IBPS RRB Agriculture Officer cheat sheet

Kharif crops are sown with monsoon onset (June–July) and harvested in autumn: rice, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, cotton, groundnut, soybean, pigeon pea; Rabi crops are sown October–December and harvested March–April: wheat, barley, gram, mustard, lentil, linseed.

Zaid is a short summer season between Rabi harvest and Kharif sowing, used for cucurbits, green gram, and fodder crops on irrigated land.

Soil erosion control: contour bunding and terracing on slopes above 2–3%, check dams in gullies, windbreaks/shelterbelts against wind erosion, and conservation tillage to retain residue cover.

Essential plant nutrients: primary N, P, K; secondary Ca, Mg, S; micronutrients Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo, Cl, Ni. Deficiency of Zn causes khaira in rice; B deficiency causes hollow heart in cauliflower.

NPK fertilizer grades: urea 46-0-0, DAP 18-46-0, MOP (muriate of potash) 0-0-60, SSP 0-16-0 plus 11% S, ammonium sulphate 21-0-0 plus 24% S.

Integrated pest management order: cultural and mechanical methods, resistant varieties, biological control (Trichogramma, NPV), then need-based chemical sprays above economic threshold level.

Major Indian crop diseases: rice blast (Magnaporthe oryzae), bacterial blight of rice (Xanthomonas oryzae), wheat rusts (Puccinia spp.), cotton leaf curl virus (whitefly vector), late blight of potato (Phytophthora infestans).

Irrigation scheduling rule: irrigate at critical growth stages - crown root initiation and flowering in wheat, panicle initiation and flowering in rice, branching and pod filling in pulses; drip saves 40–60% water versus flood irrigation.

Seed certification: breeder seed (Nucleus/Original) → foundation seed → certified seed; germination and purity standards are enforced under the Seeds Act, 1966, with labelling by the State Seed Certification Agency.

Alphabet positions: A=1 … Z=26; EJOTY mnemonic gives positions 5, 10, 15, 20, 25; opposite letters sum to 27 (A↔Z, B↔Y, M↔N).

Syllogism decision rule: apply 'some' as overlap, 'all' as subset, 'no' as disjoint; a conclusion is valid only if it holds in every possible Venn arrangement of the premises.

Coding-decoding: check shift patterns (letter ±n), reversal, positional products, or word-to-number mapping before assuming a single rule; verify the candidate rule against all given examples.

Blood relations: draw a family tree with gender-marked nodes; vertical lines for generations, horizontal for siblings/spouse; 'only son of my grandfather' resolves to father or father's brother depending on stated siblings.

Direction sense: fix north upward; use Pythagoras for net displacement, and remember left/right reverses when facing south. Two successive turns of 90° in opposite directions cancel.

Series rule: check differences, then ratios, then alternating/prime/square patterns; for letter series check gaps like +2, +3, +4 or reverse alphabet jumps.

Seating arrangement: circular facing centre means left is clockwise; facing outside means left is anticlockwise. Fix the most constrained person first, then place relative clues.

Input-output and machine arrangement: track which element moves where per step; the rule usually alternates (e.g., smallest number left, then largest word right) and stabilises after a fixed number of steps.

Data sufficiency: a question is answerable only if the statement alone or the two statements together uniquely determine the value; test each statement independently before combining.

Percentage change: net change for two successive changes a% and b% is a + b + ab/100; a 20% rise then 20% fall gives a net 4% fall.

Simple interest SI = P×R×T/100; compound interest CI = P[(1+R/100)^T − 1]; for 2 years CI − SI = P(R/100)².

Profit and loss: SP = CP(1 ± gain%/100); successive discounts d1, d2 give effective discount d1 + d2 − d1d2/100; marked price to selling price uses discount on MP, profit on CP.

Ratio and mixture: alligation rule gives ratio of quantities = (mean price − cheaper)/(dearer − mean price); repeated dilution leaves final concentration C(1 − x/V)^n.

Time-speed-distance: distance = speed × time; for equal distances at speeds a and b, average speed = 2ab/(a+b); train crossing a platform covers train length + platform length.

Time and work: if A does work in x days and B in y days, together they take xy/(x+y) days; use LCM of days as total work units for efficiency problems.

Averages and ages: new average after adding a member = (old total + new value)/(n+1); if average of n numbers is A and one number is replaced by B, change = (B − replaced)/n.

Mensuration: area of circle πr², circumference 2πr; cylinder volume πr²h, curved surface 2πrh; sphere volume 4/3πr³; cone volume 1/3πr²h.

Permutation and probability: nPr = n!/(n−r)!, nCr = n!/[r!(n−r)!]; probability of at least one = 1 − P(none); for two dice, 36 equally likely outcomes.

Subject-verb agreement: singular subject takes singular verb; 'one of the + plural noun' takes a singular verb; 'each, every, either, neither' are singular; collective nouns take singular verbs when acting as a unit.

Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds (an hour, a university); 'the' for unique or previously specified nouns; no article before uncountable general nouns (water, honesty).

Prepositions with fixed verbs: depend on, insist on, comply with, capable of, prefer to, married to, superior to, inferior to, jealous of, devoid of.

Tenses: present perfect (has/have + past participle) for past action with present relevance; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions; 'since' with a point of time, 'for' with a duration.

Error-spotting traps: redundant comparatives (more better), double negatives, 'discuss about', 'return back', 'comprise of', and misuse of 'hardly/scarcely' with 'when' rather than 'than'.

Cloze and fill-in-the-blank: read the full sentence for logical flow, check collocation (heavy rain, strong wind, make a decision), and eliminate options that break grammar even if they fit meaning.

Reading comprehension order: skim the passage first, then read questions; answers to 'inference' questions must be supported by the passage, not by general knowledge.

Hindi grammar essentials: संधि (स्वर, व्यंजन, विसर्ग), समास (तत्पुरुष, कर्मधारय, द्विगु, द्वंद्व, बहुव्रीहि, अव्ययीभाव), and उपसर्ग/प्रत्यय to form new words; मुहावरे and लोकोक्तियाँ are tested with contextual meaning.

Hindi sentence correction: match लिंग, वचन, and कारक; common errors include गलत संधि-विच्छेद, अनावश्यक पुनरुक्ति (वापस लौटा), and wrong postpositions (को/से/में).

RBI functions: monetary policy, currency issue (except one-rupee coins and notes, issued by Government of India), banker to government and banks, foreign exchange management under FEMA, 1999, and lender of last resort.

Policy rates: repo rate (RBI lends to banks against securities), reverse repo (RBI borrows), MSF and Bank Rate above repo, SDF introduced in 2022 as the floor of the LAF corridor; CRR and SLR are reserve requirements, not policy rates.

Priority sector lending target is 40% of adjusted net bank credit; sub-targets include 18% for agriculture, 7.5% for micro enterprises, and 12% for weaker sections.

Deposit insurance: DICGC insures deposits up to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, covering principal plus interest, for commercial and cooperative banks.

Banking legislation: RBI Act 1934, Banking Regulation Act 1949, Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 (cheque, bill of exchange, promissory note), SARFAESI Act 2002, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

NABARD is the apex development bank for agriculture and rural credit (est. 1982); it refinances RRBs, cooperatives, and rural infrastructure through RIDF. RRBs were established under the RRB Act 1976.

Government schemes: PM-KISAN (₹6,000 per year in three instalments), Kisan Credit Card for short-term crop loans, PMFBY crop insurance, Atal Pension Yojana, PMJDY for financial inclusion, MUDRA for micro units.

NPA classification: substandard (NPA up to 12 months), doubtful (over 12 months), loss asset; loans overdue more than 90 days become NPAs, and SARFAESI allows enforcement after 60 days' notice.

Key institutions: SEBI (securities), IRDAI (insurance), PFRDA (pensions), SIDBI (MSME finance), EXIM Bank (trade finance), NPCI (UPI, RuPay, IMPS), and the Monetary Policy Committee has six members with the RBI Governor as chair.

Generations: first (vacuum tubes), second (transistors), third (integrated circuits), fourth (microprocessors), fifth (AI and parallel processing); ENIAC was a first-generation machine.

Memory hierarchy by speed and cost: CPU registers → cache (L1/L2/L3) → RAM → SSD/HDD → optical/tape; RAM is volatile, ROM is non-volatile, and cache is fastest after registers.

Storage units: 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1024 bytes, 1 MB = 1024 KB, 1 GB = 1024 MB, 1 TB = 1024 GB; a nibble is 4 bits.

OS functions: process and memory management, file system, device drivers, and user interface; examples include Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and UNIX. A kernel is the core of the OS.

Networking: IP addresses identify hosts, DNS resolves names to IPs, HTTP/HTTPS transfer web pages, FTP transfers files, SMTP sends mail, and POP3/IMAP retrieve mail; port 80 is HTTP, 443 is HTTPS.

Topologies: star (central hub, easy fault isolation), ring (token passing), bus (single backbone, collision-prone), mesh (redundant, costly); LAN is local, WAN spans large areas, and the Internet is a network of networks.

MS Office shortcuts: Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+V paste, Ctrl+X cut, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y redo, Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+P print, Ctrl+F find; in Excel, $ fixes a cell reference (absolute) and F4 toggles it.

Cyber security basics: phishing, malware (virus, worm, Trojan, ransomware), firewall filtering, and two-factor authentication; a strong password mixes cases, digits, and symbols, and OTPs are time-limited.

Database and file concepts: a DBMS stores structured data in tables with primary keys; SQL commands include SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE; file extensions .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .pdf, .exe, .jpg identify formats.