Agriculture Optional

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

Syllabus

Paper 1 :

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• 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 :

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• 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.