Agronomy and Crop Production
What the exam tests
Agronomy questions in Lok Sewa Agriculture Officer papers test whether you can convert crop science principles into field recommendations: land preparation, seed rate, planting geometry, nutrient and water management, cropping systems and yield calculations for Nepal's major crops-paddy, maize, wheat, finger millet, potato and pulses.
Core rules
- Cropping intensity = (total cropped area / net cultivated area) × 100. It measures how many crops are harvested per unit of net land per year.
- Intercropping grows two or more crops simultaneously in the same field; relay cropping plants the next crop before the first is harvested; sequence cropping follows one crop after another.
- Seed rate depends on target plant population, 1000-grain weight, germination percentage and field purity. Always divide by the product of germination and purity, not by germination alone.
- For cereals, optimum plant population and timely sowing usually matter more than a small increase in fertilizer.
Worked example
Target maize population = 60,000 plants/ha; 1000-grain weight = 250 g; germination = 90%; purity = 98%. Seeds required = 60,000 ÷ (0.90 × 0.98) = 68,027 seeds/ha. Seed weight = 68,027 × 250 g ÷ 1,000 = 17,007 g ≈ 17 kg/ha. Reasoning: the pure live seed fraction is 0.882; without the purity correction you would under-sow by about 2%.
Traps
Do not report biological yield as economic yield; do not use seed rate tables without adjusting for germination; and do not confuse intercropping with crop rotation, which is sequential, not simultaneous.