ASRB NET — Farm Machinery & Power / Land & Water Management Engineering / Agricultural Structures & Process Engineering · India · Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ICAR)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersMachines that prepare the seedbed and put seed and fertiliser in the ground, and how to calibrate and cost them.
In the exams: GATE AG Section 2 Farm Machinery (~11 marks a year 2019–26; seed-drill calibration in 7 of 8 papers); ICAR AIEEA-PG Unit V; ICAR AICE subject 39 Unit 1; PRC ABE; state PSCs
ASRB NET — Farm Machinery & Power
PG-level recall and reasoning across tillage and sowing machines, conservation tillage machinery, testing indices and machinery management.
How our questions for ASRB NET spread across the units of Farm Machinery & Equipment I — Tillage, Sowing, Planting, Fertiliser. Difficulty: 0 easy, 21 medium, 13 hard.
| Seed-metering mechanisms: fluted roller, cup, plate and pneumatic | 4 | |
| Objectives and types of tillage | 3 | |
| Disc plough | 3 | |
| Chisel plough and subsoiler | 3 | |
| Harrows, cultivators and rotavators | 3 | |
| Forces on tillage tools, draft and hitching | 3 | |
| Furrow openers | 3 | |
| Paddy and vegetable transplanters | 3 | |
| Mouldboard plough | 2 | |
| Furrow geometry | 2 | |
| Fertiliser distributors | 2 | |
| Cost analysis of implements | 2 | |
| Seed drills and planters | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Why is a reversible (two-way) mouldboard plough preferred on sloping and irrigated land?
D. All slices are thrown one way across the field, so no back or dead furrows are formed
Flipping at each headland keeps the slices going the same direction, leaving the field level without back and dead furrows, which matters for irrigation and on slopes. Draft per bottom is similar, and each bottom still has a landside.
The disc angle of a disc plough is the angle between
B. the plane of the disc edge and the direction of travel, in the horizontal plane
Disc angle is measured horizontally from the direction of travel; tilt angle is measured between the disc plane and the vertical. Confusing the two is the usual error.
Subsoiling a hardpan is most effective when the soil at working depth is
A. dry enough to shatter
Dry, brittle subsoil fractures and loosens around the tine. Wet subsoil deforms plastically, so the tine cuts a slot and smears the walls with little loosening.
Why are zero-till drills built with heavier frames and stronger openers than drills for a tilled seedbed?
C. They must cut residue and penetrate untilled, firmer soil
Untilled soil is stronger and covered with residue, so openers need more down-force and robust construction.
In a horizontal-plate planter, what is the function of the spring-loaded cut-off?
D. Remove excess seeds so each cell carries one seed
The cut-off wipes surplus seeds from the cell; the knock-out or ejector pushes the seed from the cell into the tube.
Which opener is best suited to sowing through heavy surface residue?
A. Double-disc opener
Discs cut through residue instead of dragging it; tined, hoe and shoe openers bunch residue and block.
Ten here, 34 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ASRB NET in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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