ICAR AIEEA-PG — Agricultural Engineering & Technology (Major Subject Group 10) · India · National Testing Agency for 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
ICAR AIEEA-PG — Agricultural Engineering (Unit V)
Recall of implement parts and functions (plough bottoms, suction, disc and tilt angles, metering devices, openers), classification of tillage, transplanter features, and short calculations of field capacity, seed rate and cost.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG spread across the units of Farm Machinery & Equipment I — Tillage, Sowing, Planting, Fertiliser. Difficulty: 9 easy, 40 medium, 1 hard.
| Seed-metering mechanisms: fluted roller, cup, plate and pneumatic | 6 | |
| Forces on tillage tools, draft and hitching | 5 | |
| Paddy and vegetable transplanters | 5 | |
| Cost analysis of implements | 4 | |
| Mouldboard plough | 3 | |
| Disc plough | 3 | |
| Chisel plough and subsoiler | 3 | |
| Harrows, cultivators and rotavators | 3 | |
| Seed drills and planters | 3 | |
| Furrow openers | 3 | |
| Fertiliser distributors | 3 | |
| Calibration of seed drills | 3 | |
| Field capacity and field efficiency | 3 | |
| Objectives and types of tillage | 2 | |
| Furrow geometry | 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.
A chisel plough differs from a mouldboard plough mainly in that it
C. shatters and loosens soil without inverting it
Chisel shanks loosen and shatter soil and leave residue on the surface, which is why they suit conservation tillage. Mouldboards invert; rotary tillers need PTO drive.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Most mechanical rice transplanters require seedlings raised as
B. a mat nursery
The picking fork cuts blocks from a mat, so seedlings must be grown densely on a thin soil layer forming a mat. The roots interlock so the mat holds together when the fork cuts it.
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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