Introduction to Crop Production and Agronomy Fundamentals
Introduction to Crop Production and Agronomy Fundamentals
This domain tests whether you can define crop production and agronomy, classify crops, and choose a cropping pattern for an Odisha farm. Expect questions on seasons, sole versus mixed/intercropping, crop sequences, and cropping intensity.
Core rules and concepts
- Agronomy is the management of field crops and soils for food, feed, fibre and fuel; it deals with production practices rather than breeding or machinery design.
- Kharif crops are sown with the south-west monsoon (rice, maize, arhar, groundnut); rabi crops follow in the post-monsoon cool season (wheat, mustard, greengram on residual moisture); zaid is a short summer season.
- Cropping intensity (%) = (gross cropped area ÷ net sown area) × 100. It measures how many times the same land is cropped in a year.
- Intercropping grows two or more crops simultaneously in separate rows; mixed cropping lacks a definite row arrangement; relay cropping sows the next crop before harvest of the first.
Worked example
A farmer has 2.0 ha net sown area, grows kharif rice on all 2.0 ha and rabi greengram on 1.5 ha. Gross cropped area = 2.0 + 1.5 = 3.5 ha. Cropping intensity = (3.5 ÷ 2.0) × 100 = 175%. The reasoning is that both crop seasons count in the numerator, but land is counted only once in the denominator.
Traps that cost marks
Do not call 175% land-use efficiency; it is cropping intensity. Do not add intercropped components as separate land area when calculating net sown area. Remember that greengram can be rabi or summer depending on residual moisture and variety, so read the season stated in the question.