Code 05: MAJOR SUBJECT GROUP – AGRONOMY

Sub-Subjects:

• 5.1: Agronomy

UNIT-I

General: Importance of Agriculture in national economy; basic principles of crop production; cultivation of rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeon-pea, sugarcane, groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, potato. Major soils of India, role of NPK and their deficiency symptoms. Structure and function of cell organelles; mitosis and meiosis; Mendelian genetics; elementary knowledge of photosynthesis, respiration, photorespiration and transpiration; structure and functions of carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes and vitamins. Major pests and diseases of rice, wheat, cotton, chickpea, sugarcane and their management. Important rural development programmes in India; organisational set up of agricultural research, education and extension in India; Elements of statistics.

UNIT-II

Principles of Agronomy, Crop ecology and geography and Agricultural Meteorology:

• Agronomy – meaning and scope
• National & International agricultural research institutes in India
• Agro-climatic zones of India
• Tillage, crop stand establishment and planting geometry and their effect on crop
• Physiological limits of crop yield and variability in relation to ecological optima
• Organic farming
• Precision farming
• Integrated farming systems
• Principles of field experimentation
• Principles of crop ecology and crop adaptation
• Climate shift and its ecological implications
• Agro-ecological regions in India
• Geographical distribution of crop plants
• Greenhouse effect
• Climatic factors and their effect on plant processes and crop productivity
• Role of GIS and GPS in agriculture
• Weather & climate
• Earth’s atmosphere
• Solar radiation
• Atmospheric temperature and global warming
• Crops and atmospheric humidity
• Weather forecasting

UNIT-III

Field Crops

Origin, distribution, economic importance, soil and climatic requirement, varieties, cultural practices and yield of:

Cereals:

• Rice
• Wheat
• Maize
• Sorghum
• Pearl millet
• Minor millets
• Barley

Pulses:

• Chickpea
• Lentil
• Peas
• Pigeon pea
• Mungbean
• Urdbean

Oilseeds:

• Groundnut
• Sesame
• Soybean
• Rapeseed & mustard
• Sunflower
• Safflower
• Linseed

Fiber Crops:

• Cotton
• Jute
• Sun hemp

Sugar Crop:

• Sugarcane

Fodder & Forage Crops:

• Sorghum
• Maize
• Napier
• Berseem
• Lucerne
• Oats

Medicinal & Aromatic Plants:

• Mentha
• Lemon grass
• Isabgol

Commercial Crops:

• Potato
• Tobacco

UNIT-IV

Weed Management

• Principles of weed management
• Classification, biology and ecology of weeds
• Crop-weed competition and allelopathy
• Concepts and methods of weed control
• Integrated weed management (IWM)

• Classification, formulations, selectivity and resistance of herbicides
• Herbicide persistence in soil and plants
• Application methods and equipments
• Weed flora shifts in cropping systems
• Special and problematic weeds and their management in cropped and non-cropped situations
• Weed management in field crops

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  UNIT-V: Water Management

• Principles of irrigation
• Water resources and irrigation development in India
• Water and irrigation requirements
• Concepts and approaches of irrigation scheduling
• Methods of irrigation
• Measurement of irrigation water
• Application, distribution and use efficiencies

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  UNIT-VI: Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Use

• Essential plant nutrients and their deficiency symptoms
• Concept of essentiality of plant nutrients
• Indicators of soil fertility and productivity
• Fertilizer materials and their availability to plants
• Slow release fertilizers
• Nitrification inhibitors
• Principles and methods of fertilizer application
• Integrated nutrient management (INM)
• Site-specific nutrient management (SSNM)

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  UNIT-VII: Dryland Agronomy

• Characteristics of dryland farming and delineation of dryland tracts
• Constraints of dryland farming in India
• Types of drought and their management
• Contingency crop planning and mid-season corrections for aberrant weather and its recycling
• Watershed management

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  UNIT-VIII: Problem Soils

• Problem soils and their distribution in India
• Characteristics and reclamation of these soils
• Crop production techniques in problem soils

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  UNIT-IX: Sustainable Land Use Systems

• Sustainable agriculture: parameters and indicators
• Conservation agriculture
• Safe disposal of agri-industrial waste for crop production
• Agro-forestry systems
• Shifting cultivation
• Alternate land use systems
• Wastelands and their remediation for crop production
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• Conjunctive use of water
• Irrigation water quality and its management
• Water management in major field crops (rice, wheat, maize, groundnut, sugarcane)
• Agricultural drainage