Agriculture An Optional One Can Rely Upon - By S. A. Hussain, Career Care, Kolkata

As an optional subject, Agriculture has become extremely popular in Civil Services Examination, especially for the candidates preparing for the Indian Forest Service (IFoS) Exam. Candidates from streams like Engineering, Geology, Forestry and Botany are preparing for the UPSC Exams with Agriculture as their optional subject both for the lAS and the IFoS. And success rate in IFoS Exam is quite satisfactory. In lAS Exam also, success rate of candidates with Agriculture optional is high (% of candidates per optional).

Its popularity is because of its scoring aspect, scientific approach and also because Agriculture as a subject is helpful in General Studies (being part of Indian Economy and Indian Geography).

It is difficult to conclude about the standards of different optional subjects. However, Agriculture as an optional is a boon especially to those candidates who have done their graduation/ post-graduation in Agriculture. This is because in all the Agricultural Universities in India, the academic session is based on the Trimester or Semester system. Both these systems cater to the need of civil services aspirants with Agriculture as optional. For Indian Forest Services (IFoS) Exam, in Botany and Agriculture- 40% syllabus is common. Thus it is a very scoring and rewarding combination for the IFoS Exam. From this angle, Agriculture as optional is becoming very popular. In this write-up, my suggestions are relevant for both the Exams- lAS as well as IFoS.

There are two papers (syllabus with the suggested books for both the papers are mentioned at the end of this write-up). Both papers contain questions in which 5-6 questions have to be attempted. Sometimes, in each paper, question No. 1 is compulsory and the compulsory question may be from the entire syllabus.

All the questions are conventional type. Sometimes, each question consists of 3-4 parts or 3-4 sub­questions. As the word limits are prescribed for the questions, it is important to stick to it while writing answers. One should integrate maximum information in compact and organized way within the word limit. Answer should be scientific, systematic, to the point with impressive language so as to fetch good marks .It is always advisable to pay attention to factual and analytical approach while answering the questions. Wherever special emphasis on clarity of views is required, data, table, diagram, graph or sketch should be given. Better to avoid long sentences and long paragraphs.

During the course of my guidance and teaching, I have observed that the candidates are usually obsessed with the idea of consulting a large number of books. The main factors/ consideration behind this obsession is their false notion that the larger the number of books they would read or consult, greater would be the information or facts they would come across. There should be a limitation to the number of books to be referred or consulted. Our strategy should be to first go through the minimum number of books with chapter specifications and later if time is available, consult other books. It is better to consult one book ten times than to consult ten books one time.

APPROACH AND STRATEGY FOR STUDY

Now, we will discuss the approach for preparation of Agriculture optional in brief. We all know that the most important aspect of preparation is “STRATEGY”. ‘HARD WORK’ is of course very important but with proper direction. This proper direction is ‘STRATEGY’. In Civil Services Examination, if you waste your time or energy on studying something which is not much important for scoring, you become a hurdle for yourself. You must put your time and energy in a ratio that gives you maximum marginal productivity.

Choosing good books is very important. So, the first step is the choice of books. Books of Indian authors are always preferable because they incorporate Indian examples with valuable information and their applied part in the Indian context. Most books are oriented towards University Examination.

The pattern of the questions of Civil Services Exam/ Indian Forest Services Exam (Mains) is totally different from the University Examinations. So, analysis of previous years’ questions helps a lot. One should make notes based on these questions. Based on the pattern, we can divide the entire syllabus into three parts:

1. Very important;
2. Important; and
3. Least important.

Writing answers helps a lot in boosting your confidence. For this, you can join a test series programme.

A list of suggested books is given below.

Paper-I
Syllabus/Chapter	Recommended Books
Ecology, pollution, GIS	Manuals of Plant Ecology by K.C. Mishra
Factors determining agro-geographical distribution	Agricultural Problems of India by C.B. Memoria
Cropping pattern, inter-cropping, food production:	(a) Crop Production & Management by Y.B. Mochan (b) Cropping Systems by Maity & Chatterjee
Packages of practices of different crops	(a) Crop Production by C. P. Thakur (b) Principles of Crop Husbandry in India by Aiyer (c) Handbook of Agriculture by ICAR Publication
Weeds control	(a) Crop Production by C. P. Thakur (b) Handbook of Agriculture by ICAR Publication
Soil erosion and its management	(a) Nature and Properties of Soil by Buckman & Brady (b) Fundamental of Soil by B. N. Sahay
Manures, nutrients	Manures & Fertillizers by K. S. Yawalkar
Dryland agriculture, rainfed agriculture	Physiology of Dryland Farming by Gupta
Water use efficiency, water pollution	Principles of Irrigation by Michael
Farm management types, systems of farming	(a) Farm Management by Johl & Kapoor (b) Elements of Farm Management by Sharma & Sharma. Indian Economy by Dutta & Sundaram Rural Economics by I. C. Dhingra
Agricultural extention, SHG approach for rural development	(a) Extension Education by O. P. Dhama (b) Rural Economics by I. C. Dhingra

Paper-II
Cell structure, sex-linked character	(a) Cell Biology by Powar (b) Genetics by Birbala Rastogi
History of plant breeding, composites of crops	(a) Principles of plant breeding by Allard (b) Principles of Plant Breeding by B. D. Singh
Seed technology in India	Seed Technology by R. L. Agarwala
Principles of plant physiology, carbohydrates, proteins, water stress	Plant Physiology by Srivastava
Major fruits’ production and their economic importance	Physiology of Fruit Production by Singh
Classification of pests, modes of action	(a) Diseases of Crop Plants in India by Rangaswamy & Mahadewan (b) Hand book of Agriculture by ICAR Publication
Food Production, food security	(a) Indian Economy by Datta & Sundaram (b) Indian Economy by Mishra & Puri