Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers Licensure Examination (ABELE) · Philippines · Professional Regulatory Board of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, PRC
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
How our questions for Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers Licensure Examination spread across the units of Farm Machinery & Equipment I — Tillage, Sowing, Planting, Fertiliser. Difficulty: 16 easy, 20 medium, 5 hard.
| Cost analysis of implements | 5 | |
| Forces on tillage tools, draft and hitching | 4 | |
| Paddy and vegetable transplanters | 4 | |
| Field capacity and field efficiency | 4 | |
| Mouldboard plough | 3 | |
| Seed drills and planters | 3 | |
| Fertiliser distributors | 3 | |
| Objectives and types of tillage | 2 | |
| Disc plough | 2 | |
| Chisel plough and subsoiler | 2 | |
| Harrows, cultivators and rotavators | 2 | |
| Furrow geometry | 2 | |
| Furrow openers | 2 | |
| Calibration of seed drills | 2 | |
| Seed-metering mechanisms: fluted roller, cup, plate and pneumatic | 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.
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.
Which disc harrow has one front gang and one rear gang placed to one side of the tractor centre line?
B. Offset disc harrow
The offset harrow's two gangs work in opposite directions and are offset laterally, letting it work under tree branches. Single-action has two gangs end to end; tandem has four gangs.
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 spinning-disc fertiliser broadcaster distributes granules by
B. throwing them with vanes on a rotating disc
Centrifugal broadcasters throw granules from vaned discs. Drop spreaders use openings along the hopper and pneumatic spreaders use a boom.
How many hours will a machine with an effective field capacity of 0.6 ha/h take to cover 60 ha?
C. 100 h
Time = area/EFC = 60/0.6 = 100 h. 36 comes from multiplying the numbers. 10 h reads 0.6 ha/h as 6 ha/h; 0.01 h inverts the ratio.
A calibrated drill sows 12 % more seed per hectare in the field than in the stationary test. Which explanation is most consistent?
A. The drive wheel turns more per metre than assumed (less skid, smaller rolling radius) or vibration raises flow
More seed per area means more meter turns per metre or more flow per turn: a smaller effective rolling radius from sinkage, less skid than assumed, or vibration. A field check over a measured run reveals it.
On a mounted plough, the fore-and-aft level (so front and rear bottoms cut the same depth) is set with the
B. top link
Lengthening or shortening the top link pitches the plough; the lift rod levels it sideways; check chains control sway.
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