Practical Agriculture: Farm Operations, Seed Selection and Record Keeping
Practical agriculture marks come from farm operations, seed selection and record keeping - topics where exact figures and correct sequence score easily.
Farm operations in order
Ploughing → harrowing/cultivation → levelling → line sowing → weeding and hoeing → thinning → earthing up → irrigation → plant protection → harvesting → threshing → winnowing → drying → storage. Store wheat at about 12% moisture and paddy at 13–14%; damp grain heats and rots.
Seed selection
- Buy certified or truthfully labelled seed and read the label: crop, variety, lot number, purity, germination percentage, date of test and source.
- Good seed is bold, uniform and free from inert matter, weed seeds, disease and insect damage.
- Pure live seed (PLS) fraction = (purity % × germination %) ÷ 100. Adjusted seed rate = recommended rate ÷ PLS fraction.
Worked example
Wheat is recommended at 100 kg/ha. A lot has 98% purity and 90% germination. PLS fraction = 0.98 × 0.90 = 0.882, so seed to sow = 100 ÷ 0.882 = 113 kg/ha (about 114 kg). In the germination test, 360 of 400 seeds sprouted: germination = 360 ÷ 400 × 100 = 90%.
Record keeping
Keep a farm diary, a crop-wise input and labour register, a machinery and depreciation register, a milk and livestock register, and sale and purchase vouchers. Records let you compute cost per quintal and compare the next season's B:C ratio.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing purity with germination percentage.
- Dividing the seed rate by germination alone when purity is also below 100%.
- Sowing untested seed after a poor season.
- Presenting record keeping as memory work - entries need dates and regular updating.