soil to wind and rainfall, resulting in loss of top fertile soil layer. c. Loss of nutrients: During cutting and burning of trees, organic matter in the soil gets destroyed and most of the nutrients are taken up by the crops within a short period. Thus the soil becomes poor in nutrient, which makes the farmers shift to another area.

15. MODERN AGRICULTURE It makes use of hybrid seeds of single crop variety, high-tech equipments, lot of fertilizers, pesticides and water to produce large amount of single crops.

16. 1) Fertilizers related problems : 1.1) Micronutrient Imbalance : Most of the chemical fertilizers used in modern agriculture have nitrogen(N), phosphorus(P) and potassium (K) which are essential macronutrients. Excessive use of fertilizers cause micronutrient imbalance. Example :Excessive fertilizer use in Punjab and Haryana has caused deficiency of micronutrient Zinc in soil which affecting productivity of the soil. 1.2) Nitrate pollution : Nitrogenous fertilizers applied in the field often leach deep into soil and ultimately contaminate the ground water. If it excess 25 mg/L , cause “Blue Baby Syndrome” methaemoglobinemia which even lead to death of infant. Example : India, France, Germany and Netherlands 1.3) Eutrophication :A large proportion of N and P fertilizers, used In crop field is washed off by the runoff water and reaches the water bodies causing over nourishment of the lake. This process is known as Eutrophication. Due to eutrophication lake gets attacked by algal bloom. These algal species use up the nutrients rapidly and grow very fast. Since the time of algal species is less they die quickly and pollute the water, which in turn affect the aquatic life.

18. 2) Pesticide related problem : Although DDT and chemicals as sulphur, arsenic etc. pesticides have gone a long way in protecting our crops from huge losses occurring due to pest , yet they have number of side-effects : 2.1) Creating resistance in pests and producing new pests : About 20 species of pests are now known which have become immune to all types of pesticides and are known as “Super pests”. 2.2) Biological Magnification : Many of pesticides are non-biodegradable and keep on accumulating in food chain, a process called biological magnification. As human beings occupy a high trophic level in food chain get pesticides in bio-magnified form which is very harmful. 2.3) Death of non-target organisms : Many insecticides are broad spectrum poisons which not only kill the target species but also several non-target species that are useful to us.

19. Biological Magnification

20. Desired qualities of an ideal pesticide (i) An ideal pesticide must kill only the target species. (ii) It must be a biodegradable. (iii) It should not produce new pests. (iv) It should not produce any toxic pesticide vapour. (v) Excessive synthetic pesticide should not be used. (vi) Chlorinated pesticides and organophosphate pesticides are hazardous, so they should not be used.

21. Solutions: Steps Toward More Sustainable Food Production • We can increase food security by slowing populations growth, sharply reducing poverty, and slowing environmental degradation of the world’s soils and croplands.

22. Conservation of Food Resources • Eat only minimum amount of food. A void over eating. • Don’t wastes the food instead gives it to someone before getting spoiled. • Cook only required amount of the food. • Don't cook food unnecessarily. • Don't store large amounts of food grains and protect them from damaging insects.

23. Pesticide in Pepsi and Coca-cola Food Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) India has reported that Pepsi and Coca-Cola companies are selling soft drinks with pesticide content 30-40 times higher than EU guidelines permit. It also said that the total average pesticide content in all Pepsi products were 0.0180 mgs/lit, while in coco-cola products 0.0150 mgs/lit, which are 30-40 times higher than European Union limits. This damages the nervous system. The centre said the reason for high pesticide content in India is due to the use of ground water in soft drinks and bottled water industries.