Introductory Crop Science and Classification of Crops
Introductory Crop Science and Classification of Crops - This domain tests whether you can place any crop in the right class and use that classification in cropping decisions. Expect questions on use-based groups, season, life cycle, photosynthesis type and botanical family.
Core rules
- Use-based groups: cereals (rice, wheat, maize), pulses (gram, pigeonpea, lentil), oilseeds (mustard, groundnut, soybean), fibre (cotton, jute), sugar (sugarcane), tubers (potato), fodder and condiments.
- Season: kharif (monsoon-sown, e.g. rice, maize, cotton), rabi (winter, e.g. wheat, gram, mustard), zaid (summer, e.g. moong, watermelon).
- Life cycle: annual, biennial (e.g. sugar beet), perennial (sugarcane is botanically perennial but grown as an annual).
- C3 vs C4: rice, wheat and gram are C3; maize, sugarcane and sorghum are C4.
- Botanical name: two-part Latin binomial, genus capitalised, species lower case, e.g. Triticum aestivum.
Worked example
Classify maize. Reasoning: it is grown for grain (cereal), sown in kharif but also in rabi/zaid, completes in one season (annual), has Kranz anatomy and low photorespiration (C4), and belongs to Poaceae. Answer: cereal, annual, C4, Poaceae.
Traps
- Soybean and groundnut are oilseeds, not pulses, although soybean fixes nitrogen.
- Gram means chickpea (a pulse), not a cereal.
- Sugarcane is perennial botanically but managed as an annual crop.
- Do not capitalise the species part of a botanical name.
- Mixed cropping, intercropping and relay cropping are not synonyms; learn the difference between them.