ICAR AIEEA-PG (Master's admission and PG scholarship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe farm science an agribusiness manager must know: crops, soils, pests, horticulture, livestock, irrigation and post-harvest. Agribusiness master's entrance syllabi draw roughly a fifth to a quarter of their questions from this ground.
In the exams: agricultural master's entrance examinations, agribusiness, about 20–25% of the paper (heavy); agricultural master's entrance examinations, agricultural economics (present); agricultural development bank officer recruitment, agriculture and rural development (heavy); professional-knowledge papers in agricultural field officer recruitment in banking (heavy)
ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 19 (Agri-Business Management), Units I-IV
About a fifth to a quarter of the paper: crop botany and seasons, fertiliser grades and deficiency symptoms, major pests and diseases, horticultural propagation and climacteric fruits, livestock breeds and gestation periods, common animal diseases, irrigation methods, ICAR and CGIAR institutions. Mostly one-line recall plus simple arithmetic.
ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 06 (Social Sciences), Unit I
Basic agriculture and biology as the foundation for economics and extension: crops, soils, agro-climatic zones, organisational set-up of research and extension.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA-PG spread across the units of Agriculture & Food Systems (bridge). Difficulty: 28 easy, 45 medium, 31 hard.
| Major crops: rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeonpea, sugarcane, groundnut, tomato, mango | 14 | |
| Importance of agriculture in the national economy | 11 | |
| Soils and NPK deficiency symptoms | 10 | |
| Food and nutrition | 10 | |
| Pests and diseases of major crops | 8 | |
| Horticulture | 7 | |
| Post-harvest handling | 7 | |
| Organisational set-up of agricultural research, education and extension | 7 | |
| Livestock | 6 | |
| Watershed management | 6 | |
| Forestry | 5 | |
| Farm machinery and energy | 5 | |
| Irrigation and drainage | 5 | |
| Basics of veterinary science | 3 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
IR8, released by the International Rice Research Institute in 1966, is remembered because it
B. was the semi-dwarf rice that launched the Green Revolution in rice
IR8 was a high-yielding semi-dwarf variety that responded to fertiliser without lodging and spread rapidly across Asia. Hybrid rice was developed in China in the 1970s, and beta-carotene 'golden rice' is a much later transgenic development.
Further reading: IRRI history
Long-duration pigeonpea is commonly intercropped with sorghum or pearl millet mainly because
C. pigeonpea grows slowly early on, so the cereal matures before competition peaks
Pigeonpea's slow early growth and long duration leave space and time for a faster cereal, which is harvested before the pigeonpea canopy closes; the deep-rooted legume then uses deeper moisture. Nodulation does not need a companion crop, and shared shallow rooting would increase competition, not reduce it.
Further reading: ICRISAT pigeonpea production guides
Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) in irrigated rice is promoted because it
A. saves water and cuts methane emissions while keeping yields close to continuous flooding
In AWD the field is allowed to dry until the water table falls a set depth below the surface before re-flooding. Aerobic periods suppress methane-producing microbes and reduce water use, and well-managed AWD keeps yields close to continuous flooding. It does not remove the need for nitrogen or replace transplanting.
Further reading: IRRI, Alternate Wetting and Drying
Khaira disease of rice, with rusty-brown patches on older leaves and stunted growth on alkaline soils, is caused by
C. zinc deficiency
Khaira is the name given in India to zinc deficiency in rice; it was first diagnosed at Pantnagar and is corrected with zinc sulphate. Iron toxicity causes bronzing on acid soils, and bacterial leaf blight is an infectious disease, not a nutritional disorder.
Further reading: Tisdale et al., Soil Fertility and Fertilizers
Poplar trees grown in rows with wheat on the same field in north-west India are an example of
D. agrisilviculture
Agrisilviculture combines trees with field crops. Silvopastoral systems combine trees with pasture and grazing animals, agrosilvopastoral systems combine all three, and social forestry means tree planting on public and community land for local needs.
Further reading: Nair, An Introduction to Agroforestry
The 'true stomach' of a ruminant, which secretes acid and digestive enzymes, is the
B. abomasum
The abomasum is the glandular stomach equivalent to the monogastric stomach. The rumen and reticulum are fermentation chambers, and the omasum absorbs water and nutrients from digesta.
Further reading: ICAR Handbook of Animal Husbandry
In the Universal Soil Loss Equation, A = R x K x LS x C x P, the factor C stands for
D. cover and management
C is the cover-management factor, reflecting crop canopy, residue and tillage. Rainfall erosivity is R, soil erodibility (related to texture) is K, and supporting practices such as contouring and terracing are P.
Further reading: Wischmeier and Smith, USDA Agriculture Handbook 537
A supermarket stores bananas at 4 °C to extend shelf life, and the peel turns dull and brown. The most likely cause is
B. chilling injury, because tropical fruits are damaged by low temperatures
Bananas and many tropical fruits suffer chilling injury below about 12 to 13 °C: peel browning, failure to ripen and loss of flavour. They are not frozen at 4 °C, and the symptoms are physiological, not caused by lack of ethylene or by fungi.
Further reading: Kader, Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
The HACCP system ensures food safety by
B. identifying hazards and controlling them at critical control points in the process
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a preventive system with seven principles: hazard analysis, critical control points, critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification and record keeping. End-of-line testing alone is the reactive approach HACCP replaced.
Further reading: Codex Alimentarius, General Principles of Food Hygiene
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a CGIAR centre founded in 1960, is located in
D. Los Baños, Philippines
IRRI is at Los Baños in the Philippines. ICRISAT is at Patancheru near Hyderabad, IITA at Ibadan and CIMMYT near Texcoco in Mexico.
Further reading: CGIAR
Ten here, 104 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AIEEA-PG 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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