Optional
Agriculture
UPSC Civil Services Mains, optional subject
Syllabus
Paper I
- 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.
- Green house 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 green house gas emission.
- Soil conservation, integrated watershed management.
- Soil erosion and its management.
- Dry land agriculture and its problems.
- Technology for stabilising agriculture production in rain fed 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 co-operatives 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.
Paper II
- 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, center of origin, law of homologous series, crop genetic resources—conservation and utilization.
- 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 foodgrains, per capita expenditure on food.
- Trends in poverty, Public Distribution System and Below Poverty Line population, Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS), policy implementation in context to globalization.
- 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.
Syllabus as published by UPSC in the Civil Services Examination 2026 notification.