Agriculture, Horticulture and Soil Science
Agriculture, Horticulture and Soil Science tests cropping systems, soil properties, fertiliser management, horticultural crops and Chhattisgarh's agrarian schemes.
Core rules
- Chhattisgarh is rice-dominant and called the 'rice bowl'; other crops include maize, soybean, groundnut, sugarcane and pulses.
- Soils: red and yellow (weathered crystalline), laterite, black and alluvial; acidic soils are common in forest zones.
- Soil properties: texture, structure, pH, organic carbon and cation exchange capacity. Organic carbon below 0.5% is low; lime corrects acidity, gypsum corrects sodicity.
- System of Rice Intensification uses young seedlings, wide spacing, intermittent irrigation and mechanical weeding.
- Horticulture: mango, guava, banana, cashew and litchi; protected cultivation and micro-irrigation are promoted.
- Soil conservation: contour bunding, terracing, check dams, green manure and crop rotation.
Worked example
A soil test reports pH 5.2, organic carbon 0.35% and low available nitrogen. Reasoning: the soil is acidic, organic carbon is low and nitrogen is deficient. Recommend lime based on lime requirement, FYM or green manure, and split nitrogen application; avoid blind NPK.
Traps
- Treating all red soils as infertile; management matters.
- Confusing gypsum (for sodic soils) with lime (for acidic soils).
- Assuming SRI means no water; it means controlled irrigation.
- Mixing horticultural crops with plantation crops.