HPSC SDAO Syllabus and Exam Pattern 2023 Details Here!

Part

Syllabus 

A

• Ecology and its relevance to man, natural resources, their sustainable management and conservation
• Physical and social environment as factors of crop distribution and production
• Agro ecology; cropping pattern as indicators of environments
• Environmental pollution and associated hazards to crops, animals and humans
• Climate change-International conventions and global initiatives
• Greenhouse effect and global warming
• Advance tools for ecosystem analysis-Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• Cropping patterns in different agro-climatic zones of the country
• Impact of high-yielding and short-duration varieties on shifts in cropping patterns
• Concepts of various cropping, and farming systems
• Organic and Precision farming
• Package of practices for production of important cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fibres, sugar, commercial and fodder crops

• Important features, and scope of various types of forestry plantations such as social forestry, agro-forestry, and natural forests
• Propagation of forest plants
• Forest products
• Agro-forestry and value addition
• Conservation of forest flora and fauna

• Weeds, their characteristics, dissemination and association with various crops; their multiplications; cultural, biological, and chemical control of weeds

• Soil-physical, chemical and biological properties
• Processes and factors of soil formation
• Soils of India
• Mineral and organic constituents of soils and their role in maintaining soil productivity
• Essential plant nutrients and other beneficial elements in soils and plants
• Principles of soil fertility, soil testing and fertiliser recommendations, integrated nutrient management Biofertilizers
• Losses of nitrogen in soil, nitrogen-use efficiency in submerged rice soils, nitrogen fixation in soils
• Efficient phosphorus and potassium use
• Problem soils and their reclamation
• Soil factors affecting greenhouse gas emission

• Soil conservation, integrated watershed management
• Soil erosion and its management
• Dry land agriculture and its problems
• Technology for stabilising agriculture production in rainfed areas

• Water-use efficiency in relation to crop production, criteria for scheduling irrigations, ways and means of reducing run-off losses of irrigation water
• Rainwater harvesting
• Drip and sprinkler irrigation
• Drainage of water-logged soils, quality of irrigation water, effect of industrial effluents on soil and water pollution
• Irrigation projects in India

• Farm management, scope, importance and characteristics, farm planning
• Optimum resource use and budgeting
• Economics of different types of farming systems
• Marketing management strategies for development, market intelligence
• Price fluctuations and their cost; role of cooperatives in agricultural economy; types and systems of farming and factors affecting them
• Agricultural price policy
• Crop Insurance

• Agricultural extension, its importance and role, methods of evaluation of extension programmes, socio-economic survey and status of big, small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers
• Training programmes for extension workers
• Role of Krishi Vigyan Kendra's (KVK) in dissemination of Agricultural technologies
• Non-Government Organisation (NGO) and self-help group approach for rural development

B

• Cell structure, function and cell cycle
• Synthesis, structure and function of genetic material
• Laws of heredity
• Chromosome structure, chromosomal aberrations, linkage and cross-over, and their significance in recombination breeding
• Polyploidy, euploids and aneuploids
• Mutation-and their role in crop improvement
• Heritability, sterility and incompatibility, classification and their application in crop improvement
• Cytoplasmic inheritance, sex-linked, sex-influenced and sex-limited characters

• History of plant breeding
• Modes of reproduction, selfing and crossing techniques
• Origin, evolution and domestication of crop plants, centre of origin, law of homologous series, crop genetic resources-conservation and utilisation
• Application of principles of plant breeding, improvement of crop plants
• Molecular markers and their application in plant improvement
• Pure-line selection, pedigree, mass and recurrent selections, combining ability, its significance in plant breeding
• Heterosis and its exploitation
• Somatic hybridization
• Breeding for disease and pest resistance
• Role of interspecific and intergeneric hybridization
• Role of genetic engineering and biotechnology in crop improvement Genetically modified crop plants

• Seed production and processing technologies
• Seed certification, Seed testing and storage
• DNA finger printing and seed registration
• Role of public and private sectors in seed production, and marketing
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Issues, WTO issues and its impact on Agriculture

• Principles of Plant Physiology with reference to plant nutrition, absorption, translocation and metabolism of nutrients
• Soil-water-plant relationship

• Enzymes and plant pigments; photosynthesis-modern concepts and factors affecting the process, aerobic and anaerobic respiration; C3, C4 and CAM mechanisms
• Carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism
• Growth and development; photoperiodism and vernalization
• Plant growth substances and their role in crop production
• Physiology of seed development and germination; dormancy
• Stress physiology-draught, salt and water stress

• Major fruits, plantation crops, vegetables, spices and flower crops
• Package practices of major horticultural crops
• Protected cultivation and high tech horticulture
• Post-harvest technology, and value addition of fruits and vegetables
• Landscaping and commercial floriculture
• Medicinal and aromatic plants
• Role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition

• Diagnosis of pests and diseases of field crops, vegetables, orchard and plantation crops and their economic importance
• Classification of pests and diseases and their management
• Integrated pest and diseases management
• Storage pests and their management
• Biological control of pests and diseases
• Epidemiology and forecasting of major crop pests and diseases
• Plant quarantine measures
• Pesticides, their formulation and modes of action

• Food production and consumption trends in India
• Food security and growing population-vision 2020
• Reasons for grain surplus
• National and International food policies
• Production, procurement, distribution constraints
• Availability of food grains, per capita expenditure on food
• Trends in poverty, Public Distribution System and Below Poverty Line population, Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), policy implementation in context to globalisation
• Processing constraints
• Relation of food production to National Dietary Guidelines and food consumption pattern
• Food based dietary approaches to eliminate hunger
• Nutrient deficiency- Micro-nutrient deficiency: Protein Energy Malnutrition or Protein calorie Malnutrition (PEM or PCM), Micro nutrient deficiency and HRD in context of work capacity of women and children
• Food grain productivity and food security