OPSC Assistant Soil Conservation Officer Exam Syllabus

OPSC Assistant Soil Conservation Officer Exam Syllabus

Paper I –
Unit I – General Agriculture (20 Marks)
Importance, Trend in agriculture and allied sectors, Present day problems and remedial measures, Government Polices
Unit II -Natural Resources (20 Marks)
Land, Water, Forest, Energy – their use, exploitation, conservation, equitable use of resources for sustainable lifestyle; Plant Ecosystem; Biodiversity and its conservation; Evnironmental Pollution; Natural Disasters and their Management; Organic farming and Sustainable agriculture; Conservation agriculture; Agricultural waste management; Climate change and agriculture.

Unit III – (20 Marks)
Soil forming processes; Soil physical properties – texture, structure, density and porosity; Soil water retention, movement and availability; Soil reaction – pH, soil acidity and alkalinity; Soil organic matter, influence on soil properties and soil fertility; Soil pollution, behaviour of pesticides and inorganic contaminants, prevention and mitigtion of soil pollution; Soil quality and health.

Unit IV (20 Marks)
Weather and crop growth; Tillage and tilth; Seed and sowing; Cropping systems and Integrated farming systems; Crop nutrition-essential nutrients – their functions and deficiency symptoms in plants; Nutrient sources-organic manures-fertilizers-biofertilizers-Integrated Nutrient Management; Water and weed management in field, horticulture and plantation crops; plant protection; Harvesting, storage and value addition.

Unit V (20 Marks)
Economic importance, production and protection technology of important field crops-rice, maize, finger millet, pulses and oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane, potato; Importance and scope of furit and plantation crops – production and protection technologies for the cultivation of furit and plantation crops – mango, banana, citrus, guava, litchi, papaya, pineapple, pomegrante, jackfruit, coconut, areca nut, cashew, tea, coffee, rubber; Nursery techniques and their management; Nutrition garden.

Paper II

Unit VI (20 Marks)
Agroforestry – objectives and potential; Agroforestry system – sub-system and practice. Planning for agroforestry-constraints, diagnosis and design methodology, selection of tree crop species for agro-forestry; Agro frestry for food, feed, fuel and nutritional security, soil improvement-carbon sequestration, microclimate amelioration, industrial requirement; Ecotourism-concept and importance in Indian perspectives.

Unit VII (20 Marks)
Rainfed Agriculture : problems and prospects; Rainfall analysis; Drought-classification, causes and impacts, drought management strategy; Crops and cropping systems, soil moisture and rain water conservation-in-situ and ex-situ storage, water harvesting and recycling, contigent crop planning under aberrant weather conditions, dryland horticulture; Watershed planning based on land capability classes and hydrologic data, watershed delineation andprioritization; Water budgeting in a watershed; Integrated watershed management-concept, objectives components, arable lands- agriculture and horticulture, non-arable lands- forestry, fishery and animal husbandry; Watershed programme – execution, follow-up practices, maintenance, monitoring and evaluation; Participatory watershed management – role of watershed associations, user groups and self-help groups; Planning and formulation of project proposal for watershed management programme including cost-benefit analysis.

Unit VIII (20 Marks)
Soil and Water conservation – issues and importance; Causes and agents of soil erosion; Water erosion; Hydrologic cycle, precipitation and its forms, Runoff estimation, Forms of water erosion. Gully classification and control measures. Principles of erosion control : Introduction to contouring, strip cropping, contour bund, graded bund and bench terracing, grassed water ways and teir design; Water harvesting-principles, importance and techniques : Runoff harvesting-short-term and long-term techniques; Water harvesting structures – farm ponds-percolation pond-dug-out and embankment reservoir types, tanks and subsurface dykes; Wind erosion : mechanics of wind erosion, types of soil movement; Principles of wind erosion control and its control measures.

Unit IX (20 Marks)
Wasteland-causes, distribution and sustainable wasteland development- Government policies, Participatory approach; Soil conservation structures, Afforestation, Shifting cultivation, Optimal land use options; Reclamation of Saline, Sodic, Acid, Waterlogged, Eroded, Compacted, Flooded, Polluted soils and Mine spoils; Desertification – impact and causes, prevention and control measures; Bio remediation of soils through multipurpose tree species; Remote sensing and GIS in diagnosis and management of problem soils; Land capability and land suitablility classification.

Unit X (20 Marks)
Protected cultivation : Importance and scope, controlled conditions, method of techniques, canopy management, Irrigation and fertigation, liquid fertilisers and their solubility and compatibility, insect pest and disease mangement; Production of quality planting materials, cultivation of high value crops and off-season production in green houses; Components of precision farming : Remote sensing, Geographical Information System (GIS), Differential Geo-positioning System (DGPS), Variable Rate applicator (VRA), application of precision farming in agriculture.