Question

how do short maturity duration improve the crop yields

Answer 1

The food we eat keeps us strong and healthy. Food provides us nutrients and energy that we need for the proper functioning and growth of the body. As human beings are incapable of synthesizing food, we depend on plants and animals for our food. The population has reached its peak. The population explosion has led to greater demand for basic requirements such food, shelter, clothing, etc. Another impact of population on food crops production is land exploitation. Thus, cultivation has been limited to a small area.  In order to meet the demands with limited resources, we need to apply a greater effort. Crop variety improvement, crop production improvement and crop protection management are three major ways to improve food crops production.

Food Crops- Crop Variety Improvement
Crop variety improvement is the primary step to improve food crop production. Development of crop variety with desirable traits is the goal of this method. The list of desirable traits includes high yields, disease resistance, quality product and response to fertilizers. We can raise different strains of food crops with desirable traits naturally as well as scientifically. Two of them are as follows
Hybridization: The crossing of genetically dissimilar plants is referred to as hybridization. Hybridization may take place between different varieties(intervarietal), between two different species of the same genus(interspecific) or between different genera (intergeneric).

Gene Incorporation: Genes are responsible for the traits. Thus, we can improve a crop’s quality and quantity by incorporating the genes with desirable traits. This method is more scientific and results in genetically modified food crops.

Higher yield: Crop variety improvement’s main goal is to increase the productivity of the crop. To develop high yielding variety.

Quality product: To improve the quality of the food crops. The quality of crop depends on the type of crop. Considering the pulses and grains, they must have good baking quality. Oil crops should give a quality oil.

Resistance: To develop resistance to both living and non-living factors. Biotic factors like insects, parasites, diseases, etc. and abiotic factors like hot, cold, drought, salinity, etc. affect the crop production. Resistant variety can withstand these factors and give a high yield.

Maturity period: To shorten and to develop uniform maturity period. The short maturity period of crops helps farmers in multiple rounds of cultivation in less expenditure during a short period. Also, the uniform maturity of crops helps in easy harvesting. Thus, overall variety improvement makes the situation more profitable.