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Classification and Naming Crops
Classification and Naming Crops
naming crops
Sanaullah Iqbal
Classification of crops
• Agronomic Crops
• Bioenergy crops
• Nutritional use categories
• Medicinal and Psychoactive crops
• Toxic plants
Agronomic Crops
• Agronomy is the production of field crops while sustaining the
soil resource and the environment.
• agronomy -- Greek words agros (field) and nomos (to manage)
• Agronomic Crop Categories
• cereals, grains, pulses, forages, fiber crops, root and tuber crops,
cover crops, companion crops, green manure crops, and
recreational turf crops.
Cereal Crops
• word cereal is derived from the name of Roman goddess of grain, Ceres
• Cereal is an actual grass, primarily cultivated for the edible starch components of its
grain.
• Botanically, this grain is a type of fruit known as a caryopsis, and it contains three
parts such as the endosperm, germ, and bran.
• It belongs to the monocot family Poaceae and is grown in larger quantities and
provides more food energy and CHO for the entire world than any other type of crop.
• grasses that produce edible grain
• cereal is that cereals are processed breakfast foods to which milk is added (USA)
• Wheat, rice, corn, barley, and sorghum
• Cereals store energy in their seeds as starch
• Starch extracted -- used as an energy source for livestock and humans
• 75 % starch, 12 % protein, 2 % fat, and smaller quantities of vitamins and minerals
• In addition to that, they are considered as staple crops.
• Cereals are a rich source of macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, oils,
and protein) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) as well as bioactive
phytochemicals (polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanin, carotenoids, etc.
).
• During the refining and polishing process, the nutrients accumulated in
the bran and germ are removed, and the remaining endosperm contains
mostly carbohydrate.
• In some developing countries, cereal grain in the form of rice, wheat,
millet, or maize constitutes a majority of daily nutrition.
Cereal Crops
Grain Crops
• Grain is the fruit or seed of a crop plant.
• Similar to cereal crops, the term grain crop is applied to the
harvested portion of a number of grass crops such as corn.
• But the term also includes legumes such as soybean and kidney
beans, and other plants such as flax and buckwheat.
• Small grain is a term applied to wheat, oat, barley, and rye
because, relative to corn, their seed is small.
Pulses
• Pulses are grain legumes that are annual crop yielding from one to
twelve seeds of different morphology, and color within a pod.
• Legumes grown for their edible, high protein seeds are known as pulses.
• 1/3 is protein (dry weight)
• store energy as carbohydrates or oil
• seeds borne in pods that burst into halves when mature and dried.
• roasted or boiled before human consumption to destroy chemicals that
reduce the availability of nutrients.
• Soybean is the most widely grown pulse
• soybean has an oil content around 13–25%, used for cooking, protein-
rich meal for livestock feed.
• Pulses are used as food not only for humans but also other animals.
• Similar to many leguminous crops, pulses play a significant role in crop
rotation due to their capability to fix nitrogen.
• Depending on the variety, a pulse may be known as common bean, dry
bean, kidney bean, haricot bean, pinto bean, navy bean, soybeans, field
peas, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, cow peas etc.
• Pulses are cultivated agriculturally, primarily for their human food grain
seed, for livestock forage, silage production, and as soil-enhancing green
manure.
• Many pulses contain symbiotic bacteria known as Rhizobia within root
nodules of plant root systems. These bacteria have the distinct capability
of fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere. This structure helps the root
nodules to act as sources of nitrogen for pulses and make them relatively
rich in plant proteins.
• Therefore, pulses are among the greatest sources of plant protein and
also serve as fertilizer for the soil.
Difference Between Cereals and Pulses
Definition:
Cereal is a grain used for food or breakfast food prepared from roasted grain. Pulses is a grain legume.
Scientific Classification
Cereal belongs to Family Poaceae. Pulses belong to Family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae).
Production
Cereals are cultivated in larger quantities than pulses. Pulses are cultivated in lesser quantities than
cereals. India is the world’s largest producer and the largest consumer of pulses.
Staple Diet
Most of the developing countries consume cereals such as rice, wheat, and millet as their staple diets.
Pulses are incorporated into the staple diet
Carbohydrate and Energy Content
Cereals contain more carbohydrate (65-78%) and energy compared to pulses and is considered the
largest energy food source in the world. Pulses contain less carbohydrate (55-65%), and energy
compared to cereals
Starch Characteristics
The digestibility of starches in cereals, both in terms of absolute amount digested and the rate at which it
is hydrolyzed, is higher than that of pulse starches.
The digestibility of starches in pulses, both in terms of absolute amount digested and the rate at which it
is hydrolyzed, is lower than that of cereal starches. Therefore, high consumption of pulse-based foods
leads to gassiness and other physiological discomforts in the stomach.
Morphology
Cereals contain a hard and non-edible husk and grains are attached to a stalk. Pulse grains
are found within a pod, and they do not contain a hard and non-edible husk
Amylose Content
The amylose content of cereal starches is 20-25%, which is lower than pulses. The amylose
content of legume pulses starches is -30-40%, which is lower than cereals.
Protein Content
Cereals contain less protein content (5-15%). Pulses contain more protein content (20-25%)
Amino Acid Lysine Content
Some cereals are deficient in the essential AA lysine. Pulses are rich in lysine compare to
cereals.
Amino Acid Methionine Content
Cereals are rich in AA methionine compared to pulses. Many pulses deficient in methionine.
Nitrogen Fixing Ability
Cereals do not have the ability to fix nitrogen while Pulses have it.
Uses
Cereals are used for human consumption, food products processing (Breakfast cereals),
biogas and biofuel production, and for forage crops for domesticated animals
Pulses are used for human consumption, forage crops for domesticated animals and for crop
rotation due to their ability to fix nitrogen.
Forages
• Forages are any crops whose vegetative parts—including stems, leaves,
and sometimes attached seed or grain—are used for livestock feed
• forages directly from pastures by grazing, or can be fed following storage
--- Grazing most traditional form of forage use
• Farmers store forages as hay or silage.
• Hay is forage that is dried to about 20 % moisture and stored in the air
• Silage is harvested at 50–80 % moisture, sealed in a structure called a silo
• Ruminants – can digest fibrous portion of plants
• Producers grow a diversity of perennial and annual plants for forage.
• Species used depend on the climatic, soil conditions & intended use.
Forages
• Species used depend on climatic and soil conditions and the intended use.
• Annuals: is the plant which its life cycle is completed in one season as
corn, wheat and rice
• Biennials plant that require two seasons to attain full development,
mature seed and die are biennials. Red clover, Onion, cabbage etc. is a
biennial plant.
• Perennials: some plant live for several years. They may produce seed
each year but they do not die with seed production. Perennials plant
are usually the trees. E.g. fruit trees, apple, apricot, etc
Classification as to growth season
• Kharif Crops: The crops which are sown in the rainy season are called
kharif crop. The rainy season in India is from June to September.
For Example- Paddy, maize, soyabean, groundnut, cotton, etc.
• Rabi Crops: The crops grown in the winter season are rabi crops. Their
time Period is generally from October to March.
For Example- Wheat, gram, pea ,mustard, and linseed.
Recreational Turf Crops
• Many perennial grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial
ryegrass, and bentgrass are used for recreational purposes.
• Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass are used extensively for lawns,
soccer fields, and football fields in the northern regions of
the United States.
• Further south, bermuda grass is often used in recreational areas
such as golf courses. Varieties of these species have been selected
with tolerance to wear from human traffic.
Bioenergy Crops
• Bioenergy is a general term that describes production of energy from
biological systems. We also use the terms biomass and biofuel to
describe bioenergy.
• Biomass crops are burned to produce heat and electricity. Biomass
crops include trees such as hybrid poplars and willows, or herbaceous
perennials such as switchgrass or alfalfa.
• Biofuel crops are crops grown specifically for use as a dedicated fuel
source for production of liquid fuels. Corn, grain sorghum, and soybean
are examples of biofuel crops. Starch in the grain of corn and to a
lesser extent sorghum is converted to ethanol, while oils from soybean
are converted to biodiesel
Nutritional-Use Categories
Potato flower.
Members of the Solanaceae family generally have flowers with five petals,
often fused.
The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
▪ Crops species:
▪ Potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant, huckleberry, and goji berry.
▪ most significant economically is the potato, the 4 th most important crop in world.
▪ Weed species:
▪ Eastern black nightshade, jimsonweed, and buffalo bur.
▪ These are weeds from the Solanaceae family that affect agronomic crops.
▪ Ornamental species:
▪ Moonflower (Datura species), flowering tobacco (Nicotiana species), and petunia.
Petunias are among the most popular bedding plants.
▪ Weapon species:
▪ Chili pepper. Some varieties of chili peppers are used as components in pepper
spray that is used for self-defense.
The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
▪ Medicinal species:
▪ Deadly nightshade, mandrake --- contain atropine, a muscle relaxant and antidote
to nerve-gas poisoning.
▪ A compound in chili pepper called capsaicin is used in topical creams.
▪ Insecticide species:
▪ Tobacco. Nicotine, the addictive ingredient in tobacco-based products, causes
convulsions and death in insects upon contact. Synthetic derivatives of nicotine
used for insecticides
▪ Poisonous species:
▪ Mandrake, deadly nightshade, henbane, jimsonweed, tobacco. Ingestion of either
the herbage, berries, or seed of these species can lead to death. Even contact with
the skin can cause a reaction.
▪ Tobacco through smoking cigarettes causes cancer and other ailments and kills
five million people a year. By 2020, this number is expected to rise to 10 million
people a year.
The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
What makes this plant family so special?
• Particular compounds produced by members of Solanaceae (and in some
other plant families) called alkaloids.
• Alkaloids are nitrogen compounds that cause physiological effects in
humans.
• One of the most well known of these alkaloids is nicotine, which is the
major alkaloid found in tobacco.
• Nicotine acts on the central nervous system by releasing adrenaline,
slowing the heart rate, and raising blood pressure.
• Nicotine is also highly addictive