Agriculture and Rural Development: Credit, Crops, Schemes and Institutions
Agriculture and Rural Development is a 40-question section in Phase I and a major part of Phase II Paper 2. It spans agronomy and soils, irrigation, animal husbandry and fisheries, agricultural credit and insurance, marketing, rural development programmes, and the institutions that deliver them.
Core rules
- Seasons and crops: kharif (monsoon-sown), rabi (winter-sown) and zaid; know the leading producing states for major crops and the difference between foodgrains, oilseeds and commercial crops.
- Soil and nutrients: NPK are macronutrients, zinc and boron are micronutrients; soil pH governs nutrient availability; the Soil Health Card reports status and fertiliser advice.
- Credit structure: cooperatives (PACS at the base), regional rural banks and commercial banks, with NABARD as refinancer and apex. Priority sector lending requires 18% of adjusted net bank credit for agriculture within an overall 40% target.
- Schemes to know precisely: PM-KISAN, PMFBY, Kisan Credit Card, e-NAM, FPO formation and promotion, PMKSY, RKVY, MGNREGA, PMAY-Gramin, DAY-NRLM and its self-help group architecture.
- MSP is recommended by the CACP and approved by the CCEA; it is a procurement price, not a statutory guarantee of purchase from every farmer.
Worked example
A district has net sown area of 100 lakh hectares and gross cropped area of 150 lakh hectares. Cropping intensity = gross cropped area ÷ net sown area × 100 = 150%. Reasoning: net sown area counts land once; gross cropped area counts each crop season. The distractor uses irrigated area in the denominator, which measures irrigation intensity, not cropping intensity.
Traps
- Believing NABARD lends directly to individual farmers; it refinances and supports, it is not a retail lender.
- Confusing PMFBY with earlier crop insurance schemes and their premium shares.
- Mixing cropping intensity with irrigation intensity.
- Assuming MSP is a legal right to purchase.