Rajasthan PSC — Assistant Agriculture Engineer (Agriculture Engineering syllabus) · India · Rajasthan Public Service Commission
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersPlanning a whole watershed: delineating it, classifying its land, budgeting its water and choosing harvesting structures with the people who live there.
In the exams: GATE AG Section 4 Watershed Management; ICAR AIEEA-PG Unit VII; ICAR AICE subject 40 Unit 6; TNPSC Unit III; RPSC AAE Unit 2
How our questions for Rajasthan PSC spread across the units of Watershed Planning & Management. Difficulty: 14 easy, 10 medium, 0 hard.
| National watershed programmes | 5 | |
| Land capability classification | 4 | |
| Water budgeting | 3 | |
| Participatory watershed planning | 3 | |
| Watershed delineation | 2 | |
| Rainwater harvesting: check dams, percolation tanks and farm ponds | 2 | |
| Roof-top rainwater harvesting | 2 | |
| Watershed characterisation and morphometry | 1 | |
| Land irrigability classification | 1 | |
| Cost-benefit analysis of watershed projects | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
On a land capability map, a mapping unit labelled 'IIIe' means:
A. cultivable land with severe limitations, erosion hazard being the dominant one
Class III is arable but has severe limitations that reduce the choice of crops or need special conservation practices; the subclass e shows that erosion hazard is the dominant limitation. Moderate limitations define class II, and w would denote wetness.
Further reading: Klingebiel and Montgomery, USDA Agriculture Handbook 210 (1961)
Which of the following is a good site characteristic for a check dam on a drainage line?
D. A narrow, well-defined channel with stable high banks and a gentle bed slope upstream
A narrow section keeps the structure short and cheap; stable banks prevent outflanking; a gentle bed slope makes the stored pool extend far upstream; and nearby users make use of the stored water and recharge. Steep beds give short pools and wide channels need long, costly structures.
Where roof water is used to recharge groundwater through a recharge pit or borewell, the essential precaution is to:
B. pass the water through a filter and keep the structure away from septic tanks, soak pits and polluted runoff
Recharge structures deliver water directly to the aquifer, so silt and contaminants must be kept out: filter media (boulders, gravel, sand) and distance from pollution sources are essential. Very shallow water tables leave no room for recharge and increase waterlogging risk.
Further reading: IS 15797 Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting — Guidelines
In Indian watershed projects, 'entry point activities' are:
A. small works of immediate, visible benefit to the whole community, done early to build trust
Entry point activities in the preparatory phase, such as repairing a drinking-water source, show that the project responds to villagers' priorities and build trust before bigger decisions about land and grazing are made. Hand-over happens in the consolidation and withdrawal phase.
Further reading: Government of India, Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects (2008, revised 2011)
Why do most watershed programmes require beneficiaries to contribute part of the cost of works on private land?
C. It tests genuine demand and builds a fund and a sense of ownership for maintenance after the project
Contribution in cash or labour signals that farmers want the work, and the collected money commonly goes into a watershed development fund for later maintenance. Programmes set lower rates for small and marginal and disadvantaged farmers precisely so the poor are not excluded.
Further reading: Government of India, Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects (2008, revised 2011)
In India, a very large share of water conservation and harvesting works in villages, such as farm ponds, check dams and desilting of tanks, is also carried out under:
B. the rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGS)
Water conservation and harvesting are among the permissible works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which combines wage employment with asset creation. The other programmes deal with roads, urban areas and railways.
Ten here, 24 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to Rajasthan PSC 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.
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.