OPSC Assistant Agriculture Engineer Syllabus and Exam Pattern 2023 - Download PDF Here!

S.No.

Subjects

Syllabus

Paper 1

• General Engineering 

Computer Programming and Data Structures 

• Data types, variables, operators, building and evaluating expressions, standard library functions
• Managing input and output, decision making
• Branching, looping, arrays and string functions
• Structures and unions, queues, insertion and deletion operations

Workshop practice and workshop technology 

• Measuring tools
• Welding, lathe, shaper, drilling, milling machines- their types, components, specifications, tools and functions.

Applied Electronics and Instrumentation 

• Diode, transistors, logic circuits
• Generalized instrumentation 
• Measurement of displacement, temperature, velocity, pressure and force
• Transducer types and applications, strain gauge 

Common Statistical data on agriculture 

• Statistics on Agriculture (Odisha & India) 
• Land distribution pattern, land use, landholding sizes, major crops, their production and productivity 
• Farm power and availability, agriculture workers and draft animals, sale and population of tractors, power tillers and pump sets and implements
• Water resource availability, irrigation potential 

Units and dimensions 

• Units and measurements, Fundamental and derived units. Relation between different units of measurement 
• Dimensional analysis 

Surveying and levelling 

• Linear measurements 
• Types of survey and their applications, estimation of errors in measurements
• Levelling and contouring 

Building construction and estimation 

• Building materials, building design and construction, agricultural structures, lead and material statement, Building codes
• Estimates of buildings and agricultural structures 

Design and maintenance of Greenhouse 

• Types of greenhouse, its components, site selection, design criteria and construction, applications, repair and maintenance 

2. Farm Machinery and Power 

Farm Machinery 

• Need of farm mechanization, classification of farm implementations and their suitability
• Seedbed preparation machineries- MB plough, disc plough, subsoilers, cultivators, rotavators, harrows, puddlers: their types, components, functions and adjustments. Forces acting on tillage tools, hitching systems and controls, draft measurement
• Seeding and planting equipment, their types, parts, functions and adjustments. Metering mechanisms for small and bold seeds, calibration. Rice transplanter- types, components, functions and seedling raising techniques 
• Fertilizer application equipment, weeders, plant protection equipment- sprayers, and dusters, their calibration, component and adjustment 
• Principle and types of cutting mechanisms, crop harvesting machinery- reapers, reaper binders, and combine harvesters, mowers and chaff cutters. 
• Threshers- types, components, functions and principles of threshing. Cotton pickers, sugarcane harvester, potato digger, groundnut digger cum shaker, fruit harvesting tools and machines. 
• Testing of farm machines, test codes and procedure

Farm power 

• Sources of farm power. Classification of tractors and IC engines. Engine components and their construction, function and adjustment
• Engine systems- valves, fuel and air supply, governing ignition, cooling, lubrication and electrical system 
• IC engine and fuels and lubricants- their properties. Detonation and knocking. 

Tractor systems and controls

• Transmission systems- clutch, gearbox, differential and final drive. Brake, steering and hydraulic system, P.T.O. shaft, belt, pulley and drawbar. 
• Mechanics of tractor chassis, determination of C.G. of tractor, overturning of tractor, weight transfer 
• Tractor maintenance and troubleshooting 

Farm power and machinery management 

• Role of farm mechanization in increasing production and productivity and reducing drudgery. Index of farm mechanization. 
• Performance analysis- machine performance, capacity, field pattern, time efficiency, field efficiency, power analysis. 
• Cost analysis of farm machines. Break-even analysis, method of finding break-even hour and area of machines. 

Human engineering and safety 

• Importance of human engineering in design of farm machinery and workspace. 
• Ergonomic parameters of evaluation of workers. Anthropometry and its use in machine design. Effect of noise and heat in operator's efficiency. 
• Safety aspects of tractors and farm machinery; safety measures and prevention of accidents. 

Precision agriculture 

• Concepts of precision agriculture- requirements and applications in agricultural production system. 

Renewable energy engineering 

• Biomass conversion technology- types of biogas plants, design and construction and their defects, gasifier technology. 
• Solar energy fundamentals, solar photovoltaic (PV) system, solar thermal system. 
• Wind energy conversion system, its applications and limitations. 

Systems engineering 

• System concepts, linear programming, formulation and application, Simplex method, Big M method 
• Transportation and assignment problems
• Project management by PERT/CPM
• Waiting line theory

Paper 2 

• Agriculture Processing and Food Engineering 

Engineering Properties of Food Materials

• Importance of engineering properties of biological materials 
• Physical, thermal, frictional and aerodynamic characteristics of grain, fruit and vegetables. 

Grain processing 

• Cleaning and grading of food grains: Aspiration, scalping, size separators, screens, sieve analysis, capacity and effectiveness of screens. 
• Size reduction: Principle, different laws of size reduction and machineries. 
• Milling of rice: Conditioning and para boiling, advantages and disadvantages, traditional methods, CFTRI and Jadavpur methods of parboiling, pressure para boiling and types of rice milling. 
• Milling of wheat and corn: Unit operations and equipment of wheat milling, milling of corn and its products. 
• Milling of pulses: Traditional milling, commercial milling, dry milling and wet milling. 
• Milling of oilseeds: Preconditioning of oil seeds, mechanical expression, solvent extraction methods, etc. 
• Material handling equipment: Types of conveyors, elevators, trucks. Pneumatic conveying. 

Drying and Storage of crops

• Drying: Moisture content and water activity, isotherm and hysteresis effect, EMC determination, psychrometric chart and its use in drying, drying principles and theory, thin layer and deep bed drying analysis, mass and energy balance, Shedd's equation, different methods of drying, different types of grain dryers, dryer performance. 
• Storage of food grains: Basics of Storage, functional requirement of storage types and causes of spoilage respiration of grains, moisture and temperature changes. Control measures of storage environment; Ventilation/Aeration; symptoms, damages, control measures of destructive agents like rodents, birds, insects and microbes; bag and bulk storage, traditional storage structures, improved and modern storage system, Shallow and deep bin/silo, Rankine, Janssen and Airy's equation, storage of seeds. 

Horticultural Produce Processing 

• Fruits and vegetables processing, cleaning, sorting, grading, juice extractors, mechanical filtration, frame filter press, bag filter, shell and leaf filter, different types of dryers for fruits and vegetables
• Storage of fruits and vegetables, evaporatively cooled storage structures, refrigerated storage, calculation of refrigeration load, sizing and economics of cold storage, modified and controlled atmospheric storage, advantages of CAS/MAP, active and passive MAP, different types of active agents for controlling OXYGEN, CO2 and ethylene in package, shrink and cling packaging, vacuum and gas packaging, smart packaging
• Thermal processing, thermal death time, D and Z value, process time, thermal processing equipment
• Evaporation, objectives of evaporation, basic components of evaporators, different types of evaporators, multiple-effect evaporator, mass and energy balance in evaporation 
• Freeing: Freezing time, freezing curve, different types of freezing equipment 
• Food Laws, food laws and regulations in India FSSAI, food standards, standards and specifications, Codex Alimentarius Standards, International standards organisation

2. Soil and Water Conservation Engineering 

Fluid Mechanics 

• Properties of fluids
• Pressure and its measurements, pascal's law, pressure forces, the centre of pressure and buoyancy, metacentre and metacentric height
• Kinematics of fluid flow
• Dynamics of fluid flow, flow in pipes, power transmission through pipe
• Dimensional analysis 

Irrigation engineering 

• Major, medium and minor irrigation projects 
• Sources of irrigation water, water conveyance, measurement of irrigation water
• Land grading, different design methods, estimation of earthwork and cost
• Soil water plant relationship, infiltration, evapotranspiration, soil moisture constants, depth of irrigation, frequency of irrigation, irrigation efficiency 
• Surface irrigation methods of water application 
• Basic concepts of command area- definition, need, scope and development authorities, planning and execution of on-farm development activities, within the scope of command area development, design of field channels, cross drainage works. 

Drainage engineering 

• Drainage, objectives of drainage, surface drainage, drainage coefficient, types of surface drainage. 
• Sub-surface drainage purpose and benefits, investigation of design parameters, hydraulic conductivity, drainage porosity, water table, etc. 
• Design of sub-surface drains, interceptor and relief drains, derivation of the ellipse (Hooghoudt) and Ernst's drain spacing equations. 
• Design of surface drainage systems, drainage materials, drainage pipes, drain envelope, layout construction and installation of drains, drainage structures 
• Salt Balance, reclamation of saline and alkaline salts, leaching requirements 

Groundwater, wells and pumps

• Occurrence and movement of groundwater, aquifer and its types, classification of wells
• Well hydraulics and well interference, multiple well systems, design of open well
• Tubewell design, design of gravel pack, well screen, sanitary protection, methods of drilling of wells
• Quality of groundwater, conjunctive use, artificial groundwater recharge planning 
• Pumping systems, water lifting devices, classification of pumps, parts of centrifugal pumps, pump selection, installation and troubleshooting, performance curve 

Hydrology 

• Introduction, hydrologic cycle, precipitation forms, rainfall measurements, mean fain fall, depth and frequency analysis of point rainfall 
• Geomorphology of watersheds
• Runoff- factors affecting, measurement; stage and velocity, rational method, curve number method, hydrograph 
• Headwater flood control methods, retards, and their location
• Flood routing- graphical methods of reservoir flood routing 

Soil, Water Conservation Engineering and watershed management 

• Soil erosion- causes, types and agents of soil erosion; gullies and their classification, stages of gully development 
• Erosion control measures- agronomical measures; engineering measures, terraces- types, their design, layout procedures and planning, bunds and their design; temporary and permanent gully control structures. 
• Wind erosion- types and control measures 
• Sedimentation in reservoirs and streams, estimation, measurement and control measures, introduction to stream water quality and pollution 
• Land use capability classification 
• Grassed waterways and designs
• Introduction to water harvesting techniques 
• Small earth embankments - their types and design principles, farm ponds, and reservoirs and cost estimation structures 
• Watershed management- problems and prospects, watershed-based land use planning, watershed characteristics- physical and geomorphologic parameters, factors affecting watershed management, planning and formulation of project proposal 

Subject

Questions

Marks

Duration

Paper 1

General Engineering 

30

30

2 hours

Farm Machinery and Power 

70

70

Paper 2 

Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering 

35

35

2 hours 

Soil and Water Conservation Engineering 

65

65

Total

200

200

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S.no.

Name of the Book

Author/Publisher

Description

1

Study guide for General Engineering paperback

GK Publications

This book will help you to cover important topics for general engineering. 

2

Assistant Engineer General Engineering and General Studies Previous Years Solved Paper PT Guide Paperback

Er. Ashish Kumar Pathak

This book contains previous years question papers, which will be helpful for the preparation of exam. 

3.

Farm Machinery And Power Engineering – Useful for ICAR, SRF, JRF, CET, NET, and ARS Examinations

Manisha Sahu

This book contains all core information on farm engineering for the exam.

4.

Solved Numerical Problems in Food Process Engineering & Technology

Irfan Ahmad Ansari

This book will provide you with important concepts of food processing. 

5.

Agricultural Processing and Food Technology

Goyal & Kumari

This book is the latest in terms of information for the agricultural processing section in the exam.