Hindi - Himachal Pradesh

Weeds, their characteristics, association with various crops, their multiplication,cultural, biological, chemical and integrated management, herbicide selectivity and resistance.Processes and factors of soil formation. Taxonomic classification of Indian soils,mineral and organic constituents of soil and their role in maintaining soil health. Problem soils,extent and distribution in India and their reclamation. Essential plant nutrients and otherbeneficial elements in soils, their forms and factors affecting their availability, functions anddeficiency symptoms, nutrient recycling, symbiotic and non-symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Soilfertility evaluation techniques. Application of remote sensing in soil and water resource studies.Soil and water conservation techniques. Types of wind and water erosion.Erosion and run off processes and factors affecting them. Dry land and rain fed agriculture.Water use efficiency, conjunctive use of water, quality of irrigation water, criteriafor scheduling irrigations.Farm management, importance and principles, farm planning and budgeting.Integrated farming system, its role in sustainable production system.Extension and communication methods. Role of traditional and moderncommunication media in agricultural development. Procedure for development of agriculturalextension programme. Factors affecting adoption of farm innovations. Role of Krishi VigyanKendra’s and extension agents in agricultural development in India.PAPER-IIHeredity and variation, Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance, Cytoplasmic inheritance,Quantitative characters, Plant tissue culture – somaclonal variation, micropropagation andproducing cell cultures. Nucleic acid – its structure and types, restriction enzymes, cloningvectors and transformation. Polymerase chain reaction, DNA finger printing and IntellectualProperty Rights (IPR) issues.Origin and domestication of field crops. Morphology and patterns of variations invarieties and related species of important field crops, Causes and utilization of variations in cropimprovement.Application of the principles of plant breeding, methods of breeding of self andcross pollinated crops. Heterosis and its exploitation. Male sterility and self incompatibility,utilization of mutation and polyploidy in breeding.Seed and seed technology, important types of seeds and their production,processing and testing of seeds of crops and seed certification regulation.Climatic requirements and cultivation of major fruits plants, vegetable crops andflowers and their package of practices. Horticultural nursery management. Propagation ofcommercial fruits, vegetables and flowers through different methods. Protected cultivation ofhorticultural crops. Hi-tech horticulture, handling, post harvest marketing problems of fruits andvegetables, methods of preservation of important fruits and vegetable products, processingtechniques and equipments, Role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition, landscape andcommercial floriculture, including design and lay out of lawns and gardens. Medicinal andaromatic plants.Diseases and pests of fields, vegetable, orchard and plantation crops of India andstored grains; and their management. Classification of plant diseases and pests. Principles ofplant disease/pest control and factors affecting their outbreaks. Biological control of pests anddiseases. Integrated management of pests and diseases. Pesticides and their formulations plant