Crop Production and Management: Package of Practices and Cropping Systems
This domain tests the practical decisions of raising a crop - seed rate, sowing method, spacing, irrigation scheduling, nutrient splits, weeding and the cropping system chosen for a field.
Core rules
- Seed rate depends on the desired plant population, test weight and germination percentage; poor germination means a proportionally higher rate.
- Sowing methods: broadcasting (cheap, uneven), line sowing or drilling (allows interculture), dibbling (wide-spaced cotton, maize), transplanting (rice, tomato, onion).
- Crop rotation with a legume restores nitrogen and breaks pest cycles; avoid rotations that repeat the same host family.
- Mixed cropping is growing two or more crops together without a fixed row pattern; intercropping uses a definite row ratio such as 4:2 or 6:2. Relay cropping sows the next crop into the standing crop before harvest.
Cropping intensity
Cropping intensity (%) = (gross cropped area ÷ net sown area) × 100. It measures how many times a hectare is cropped in a year.
Worked example
A farmer holds 4 ha of net sown area. In one year he grows wheat on 4 ha, mung on 2 ha and a fodder crop on 1 ha. Gross cropped area = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 ha. Cropping intensity = (7 ÷ 4) × 100 = 175%. Because the value exceeds 100%, more than one crop is being taken from part of the holding.
Traps
- Reporting cropping intensity as the area under irrigation; the two are unrelated.
- Confusing mixed cropping (no row geometry) with intercropping (fixed row ratio).
- Applying the whole nitrogen dose as basal in irrigated rice or wheat instead of splitting it.
- Ignoring germination percentage when a seed-rate calculation is asked.