Crop Production Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds
Crop Production Technology of Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds - This domain tests package of practices: seed rate, spacing, sowing time, nutrient and water management for major field crops.
Core rules
- Cereals: rice (nursery and transplanting), wheat (timely sowing), maize (kharif and rabi hybrids).
- Pulses: chickpea, pigeonpea, lentil and mungbean; inoculate with Rhizobium and apply phosphorus.
- Oilseeds: mustard, groundnut, soybean and sesame; sulphur improves oil content in oilseeds.
- Seed rates are crop-specific: wheat about 100 kg/ha, rice 40–60 kg/ha for transplanting, maize 20–25 kg/ha, chickpea 75–100 kg/ha, mustard 4–5 kg/ha.
- Spacing controls plant population; narrow rows suit small crops, wider rows suit tall crops.
Worked example
Maize is sown at 60 cm × 20 cm. Area per plant = 0.60 × 0.20 = 0.12 m2. Plants per hectare = 10,000 ÷ 0.12 = 83,333. Reasoning: one hectare is 10,000 m2; divide by the area occupied by one plant. If germination is 90%, adjust the seed rate upward by dividing by 0.90.
Traps
- Do not mix kg/ha and g/ha when calculating small plots.
- Too deep sowing reduces emergence, especially in small-seeded pulses and oilseeds.
- Excess nitrogen in pulses reduces nodulation and pod set.
- Mustard is cross-pollinated; isolation matters in seed production.
- Rice grown by transplanting needs a nursery, not direct field sowing, in the traditional package.