Four Kinds of Farming That Never Involve a Single Crop
Learn what animal husbandry involves and how indigenous cattle breeds differ from exotic ones, how poultry is managed and what the White Revolution achieved, what pisciculture, sericulture and apiculture each produce, and how bacteria and fungi make food.
Why cross a high-yielding foreign cow with a low-yielding Indian one?
Because each breed has exactly what the other lacks.
An exotic breed such as Jersey or Holstein-Friesian gives a large quantity of milk over a long period — but it suffers badly in Indian heat and has little resistance to local diseases. An indigenous breed such as Sahiwal or Gir withstands the heat, resists local disease and manages on poor fodder — but gives much less milk.
Cross the two and the offspring can inherit the yield of one and the hardiness of the other. That single idea underlies most of India's dairy development. This page covers the second part of the ICSE Class 8 Biology chapter on food production: animal husbandry, poultry, and the other kinds of farming.
An exotic breed such as Jersey or Holstein-Friesian gives a large quantity of milk over a long period — but it suffers badly in Indian heat and has little resistance to local diseases. An indigenous breed such as Sahiwal or Gir withstands the heat, resists local disease and manages on poor fodder — but gives much less milk.
Cross the two and the offspring can inherit the yield of one and the hardiness of the other. That single idea underlies most of India's dairy development. This page covers the second part of the ICSE Class 8 Biology chapter on food production: animal husbandry, poultry, and the other kinds of farming.
What does animal husbandry involve, and how do cattle breeds differ?
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with the breeding, feeding, care and management of domestic animals for products such as milk, eggs, meat, wool and labour.
Cattle are reared for two purposes:
- Milch or dairy animals, kept for milk — cows and buffaloes
- Draught animals, kept for labour — bullocks used for ploughing, carting and irrigation
Their care and management covers five areas:
- Shelter — a clean, airy, well-ventilated and dry shed, with a sloping floor so that urine and washing water drain away, and protection from rain, heat and cold.
- Feeding — a balanced diet of roughage, the fibre-rich part (hay, straw, green fodder, grass), and concentrates, the nutrient-rich part (oil cakes, grains, gram), together with plenty of clean drinking water.
- Hygiene — regular brushing and bathing of the animal, a clean shed, and proper disposal of dung, which is also collected for manure and biogas.
- Health care — regular veterinary check-ups, vaccination against diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax, deworming, and isolation of any sick animal.
- Breeding — selecting good animals, and cross-breeding to combine desirable traits.
Indigenous breeds, also called desi breeds, are native to India:
- Cows — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Deoni
- Buffaloes — Murrah, Mehsana, Surti
Their qualities: high resistance to local diseases, tolerance of heat, and the ability to survive on poor-quality fodder — but a lower milk yield.
Exotic breeds are foreign breeds brought into India:
- Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire
Their qualities: a high milk yield over a long lactation period — but less resistance to Indian heat and local disease, and a need for better feed and more careful management.
Cross-breeds combine the two, and several have been developed in India — Karan Swiss, Karan Fries, Frieswal and Sunandini among them.
The word worth defining. The lactation period is the length of time for which a cow gives milk after calving. A breed can be improved either by raising the quantity given each day or by lengthening this period, and exotic breeds are superior on both counts — which is precisely what makes them worth crossing in despite their fragility.
Cattle are reared for two purposes:
- Milch or dairy animals, kept for milk — cows and buffaloes
- Draught animals, kept for labour — bullocks used for ploughing, carting and irrigation
Their care and management covers five areas:
- Shelter — a clean, airy, well-ventilated and dry shed, with a sloping floor so that urine and washing water drain away, and protection from rain, heat and cold.
- Feeding — a balanced diet of roughage, the fibre-rich part (hay, straw, green fodder, grass), and concentrates, the nutrient-rich part (oil cakes, grains, gram), together with plenty of clean drinking water.
- Hygiene — regular brushing and bathing of the animal, a clean shed, and proper disposal of dung, which is also collected for manure and biogas.
- Health care — regular veterinary check-ups, vaccination against diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax, deworming, and isolation of any sick animal.
- Breeding — selecting good animals, and cross-breeding to combine desirable traits.
Indigenous breeds, also called desi breeds, are native to India:
- Cows — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Deoni
- Buffaloes — Murrah, Mehsana, Surti
Their qualities: high resistance to local diseases, tolerance of heat, and the ability to survive on poor-quality fodder — but a lower milk yield.
Exotic breeds are foreign breeds brought into India:
- Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire
Their qualities: a high milk yield over a long lactation period — but less resistance to Indian heat and local disease, and a need for better feed and more careful management.
Cross-breeds combine the two, and several have been developed in India — Karan Swiss, Karan Fries, Frieswal and Sunandini among them.
The word worth defining. The lactation period is the length of time for which a cow gives milk after calving. A breed can be improved either by raising the quantity given each day or by lengthening this period, and exotic breeds are superior on both counts — which is precisely what makes them worth crossing in despite their fragility.
How is poultry managed, and what did the White Revolution achieve?
Poultry farming is the rearing of domestic birds — chiefly chicken, and also duck and turkey — for eggs and meat.
The birds are kept in two distinct groups, and the difference matters:
- Layers are kept for eggs, and are fed for steady egg production over a long period
- Broilers are reared for meat, and are given feed rich in protein and fat to grow quickly
Mixing the two is wasteful, since each needs a different diet and a different length of stay.
Their management:
- Housing that is clean, dry and well ventilated, with the correct temperature and lighting, since both affect egg laying
- Balanced feed rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, with clean water always available
- Vaccination against poultry diseases, and prompt isolation of sick birds
- Regular removal of litter, which otherwise breeds disease
- Protection from predators and from extremes of weather
Breeds:
- Indigenous — Aseel, Kadaknath
- Exotic — Leghorn, Rhode Island Red
- Cross-breeds, developed to combine the hardiness of Indian birds with the yield of foreign ones
The White Revolution was the programme that greatly increased milk production in India, making the country one of the world's largest milk producers. It is also called Operation Flood.
How it worked:
- Dairy co-operative societies at village level collected milk from small farmers, so that a household with one or two animals could reach a large market instead of only a local one
- Cross-breeding programmes raised the yield per animal
- Veterinary care and artificial insemination services were extended to villages
- A network of chilling centres, processing plants and transport allowed milk to travel without spoiling
- Fair and assured prices paid directly to the producer gave farmers a reason to expand
Why the co-operative was the key part. Milk spoils within hours and a single small farmer cannot market it beyond the village. Pooling the milk of hundreds of such farmers created a quantity worth chilling, processing and transporting — and so turned a subsistence activity into an income.
The comparison the syllabus expects. The Green Revolution raised food grain production; the White Revolution raised milk production. Both worked by combining improved breeding or varieties with better inputs and an organised system to move the produce — and mixing up which revolution concerned which product is the commonest error on this topic.
The birds are kept in two distinct groups, and the difference matters:
- Layers are kept for eggs, and are fed for steady egg production over a long period
- Broilers are reared for meat, and are given feed rich in protein and fat to grow quickly
Mixing the two is wasteful, since each needs a different diet and a different length of stay.
Their management:
- Housing that is clean, dry and well ventilated, with the correct temperature and lighting, since both affect egg laying
- Balanced feed rich in protein, vitamins and minerals, with clean water always available
- Vaccination against poultry diseases, and prompt isolation of sick birds
- Regular removal of litter, which otherwise breeds disease
- Protection from predators and from extremes of weather
Breeds:
- Indigenous — Aseel, Kadaknath
- Exotic — Leghorn, Rhode Island Red
- Cross-breeds, developed to combine the hardiness of Indian birds with the yield of foreign ones
The White Revolution was the programme that greatly increased milk production in India, making the country one of the world's largest milk producers. It is also called Operation Flood.
How it worked:
- Dairy co-operative societies at village level collected milk from small farmers, so that a household with one or two animals could reach a large market instead of only a local one
- Cross-breeding programmes raised the yield per animal
- Veterinary care and artificial insemination services were extended to villages
- A network of chilling centres, processing plants and transport allowed milk to travel without spoiling
- Fair and assured prices paid directly to the producer gave farmers a reason to expand
Why the co-operative was the key part. Milk spoils within hours and a single small farmer cannot market it beyond the village. Pooling the milk of hundreds of such farmers created a quantity worth chilling, processing and transporting — and so turned a subsistence activity into an income.
The comparison the syllabus expects. The Green Revolution raised food grain production; the White Revolution raised milk production. Both worked by combining improved breeding or varieties with better inputs and an organised system to move the produce — and mixing up which revolution concerned which product is the commonest error on this topic.
What do pisciculture, sericulture and apiculture produce?
Three more branches of animal husbandry, each named after what it rears.
Pisciculture is the rearing and management of fish in ponds, tanks and reservoirs. Its product is fish, which is a rich source of protein and of oils.
- Freshwater fish reared in India include rohu, catla, mrigal and common carp
- Marine fisheries take fish from the sea
Composite fish culture is the practical technique worth knowing: several species with different feeding habits are reared together in one pond. One feeds at the surface, another in the middle layers, another at the bottom, and another on weeds — so every level of the water and every kind of food is used, and the same pond yields far more than it would with a single species.
Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms to obtain silk. Its product is silk, a natural protein fibre.
The process: the silkworm is reared on mulberry leaves, which it eats voraciously. When fully grown the larva spins a cocoon around itself out of a single continuous fibre of silk. The cocoons are collected and treated with heat or steam, and the fibre is then reeled off in one unbroken length and spun into thread.
Apiculture, also called bee-keeping, is the rearing of honey bees in artificial hives. Its products are honey and beeswax.
Bees are kept in wooden box hives in an apiary, sited near flowering plants. The pasturage — the flowers available within reach of the hive — determines both the quantity and the flavour of the honey, which is why honey from a mustard field tastes different from honey gathered near litchi trees.
The additional benefit that is easy to miss. Bees visiting flowers for nectar pollinate the crop as they go. So an apiary beside an orchard or a mustard field raises the yield of that crop as well as producing honey — which means the hives are valuable to the farmer even apart from what the beekeeper sells.
How to remember the four names. Each begins with the Latin root for what it rears: pisci- for fish, seri- for silk, api- for bees. And aquaculture is the broader word covering the rearing of any aquatic organism, of which pisciculture is one part.
Pisciculture is the rearing and management of fish in ponds, tanks and reservoirs. Its product is fish, which is a rich source of protein and of oils.
- Freshwater fish reared in India include rohu, catla, mrigal and common carp
- Marine fisheries take fish from the sea
Composite fish culture is the practical technique worth knowing: several species with different feeding habits are reared together in one pond. One feeds at the surface, another in the middle layers, another at the bottom, and another on weeds — so every level of the water and every kind of food is used, and the same pond yields far more than it would with a single species.
Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms to obtain silk. Its product is silk, a natural protein fibre.
The process: the silkworm is reared on mulberry leaves, which it eats voraciously. When fully grown the larva spins a cocoon around itself out of a single continuous fibre of silk. The cocoons are collected and treated with heat or steam, and the fibre is then reeled off in one unbroken length and spun into thread.
Apiculture, also called bee-keeping, is the rearing of honey bees in artificial hives. Its products are honey and beeswax.
Bees are kept in wooden box hives in an apiary, sited near flowering plants. The pasturage — the flowers available within reach of the hive — determines both the quantity and the flavour of the honey, which is why honey from a mustard field tastes different from honey gathered near litchi trees.
The additional benefit that is easy to miss. Bees visiting flowers for nectar pollinate the crop as they go. So an apiary beside an orchard or a mustard field raises the yield of that crop as well as producing honey — which means the hives are valuable to the farmer even apart from what the beekeeper sells.
How to remember the four names. Each begins with the Latin root for what it rears: pisci- for fish, seri- for silk, api- for bees. And aquaculture is the broader word covering the rearing of any aquatic organism, of which pisciculture is one part.
How do bacteria and fungi help produce food?
By fermentation — breaking down sugars and other substances and, in doing so, changing the food into something new.
Lactobacillus — a bacterium — converts milk into curd.
A small quantity of curd added to warm milk introduces the bacteria, which feed on the lactose sugar in the milk and produce lactic acid. The acid makes the milk protein clot, turning the liquid milk into a soft solid with a sour taste.
Curd is also easier to digest than milk, and the bacteria produce vitamin B12 in the process — so the food is nutritionally improved and not merely altered.
Yeast — a fungus — makes bread and cakes rise.
Yeast added to dough feeds on the sugar in the flour and respires anaerobically, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles trapped in the sticky dough, and the bubbles push it outwards so the dough rises. Baking then kills the yeast and drives off the alcohol, leaving the bread light and full of small holes.
The holes in a slice of bread are therefore a record of where the gas bubbles were, and this is the same gas met as a product of respiration and as the raiser of dough in the chapter on carbon dioxide.
Other uses in food production:
- Idli and dosa batter rises by the same fermentation, becoming light and slightly sour after standing overnight
- Cheese is made with the help of bacteria, and some cheeses are ripened by moulds
- Yeast is used to produce alcohol industrially, and bacteria to convert alcohol into vinegar
- Bacteria are used to manufacture vitamins and antibiotics
- Rhizobium in root nodules enriches the soil, as the previous part described
Why the same organisms also spoil food. The bacteria and fungi that ferment food usefully are close relatives of those that rot it, and the difference is often only which organism arrives and under what conditions. Curd left too long turns unpleasantly sour; dough left too long collapses; bread left damp grows mould.
So food preservation — refrigerating, drying, salting, boiling, sealing — works by denying these organisms the conditions they need. Controlling them is the whole business, and using them and preventing them are two sides of one skill.
Lactobacillus — a bacterium — converts milk into curd.
A small quantity of curd added to warm milk introduces the bacteria, which feed on the lactose sugar in the milk and produce lactic acid. The acid makes the milk protein clot, turning the liquid milk into a soft solid with a sour taste.
Curd is also easier to digest than milk, and the bacteria produce vitamin B12 in the process — so the food is nutritionally improved and not merely altered.
Yeast — a fungus — makes bread and cakes rise.
Yeast added to dough feeds on the sugar in the flour and respires anaerobically, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles trapped in the sticky dough, and the bubbles push it outwards so the dough rises. Baking then kills the yeast and drives off the alcohol, leaving the bread light and full of small holes.
The holes in a slice of bread are therefore a record of where the gas bubbles were, and this is the same gas met as a product of respiration and as the raiser of dough in the chapter on carbon dioxide.
Other uses in food production:
- Idli and dosa batter rises by the same fermentation, becoming light and slightly sour after standing overnight
- Cheese is made with the help of bacteria, and some cheeses are ripened by moulds
- Yeast is used to produce alcohol industrially, and bacteria to convert alcohol into vinegar
- Bacteria are used to manufacture vitamins and antibiotics
- Rhizobium in root nodules enriches the soil, as the previous part described
Why the same organisms also spoil food. The bacteria and fungi that ferment food usefully are close relatives of those that rot it, and the difference is often only which organism arrives and under what conditions. Curd left too long turns unpleasantly sour; dough left too long collapses; bread left damp grows mould.
So food preservation — refrigerating, drying, salting, boiling, sealing — works by denying these organisms the conditions they need. Controlling them is the whole business, and using them and preventing them are two sides of one skill.
Exam tip
Exam tip: name the organism and its product together
Pair every organism with what it makes: Lactobacillus with curd, yeast with bread rising by carbon dioxide, Rhizobium with nitrogen fixation. Naming the organism alone is half an answer.
Learn the four -culture words with their products: pisciculture — fish, sericulture — silk, apiculture — honey and beeswax, and animal husbandry for domestic animals generally.
For cattle breeds, give named examples on both sides — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Murrah as indigenous; Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss as exotic — and state the trade-off: indigenous are disease- and heat-resistant with lower yield, exotic have high yield with low resistance.
Define lactation period if breeding is mentioned.
Keep the two revolutions apart: Green Revolution — food grains, White Revolution — milk. Confusing them is the commonest error here.
For the White Revolution, name the dairy co-operative societies and say why they mattered — small farmers could reach a large market.
Distinguish layers (eggs) from broilers (meat), and say broilers get feed richer in protein and fat.
Explain composite fish culture as rearing species with different feeding habits so all levels of the pond are used.
And mention that bees pollinate crops as well as making honey — a frequently asked extra benefit.
Learn the four -culture words with their products: pisciculture — fish, sericulture — silk, apiculture — honey and beeswax, and animal husbandry for domestic animals generally.
For cattle breeds, give named examples on both sides — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Murrah as indigenous; Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss as exotic — and state the trade-off: indigenous are disease- and heat-resistant with lower yield, exotic have high yield with low resistance.
Define lactation period if breeding is mentioned.
Keep the two revolutions apart: Green Revolution — food grains, White Revolution — milk. Confusing them is the commonest error here.
For the White Revolution, name the dairy co-operative societies and say why they mattered — small farmers could reach a large market.
Distinguish layers (eggs) from broilers (meat), and say broilers get feed richer in protein and fat.
Explain composite fish culture as rearing species with different feeding habits so all levels of the pond are used.
And mention that bees pollinate crops as well as making honey — a frequently asked extra benefit.
Did you know
Why is a beehive worth more to the farmer than to the beekeeper?
A beekeeper places hives beside a mustard field or a fruit orchard for an obvious reason: the flowers are the bees' food, and more flowers mean more honey.
But the traffic runs both ways. A bee visiting hundreds of flowers in a day to collect nectar carries pollen on its body from one to the next, pollinating as it goes. A crop beside an apiary is therefore pollinated far more thoroughly than one relying on whatever insects happen to pass — and better pollination means more fruit and more seed set.
For many orchard crops that increase in yield is worth considerably more than the honey the hives produce. Which is why, in some places, growers pay beekeepers to bring hives to their fields at flowering time, and the honey is the beekeeper's secondary income rather than the main one.
It is a neat illustration of a point from the ecosystem chapter: a pollinator is not a pleasant extra in a farming system. It is part of the production machinery, and its loss is felt as a fall in yield.
But the traffic runs both ways. A bee visiting hundreds of flowers in a day to collect nectar carries pollen on its body from one to the next, pollinating as it goes. A crop beside an apiary is therefore pollinated far more thoroughly than one relying on whatever insects happen to pass — and better pollination means more fruit and more seed set.
For many orchard crops that increase in yield is worth considerably more than the honey the hives produce. Which is why, in some places, growers pay beekeepers to bring hives to their fields at flowering time, and the honey is the beekeeper's secondary income rather than the main one.
It is a neat illustration of a point from the ecosystem chapter: a pollinator is not a pleasant extra in a farming system. It is part of the production machinery, and its loss is felt as a fall in yield.
Key takeaways
Animal husbandry and food from microbes: quick revision
- Animal husbandry is the breeding, feeding, care and management of domestic animals for milk, eggs, meat, wool and labour.
- Cattle are milch (for milk — cows, buffaloes) or draught (for labour — bullocks).
- Care: clean, airy, dry shelter with a sloping floor; feed of roughage plus concentrates with clean water; hygiene and dung disposal; vaccination, deworming and vet check-ups; and cross-breeding.
- Indigenous breeds — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar (cows), Murrah, Mehsana, Surti (buffaloes): heat- and disease-resistant, survive on poor fodder, lower yield.
- Exotic breeds — Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire: high yield and long lactation period, but low resistance to heat and disease.
- Cross-breeds such as Karan Swiss, Karan Fries, Frieswal, Sunandini combine both.
- Poultry farming rears chicken, duck and turkey. Layers give eggs; broilers give meat and need feed richer in protein and fat. Breeds: Aseel, Kadaknath (indigenous), Leghorn, Rhode Island Red (exotic).
- White Revolution (Operation Flood) raised milk production through dairy co-operative societies collecting from small farmers, cross-breeding, veterinary services, chilling and processing networks and assured prices. The Green Revolution raised food grains — do not confuse them.
- Pisciculture — rearing fish (rohu, catla, mrigal, common carp); composite fish culture rears species with different feeding habits so every level of the pond is used.
- Sericulture — rearing silkworms on mulberry leaves; the larva spins a cocoon of a single continuous fibre, which is reeled off as silk.
- Apiculture — rearing honey bees in hives in an apiary, giving honey and beeswax. Pasturage decides quantity and flavour, and the bees also pollinate crops.
- Lactobacillus converts milk to curd by producing lactic acid, which clots the protein; curd is more digestible and gains vitamin B12.
- Yeast makes bread rise by anaerobic respiration producing carbon dioxide, whose bubbles expand the dough. Idli and dosa batter ferments the same way.
- Bacteria and fungi also make cheese, alcohol, vinegar, vitamins and antibiotics.
- The same organisms spoil food, so preservation by refrigerating, drying, salting, boiling and sealing works by denying them the conditions they need.
Test yourself by naming the product of each of the four kinds of farming, then the organism responsible for curd and for bread — those are the answers this chapter returns to most often.
- Cattle are milch (for milk — cows, buffaloes) or draught (for labour — bullocks).
- Care: clean, airy, dry shelter with a sloping floor; feed of roughage plus concentrates with clean water; hygiene and dung disposal; vaccination, deworming and vet check-ups; and cross-breeding.
- Indigenous breeds — Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar (cows), Murrah, Mehsana, Surti (buffaloes): heat- and disease-resistant, survive on poor fodder, lower yield.
- Exotic breeds — Jersey, Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire: high yield and long lactation period, but low resistance to heat and disease.
- Cross-breeds such as Karan Swiss, Karan Fries, Frieswal, Sunandini combine both.
- Poultry farming rears chicken, duck and turkey. Layers give eggs; broilers give meat and need feed richer in protein and fat. Breeds: Aseel, Kadaknath (indigenous), Leghorn, Rhode Island Red (exotic).
- White Revolution (Operation Flood) raised milk production through dairy co-operative societies collecting from small farmers, cross-breeding, veterinary services, chilling and processing networks and assured prices. The Green Revolution raised food grains — do not confuse them.
- Pisciculture — rearing fish (rohu, catla, mrigal, common carp); composite fish culture rears species with different feeding habits so every level of the pond is used.
- Sericulture — rearing silkworms on mulberry leaves; the larva spins a cocoon of a single continuous fibre, which is reeled off as silk.
- Apiculture — rearing honey bees in hives in an apiary, giving honey and beeswax. Pasturage decides quantity and flavour, and the bees also pollinate crops.
- Lactobacillus converts milk to curd by producing lactic acid, which clots the protein; curd is more digestible and gains vitamin B12.
- Yeast makes bread rise by anaerobic respiration producing carbon dioxide, whose bubbles expand the dough. Idli and dosa batter ferments the same way.
- Bacteria and fungi also make cheese, alcohol, vinegar, vitamins and antibiotics.
- The same organisms spoil food, so preservation by refrigerating, drying, salting, boiling and sealing works by denying them the conditions they need.
Test yourself by naming the product of each of the four kinds of farming, then the organism responsible for curd and for bread — those are the answers this chapter returns to most often.