Crop Production and Management: Package of Practices
What this domain tests
Package-of-practice questions on rice, jute, potato, pulses and oilseeds: seed rate, spacing, nursery age, fertilizer splits, water management and cropping systems.
Core rules
- Rice: wet nursery, 25–30-day-old seedlings, 2–3 seedlings per hill, 20 × 15 cm spacing. Boro needs assured irrigation; aman depends on the monsoon.
- Jute: line sowing 25–30 cm apart; seed rate about 4–6 kg/ha for Capsularis and 3–4 kg/ha for olitorius.
- Potato: 1,500–2,000 kg/ha seed tubers, planted on ridges at 60 × 20 cm.
- Fertilizer: nitrogen in two or three splits; phosphorus and potassium as basal. Urea carries 46% N, SSP 16% P2O5, MOP 60% K2O.
- Cropping systems: monocropping, intercropping (additive or replacement), relay cropping and rotation; legumes in rotation add nitrogen through Rhizobium.
Worked example
A recommendation of 100 : 50 : 50 kg N : P2O5 : K2O per hectare. Urea = 100 ÷ 0.46 = 217 kg; SSP = 50 ÷ 0.16 = 312 kg; MOP = 50 ÷ 0.60 = 83 kg. Reasoning: divide the nutrient dose by the fraction of nutrient in the carrier, never multiply. If 217 kg urea looks too much, check that you did not divide by 46 instead of 0.46.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing transplanting seed rate with the direct-seeded rate; applying all nitrogen as basal; mixing gross cropped area with net cropped area; forgetting that SSP also supplies sulphur and calcium.