Which of the following represents the correct sequence of agricultural practices?
- (a)Soil preparation – Irrigation – Sowing – Harvesting
- (b)Soil preparation – Sowing – Irrigation – Harvesting
- (c)Sowing – Harvesting – Irrigation – Preparing the soil
- (d)Preparing the soil – Irrigation – Harvesting – Sowing
Correct — B, Soil preparation – Sowing – Irrigation – Harvesting. Crop production follows a fixed dependency chain: the field is first ploughed/tilled into a fine, weed-free tilth (soil preparation); seed is then placed into this prepared soil (sowing); the sown field is watered to support germination and growth (irrigation); and only once the crop has matured is it cut and gathered (harvesting).
- (a)Soil preparation – Irrigation – Sowing – Harvesting — Irrigation is placed before sowing here, but in the standard taught cycle a field is irrigated after the seed is sown, to support germination — not as a step that comes before sowing.
- (c)Sowing – Harvesting – Irrigation – Preparing the soil — This reverses almost the entire cycle — harvesting a crop that hasn't yet been irrigated or grown, and preparing the soil last, are both impossible in practice.
- (d)Preparing the soil – Irrigation – Harvesting – Sowing — Harvesting is placed before sowing, which cannot happen — a crop must be sown and allowed to grow before it can be harvested.
Agricultural operations follow a fixed order because each step is a physical precondition for the next: soil must be worked before seed can be placed in it, seed must be sown before the field needs watering for germination and growth, and the crop must grow to maturity before it can be cut and gathered. This basic four-step cycle — soil preparation, sowing, irrigation, harvesting — underlies most crop-production questions in GS.
Sequence questions like this test whether a student can spot an impossible or reversed step rather than recalling a fact. The safest method is to ask, for each option, 'does this step require the previous one to already be done?' — harvesting-before-sowing or irrigation-before-any-seed-exists both fail that test immediately.
- Soil preparation (ploughing/tilling) is always the first operation
- Sowing places seed into the prepared soil
- Irrigation after sowing supports germination and crop growth
- Harvesting — cutting and gathering the mature crop — is always the last step
Correct order: Soil preparation → Sowing → Irrigation → Harvesting — each step is a precondition for the next.
- Assuming irrigation must always precede sowing (pre-sowing moisture irrigation exists in practice but is not the sequence tested here)
- Reading long option strings too quickly and missing an out-of-order pair
Usually a plain four-step ordering MCQ, sometimes dressed up as a 'match the correct sequence' or numbered-statement arrangement question.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Tillage, the first operation in the agricultural cycle, primarily refers to:
- (a)Mechanical preparation of soil before sowing
- (b)Application of fertilizers after harvesting
- (c)Selective breeding of seed varieties
- (d)Storage of harvested grain
Answer(a) Mechanical preparation of soil before sowing — tillage means loosening/preparing the soil, the first step before sowing.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the standard crop-production cycle, which operation directly precedes harvesting?
- (a)Soil preparation
- (b)Sowing
- (c)Irrigation
- (d)Threshing
Answer(c) Irrigation — the crop is irrigated through its growth period right up to maturity, after which it is harvested (threshing follows harvesting, not the reverse).