Agriculture Optional

Table of Contents

In this post; you will get Official Syllabus, Previous Year Question Papers (PYQs), Booklist, Toppers Strategy and some popular notes.

Syllabus

Paper 1 : 


  • Ecology and its relevance to man, natural resources, their sustainable management and conservation.
    • Physical and social environment as factors of crop distribution and production. 
    • Agro ecology; cropping pattern as indicators of environments. 
    • Environmental pollution and associated hazards to crops, animals and humans. 
    • Climate change—International conventions and global initiatives. 
    • Greenhouse effect and global warming. 
    • Advanced tools for ecosystem analysis—Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). 
  • Cropping patterns in different agro-climatic zones of the country.
    • Impact of high-yielding and short-duration varieties on shifts in cropping patterns. Concepts of various cropping, and farming systems.
    • Organic and Precision farming. Package of practices for production of important cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fibres, sugar, commercial and fodder crops. 
  • Important features, and scope of various types of  forestry plantations such as social forestry, agro-forestry, and natural forests : Propagation of forest plants.
    • Forest products. 
    • Agro-forestry and value addition. 
    • Conservation of forest flora and fauna. 
  • Weeds, their characteristics, dissemination and association with various crops; their multiplications; cultural, biological, and chemical control of weeds. 
  • Soil—physical, chemical and biological properties.
    • Processes and factors of soil formation. 
    • Soils of India. 
    • Mineral and organic constituents of soils and their role in maintaining soil productivity. 
    • Essential plant nutrients and other beneficial elements in soils and plants. 
    • Principles of soil fertility, soil testing  and fertiliser recommendations, integrated nutrient management Biofertilizers. 
    • Losses of nitrogen in soil, nitrogen-use efficiency in submerged rice soils, nitrogen fixation in soils. 
    • Efficient phosphoruse and potassium use.
    • Problem soils and their reclamation. 
    • Soil factors affecting greenhouse gas emission.  
  • Soil conservation, integrated  watershed management.
    • Soil erosion and its management. 
    • Dry land agriculture and its problems. 
    • Technology for stabilising agriculture production in rainfed  areas. 
  • Water-use efficiency in relation to crop production, criteria for scheduling irrigations, ways and means of reducing run-off losses of irrigation water.
    • Rainwater harvesting. 
    • Drip and sprinkler irrigation. 
    • Drainage of water-logged soils, quality of irrigation water, effect of industrial effluents on soil and water pollution.
    • Irrigation projects in India. 
  • Farm  management, scope, importance and characteristics, farm planning.
    • Optimum resource use and budgeting. 
    • Economics of different types of farming systems. 
    • Marketing management strategies for development, market intelligence. 
    • Price fluctuations and their cost; role of cooperatives in agricultural economy; types and systems of farming and factors affecting them. 
    • Agricultural price policy.
    • Crop Insurance. 
  • Agricultural extension, its importance and role, methods of evaluation of extension programmes, socio-economic survey and status of big, small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers; Training programmes for extension workers.
    • Role of Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVK) in dissemination of Agricultural technologies. 
    • Non-Government Organisation (NGO) and self-help group approach for rural development. 

Paper 2 : 


  • Cell structure, function and cell cycle. Synthesis, structure and function of  genetic material.
    • Laws of heredity.
    • Chromosome structure, chromosomal aberrations, linkage and cross-over, and their significance in recombination breeding. 
    • Polyploidy, euploids and aneuploids. 
    • Mutation—and their role in crop improvement. 
    • Heritability, sterility and incompatibility, classification and their application in crop improvement. 
    • Cytoplasmic inheritance, sex-linked, sex-influenced and sex-limited characters. 
  • History of plant breeding.
    • Modes of reproduction, selfing and crossing techniques. 
    • Origin, evolution and domestication of crop plants, center of origin, law of homologous series, crop genetic resources—conservation and utilization. 
    • Application of principles of plant breeding, improvement of crop plants. 
    • Molecular markers and their application in plant improvement.
    • Pure-line selection, pedigree, mass and recurrent selections, combining ability, its significance in plant breeding. 
    • Heterosis and its exploitation. 
    • Somatic hybridization. 
    • Breeding for disease and pest resistance. 
    • Role of interspecific and intergeneric hybridization. 
    • Role of genetic engineering and biotechnology in crop improvement.
    • Gernetically modified crop plants. 
  • Seed production and processing technologies.
    • Seed certification, Seed testing and storage. 
    • DNA finger printing and seed registration. 
    • Role of public and private sectors in seed production, and marketing. 
    • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues, WTO issues and its impact on Agriculture.  
  • Principles of Plant Physiology with reference to plant nutrition, absorption, translocation and metabolism of nutrients. Soil-water-plant relationship. 
  • Enzymes and plant pigments; photosynthesis—modern concepts and factors affecting the process, aerobic and anaerobic respiration; C3, C4 and CAM mechanisms.
    • Carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. 
    • Growth and development; photoperiodism and vernalization. 
    • Plant growth  substances and their role in crop production. 
    • Physiology of seed development and germination; dormancy. 
    • Stress physiology—draught, salt and water stress. 
  • Major fruits, plantation crops, vegetables, spices and flower crops.
    • Package practices of major horticultural crops. 
    • Protected cultivation and high tech horticulture. 
    • Post-harvest technology and value addition of fruits and vegetables. 
    • Landscaping and commercial floriculture. 
    • Medicinal and aromatic plants.
    • Role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition. 
  • Diagnosis of pests and diseases of field crops, vegetables, orchard and plantation crops and their economic importance.
    • Classification of  pests and diseases and their management. 
    • Integrated pest and disease management. 
    • Storage pests and their management. 
    • Biological control of pests and diseases. 
    • Epidemiology and forecasting of major crop pests and diseases. 
    • Plant quarantine measures. 
    • Pesticides, their formulation and modes of action. 
  • Food production and consumption trends in India.
    • Food security and growing population—vision 2020. 
    • Reasons for grain surplus. 
    • National and International food policies. 
    • Production, procurement, distribution constraints. 
    • Availability of foodgrains, per capita expenditure on food. 
    • Trends in poverty, Public Distribution System and Below Poverty Line population, Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS), policy implementation in context to globalisation. 
    • Processing constraints. 
    • Relation of food production to National Dietary Guidelines and food consumption pattern. 
    • Food based dietary approaches to eliminate hunger. 
    • Nutrient deficiency—Micronutrient deficiency : Protein Energy Malnutrition or Protein Calorie Malnutrition (PEM or PCM), Micro nutrient deficiency and HRD in context of work capacity of women and children. 
    • Food grain productivity and food security. 

Download Previous Year Question (PYQs) Papers

Download Yearwise PYQs


2023

2022

2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014

Download Paper Compilation(2014-2023)


Download [] Paper-1 Compilation

Download [] Paper-2 Compilation




Download [] Booklist Pdf

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