RPSC Assistant Agriculture Officer (Rajasthan) 2021 screening · India · Rajasthan Public Service Commission
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)
How our questions for RPSC Assistant Agriculture Officer 2021 screening spread across the units of Agriculture & Food Systems (bridge). Difficulty: 38 easy, 57 medium, 29 hard.
| Major crops: rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeonpea, sugarcane, groundnut, tomato, mango | 17 | |
| Soils and NPK deficiency symptoms | 15 | |
| Livestock | 12 | |
| Pests and diseases of major crops | 11 | |
| Irrigation and drainage | 10 | |
| Post-harvest handling | 10 | |
| Horticulture | 9 | |
| Basics of veterinary science | 9 | |
| Farm machinery and energy | 9 | |
| Organisational set-up of agricultural research, education and extension | 9 | |
| Watershed management | 7 | |
| Forestry | 6 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
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
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
Subsurface drainage of waterlogged saline land is usually done with
C. perforated pipes buried in the field below the root zone
Subsurface drains, perforated pipes laid at depth and sloped to an outlet, lower the water table and carry leached salts away. Open surface drains remove surface water only, tree rows (bio-drainage) are a supplementary measure, and extra irrigation without drains worsens waterlogging.
Further reading: FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 61
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
In India the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) coordinates public extension at which level?
C. District
ATMA is a district-level society linking line departments, research (KVKs) and farmer groups for demand-driven extension, with block-level teams below it. It is not a national or village body.
Further reading: Ministry of Agriculture, ATMA guidelines
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