Economic Biology

Economic Biology

Introduction

The gift of nature is almost unlimited and thus a variety of useful products are obtained from plants. Economic plants are numerous and have a variety of uses. Many of them occur in nature, particularly in hills and forests while a number of them are cultivated for food and industry. Economic uses of plants are varied and therefore the scope for improvement and their cultivation is immense to meet our ever growing demands with the advancement of civilization. Floriculture and Horticulture have created considerable public awareness. Several drug yielding plants are known and utilised as medicinal herbs in crude form (indigenous way) from ancient days. Edible mushrooms are valuable source of supplementary protein, hence their cultivation is gaining importance.

In recent scenario more emphasis is given to the progress of economic aspects of zoology like aquaculture (culture of fish, prawn, crabs, pearl and edible oysters), vermiculture, apiculture and dairy farming which are gaining more importance as animal-based farming due to their economic and commercial values. Attention is now given to find out ways and means to get more food to meet the demand of the growing population without depleting the environment and natural resources. Animal farming has now become an agro based entrepreneurship and is beneficial to rural farmers. The yield of animal food products has increased to satisfy the increasing demand of food for the growing population. Bee keeping (Apiculture) and vermiculture are also progressing and in future they may be considered as important commercial trade.