Suggested Strategy for Agriculture
Paper I
Paper I basically focuses on farm practices and basic foundation of agriculture. Topics should be prepared in adequate length. Expression should be simple, application oriented and should consist of flowcharts as and when it's required. Farm practices must correspond to the Indian situation. Students should ensure that they should focus on sustainability and economic dimensions of any method. Some examples must correspond to recently debated issues in different areas. Agricultural marketing, pricing etc must have latest data taken from Government of India reports such as economic survey and ministry of agriculture's annual report.Paper II
Students who have opted for agriculture with botany need not prepare cell biology, genetics, biotechnology, plant breed, plant biochemistry and physiology separately. These topics are already covered in botany. There should be emphasis on agricultural application as well. Ideal books would be Plant Breeding by B D Singh and Plant Physiology by Jain.Horticulture and Plant Pathology and Food Production only need to be covered separately. Students should always focus on India-specific examples and commercial aspect while writing about agriculture and any plant disease. For example, mention the loss in many terms due to a particular crop disease. Overlap with GS will be in areas like ecology and environment, food security, crop productivity, agricultural economics and sustainable agriculture.
