GATE — Agricultural Engineering (AG) · India · IITs and IISc on rotation (2026: IIT Guwahati)
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
GATE — Agricultural Engineering (AG)
Numerical answer and MCQ items on seed-drill, planter and fertiliser-drill calibration (one of the most often repeated topics), rotary-tiller bite length, mouldboard plough draft and power, offset disc harrow force balance, field capacity, and machinery cost by straight-line, declining-balance and sum-of-years-digits depreciation with break-even custom hire.
How our questions for GATE spread across the units of Farm Machinery & Equipment I — Tillage, Sowing, Planting, Fertiliser. Difficulty: 8 easy, 29 medium, 7 hard.
| Forces on tillage tools, draft and hitching | 7 | |
| Cost analysis of implements | 6 | |
| Calibration of seed drills | 5 | |
| Seed-metering mechanisms: fluted roller, cup, plate and pneumatic | 4 | |
| Field capacity and field efficiency | 4 | |
| Harrows, cultivators and rotavators | 3 | |
| Seed drills and planters | 3 | |
| Fertiliser distributors | 3 | |
| Mouldboard plough | 2 | |
| Disc plough | 2 | |
| Paddy and vegetable transplanters | 2 | |
| Chisel plough and subsoiler | 1 | |
| Furrow geometry | 1 | |
| Furrow openers | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
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.
Chisel shanks set too far apart for their working depth will most likely
C. leave ridges of untilled soil between the shanks
The loosened zones from adjacent shanks must meet below the surface. If spacing is too large for the depth, untilled ridges remain between shanks.
A 3-bottom mouldboard plough cuts 30 cm per bottom at 20 cm depth in soil with a unit draft of 7 N/cm². It is pulled at 5 km/h. What drawbar power is needed?
B. 17.5 kW
Draft = bottoms × width × depth × unit draft = 3 × 30 × 20 × 7 = 12,600 N. Speed = 5/3.6 = 1.389 m/s. Power = 12,600 × 1.389 = 17,500 W = 17.5 kW. Multiplying by 5 without converting km/h gives 63.0 kW; using one bottom gives 5.83 kW. 175 kW is a factor-of-ten slip.
A tractor with a 2.0 m wheelbase exerts a horizontal drawbar pull of 12 kN at a drawbar height of 0.5 m. What weight is transferred from the front to the rear axle (simple static approximation)?
B. 3.0 kN
Taking moments about the rear wheel contact: ΔW = P·h/L = 12 × 0.5 / 2.0 = 3.0 kN. Inverting the ratio gives 48 kN; multiplying P by h alone gives 6.0 kN·m, a moment, not a force; using (L − h) as the arm gives 9.0 kN.
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.
Why do pneumatic (vacuum) meters handle ungraded seed better than cell plates?
C. Seeds are held on holes by suction, so seed size need not match a cell
Suction holds a seed on each hole regardless of small variations in shape, and a singulator removes doubles, so exact grading matters less than for a fixed cell.
A planter's ground wheel is 50 cm in diameter and drives a 12-cell plate at 0.5 plate turns per wheel turn. Ignoring skid, what is seed spacing?
D. 26.18 cm
Spacing = πD/(i·N) = π × 0.5/(0.5 × 12) = 0.2618 m = 26.18 cm. Multiplying by i gives 6.54 cm; ignoring the drive ratio gives 13.09 cm; leaving out π (using D as the travel per turn) gives 8.33 cm.
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.
Why must adjacent passes of a spinning-disc broadcaster overlap?
D. The spread pattern tapers toward the edges, so overlap evens out the total
A single-pass pattern is heaviest in the centre and thins at the edges; spacing passes at the correct bout width overlaps the tails to give even coverage.
Owning a zero-till drill costs 60 000 per year fixed plus 900 per hectare variable. Custom hire costs 2400 per hectare. Above what annual area is owning cheaper?
D. 40 ha
Break-even area = FC/(custom rate − VC) = 60 000/(2400 − 900) = 40 ha. Ignoring variable cost gives 25 ha; adding VC to the hire rate gives 18.2 ha. 66.7 ha divides by the variable cost alone (60 000/900).
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