NABARD Assistant Manager In Grade-A Horticulture Plantation Syllabus

NATIONAL BANK FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

SYLLABUS FOR THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF ASSISTANT MANAGERS IN GRADE ‘A’ HORTICULTURE / PLANTATION

(THE SYLLABUS IS ILLUSTRATIVE AND NOT EXHAUSTIVE)

I.Fruit & Plantation Crops :

Fruit and plantation crops industry in India, its status and potentialities. Agroclimatic distribution of different crops. Methods of propagation; mist propagation and other advances made in clonal propagation amd micro propagation (tissue culture), physiological basis of root initiation and rooting co-factors. Rootstocks for different crops and rootstock scion incompatibility. Use of plant growth regulators, retardants, inhibitor and their role in setting, growth, developmente and maturity of fruits. Orchard management practices; water management, drip irrigation, training and pruning, fruit thinning and fruit drop; dormancy of seeds and buds, chilling requirement, intercrops and cropping system.

Cultivation of important fruits such as apple, walnut, mango, citrus, grape, guava, pineapple, banana, ber, pomegranate and papaya and plantation crops like coconut, arecanut, cashewnut, pepper and cardamom; new selections, varieties or hybrids developed major production problems faced, improved production technology evolved through research in these crops.

Review of the present status of chronic production problems like mango malformation, alternate bearing, spongy tissue in mango, citrus decline, guava wilt, coconut root wilt, quick wilt of pepper, ‘Katte disease of cardamom etc., and success achieved through research.

II.Fruit and Vegetable Technology :

Importance of ost harvest technology for fruit and vegetable preservation; causes of spoilage of fresh and processed products. Principles and methods of preservation like canning, dehydration, freezing, fermentation, freeze drying. Physiology of storage, problems and importance, different storage methods and their principles.

III.Vegetables :

Vegetable industry in India, nutritive value of vegetables, climatic requirement. Nursery management, major cultivation problems, mulching, weed control, harvesting, transport and marketing vegetable seed production, seed viability and purity. Cultivation and breeding for improvement of important vegetable crops like cole crops, potato and other tuber crops,

solanaceous vegetables, root crops, leafy vegetables, cucurbits, beans, peas, onion. Production of F1 hybrids, male sterility, heterosis, breeding.

IV : Floriculture and landscape gardening

History of gardens in India. Theory and principles of landscape gardening, different types and styles of gardening. Propagation and care of ornamental shade and flowering trees and annuals, herbaceous perennials and shrubs of different seasons. Ornamental foliage plants and indoor gardening. Cultivation, handling and marketing of orchid, roses, gladiolus, chrysanthemum, jasmine and tuberose. Technique of raising Bonsai

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