Agricultural Practices and Crop Production
Agricultural Practices and Crop Production
This section tests how well you place crops into seasons, rotations and cropping systems, and whether you can apply package-of-practice figures such as seed rate and cropping intensity.
Core rules
- Kharif crops are sown with the monsoon (June–July) and harvested in autumn; Rabi crops are sown October–November and harvested March–April; Zaid is the short summer season.
- Cropping intensity = (gross cropped area ÷ net sown area) × 100. Gross cropped area counts every crop harvested in the year; net sown area is counted once.
- Mixed cropping grows two or more crops together without a fixed row pattern; intercropping uses definite rows and often a main crop plus a companion crop.
- Relay cropping sows the next crop before the previous one is harvested; sequence cropping follows one crop after another.
- Legumes in a rotation add nitrogen through symbiosis and break pest and disease cycles.
Worked example
A farm has 4 ha of net sown area. In one year it harvests wheat from 4 ha, moong from 2 ha and vegetables from 1 ha. Gross cropped area = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 ha. Cropping intensity = (7 ÷ 4) × 100 = 175%. The reasoning is to count each harvested crop once and never add the net sown area again as a separate crop.
Mark-losing traps
- Mixing up net sown area with gross cropped area.
- Calling every crop mixture intercropping when no row arrangement is specified.
- Giving seed rate per acre when the question asks per hectare, or ignoring germination percentage when a pure-live-seed rate is requested.