Strategy to Prepare UPSC Agriculture Optional Subject 2024 – IAS Mains

Check out How to Prepare UPSC Agriculture Optional subject 2024 – Study Strategy. UPSC Mains Agriculture Optional subject Preparation Tips are provided here. UPSC Notification 2022 has released. Today we’ve provided Preparation strategy for UPSC Agriculture optional Paper (यूपीएससी कृषि वैकल्पिक विषय). UPSC has already announced the IAS / Civil Services Exam Dates. Before going to start the preparation strategy for UPSC, know UPSC Mains Syllabus. You can check Suggested Strategy for Agriculture optional for the UPSC IAS mains exam.

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How to Prepare UPSC Agriculture Optional Subject

Agriculture is highly scoring optional subjects in the UPSC IAS Mains Exam. The aspirants from the academic background in Agriculture, Botany, Zoology and allied fields can opt for this as their optional for the UPSC IAS Mains Exam. It will be difficult for any aspirants who do not have prior knowledge of Biology or agriculture. With the right approach, it is possible to clear this exam in the first attempt but don’t get depressed if you fail.

• know your UPSC Civil Services Exam syllabus
• Select Best Reference Books
• Prepare a Study plan
• Prepare own Preparation Notes
• Practice Previous Question Papers
• Practice few Mock Test Papers

Why agriculture optional?

• The syllabus of Agriculture optional for UPSC IAS Mains exam is short and aspirants can manage it easily.
• Paper-II of Agriculture optional is similar to Botany optional Paper II. So an aspirant from Botany background can also tackle this paper if they have a great understanding of the subject.
• Several topics of agriculture directly help in General Studies, especially in Economy and Geography.

UPSC Preparation Tips

UPSC Aspirants should follow exam tips to write the exam. Preparation tips are needed for any exam. UPSC exam should be conducted once in every year. Planning and hard work are very important to face any competitive exam. Below are some of the tips for preparation.

The Paper I of Agriculture Optional paper is which is like General studies Paper principally focuses on-farm practices and the basic foundation of agriculture. But Paper-II of Agriculture optional deals with the technical concepts such as Cell Theory, cell structure which is an eliminating factor if it is not covered thoroughly.

Step 1: Know UPSC Agriculture syllabus

In the previous article, we’ve provided UPSC Mains Agriculture Syllabus. You can check and find what are the applicable topics and chapter for UPSC IAS Mains Exam.

Check– UPSC Agriculture Syllabus 2024 – IAS Mains Optional Subjects

Step 2: Select Best Reference Books for UPSC Agriculture

To prepare the UPSC Agriculture Optional Subject, UPSC aspirants should prepare some reference books. We’ve already provided UPSC Reference Books for All optional papers. You can check our best-recommended books for the IAS exam at the given link below. The suggested books are included in optional and language Subjects.

Check – UPSC Mains Agriculture Reference Books

Recommended books for Agriculture:

• Plant Breeding Principles and Methods- B.D. Singh
• Fundamentals of Genetics- B.D. Singh
• Plant Physiology- V.K. Jain
• Introductory Soil Science- D.K. Das
• Economics of Farm Production and Management- Raju and Rao
• Principles of Agronomy-T.Y. Reddy and G.H.S. Reddi
• Plant pathology- P.D. Sharma
• Introduction to Horticulture- N Kumar

Step 3: Prepare a Study Plan

The study plan is very important for every exam preparation. It plays a key role in the success of getting a good score in the UPSC exam.  Prepare a study plan for the UPSC exam. Make a monthly plan, weekly plan and daily schedule to prepare UPSC Agriculture Optional Paper. Allot the time for exam preparation and set the time for playing, eating, watching TV, and studying.

Daily prepare a few hours and spend at least 8 hours for IAS exam preparation.

UPSC Agriculture Preparation Plan for 3 months

If you have 3 months of preparation time for the UPSC Mains exam, you can prepare 8-9 hours per day.

Step 4: Prepare UPSC Agriculture Important Topics

Agriculture Paper I Important Topics

Paper I basically focuses on on-farm practices and the basic foundation of agriculture. Topics should be prepared for inadequate length. The 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 the sustainability and economic dimensions of any method. Some examples must correspond to recently debated issues in different areas. Agricultural marketing, pricing, etc must have the latest data taken from the Government of India reports such as economic survey and ministry of agriculture’s annual report.

Agriculture Paper-II Important Topics

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 an emphasis on the 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 aspects while writing about agriculture and any plant disease. For example, mention the loss in many terms due to particular crop disease. Overlap with GS will be in areas like ecology and environment, food security, crop productivity, agricultural economics, and sustainable agriculture.

Final Step : Prepare UPSC Agriculture Previous Question Papers & Practice papers

Download UPSC Mains Agriculture Question Papers. We’ve provided UPSC mains Agriculture Previous Question papers for download in PDF format.

Click Here: UPSC Mains Agriculture Question Papers Download in pdf 

Who should opt for Agriculture?

Anyone who has an academic background in Agriculture, Life Sciences, Botany, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology, Zoology, Dairy, and other related fields.

Any aspirant with no prior knowledge of Biology should not opt for it. She may score well in Paper I which is like general studies but Paper-II becomes the eliminating factor if it is not covered exhaustively.

How much time does it take to prepare?

prepare UPSC agriculture: 4-5 months, if you study Agriculture 12-15 hours per week. This should be enough. Also, it depends on how much can you recall your graduation concepts.

Plant Breeding is the most conceptual, time taking and scoring part of the syllabus, while horticulture and pathology need your notes making and revising skill to retain the topic.

Ideally, aspirants need 4-5 months to complete the optional subject solely. Here we are giving the best suitable strategies for Agriculture optional for the UPSC IAS Mains Exam.

• Aspirants should have an exhaustive knowledge about the syllabus of Agriculture optional.
• Candidates should know the basic concept of agriculture to tackle Paper-II.
• Make short notes, flowchart and diagram will preparing. These short notes will help in revision time.
• Aspirants should guarantee that they are emphasizing sustainability and economic dimensions also.
• Aspirants opting for agriculture as their option should update the up-to-date data taken from the Government reports annual report of the ministry of agriculture and economic survey.
• The essential part of UPSC IAS Exam preparation is solving the previous year’s UPSC Mains questions papers. For Agriculture also aspirants should go through the Previous year question paper to extract an idea about exam patterns, trends, etc.

This article titled “How to Prepare UPSC Agriculture Optional subject 2024 – Study Strategy – Suggested by Toppers ” gives the detailed information about the tips for the preparation of the UPSC exam for all optional papers. Additional information like Reference books UPSC कृषि for UPSC Mains, IAS Previous question papers are also given above. Students should follow those tips and prepare well for the exam and download the links for more information about UPSC.