NABARD Grade A 2017 – Agriculture & Rural Development – Phase I & Phase II – Important Topics | Strategy | Free Mock Test

NABARD Grade ‘A’
& ‘B’ Phase 1 exams are going to be conducted in August 2017. The official
notification was released by NABARD recently and there’s been a change in the
exam pattern of the Phase 1 exam.

The weightage
given to the ARD and the ESI sections have increased from 25 marks to 40 marks.
Whereas the weightage of Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude sections have been
reduced from 40 marks to 20 marks and 30 marks to 20 marks, respectively.
However, rest of it remains the same.
This following
article contains preparation strategy for ARD in Phase 1 and 2 of the upcoming
NABARD Exams 2017.
Why study ARD?

Your work at
NABARD will primarily be related to the Agriculture and Rural Development
sector. Therefore, knowledge about the current happenings in this sector is
important. We suggest you follow news on various Government schemes,
sub-schemes, policies and statistical data related to Agriculture and Rural
Development. Questions in the Agriculture and Rural Development section are
broadly based on the schemes and policies implemented for the benefit of
Agriculture and for development of the Rural areas of the country.
Syllabus

The syllabus is
provided with the official notification which is available for access on the
NABARD website. However, to make it easier for you to do selective studying, we
have divided the topics into categories based on the analysis of the NABARD
2016 Exam.
Topics to study for ARD in Phase 1

In the
Agriculture & Rural Development section of the Phase 1 of NABARD 2016
Paper, more marks were allotted to the Agriculture part – 18 marks and less
marks to the Rural Development part – 7 marks.
A whopping 16
marks, out of the total 25 marks were allotted to questions based on current
affairs, while only 9 marks were allotted to the Static or theoretical part of
the Agriculture & Rural Development section of Phase 1 NABARD 2016 Exam.
Following are broadly the topics covered in the
Agriculture part of Phase 1:
  • Agriculture
  • Animal Husbandry
  • Ecology & Climate
  • Water Resource
  • Farm and Agriculture engineering
  • Plantation and Horticulture
  • Fisheries
  • Forestry
  • Agriculture extension
  • Soil and water
  • Miscellaneous

9 marks out of
18 marks were allotted to Agriculture were static questions and remaining 9
marks were allotted to questions based on current affairs. The static questions
were easier compared to questions based on current affairs and the questions
were from every unit (almost) of Phase 2 Agriculture Syllabus.
Following are broadly the topics covered in the Rural
Development part of Phase 1:
  • Rural Development Programs
  • Rural Housing
  • Swachh Bharat
  • Tribes – Rural Development
  • Rural Occupation Structure

From Rural
Development section, there were 7 questions, and all 7 of them were based on
the current affairs.

Topics to study for ARD Phase 2

The ARD Phase 2 syllabus can be divide into 12
categories as follows:

1. Present
scenario of Indian Agriculture, Present scenario of allied activities, Factors
of production in agriculture, Agriculture finance and marketing, Impact of
globalization on agriculture, Issues of food security, Concept and types of
farm management.
2. Branches of
agriculture, Agronomy – definition, meaning and scope, Classification of rops,
Factors affecting crop production and Agricultural climatic zones, Cropping
systems, Crops and weather, Seeds, Precision farming, Organic farming.
3. Types of
soil, Soil fertility, Soil erosion and conservation, watershed management.
4. Sources of
irrigation, Types of irrigation, Crops water requirement, Command area
development, Water conservation techniques.
5. Sources of
power on farm, Water harvesting structures, Agro processing. Storage – godowns,
bins, silos, etc.
6. Plantation
& Horticulture – Definition, meaning and branches, Post-harvest management,
supply chain management of P & H crops.
7. Role of
animals in Indian economy, Animal Husbandry methods, Classification of breeds
of cattle, Feeds and fodder classification, Poultry industry in India, Mixed
farming, Linkages between livestock/poultry and farming.
8. Importance of
fisheries in India, Aquaculture, Post-harvest technology, Freshwater, brackish
water and marine fisheries.
9. Silviculture,
Social forestry, Agro forestry, Join forest management, Forest policy and
legislation in India, State of Forest Report, Recent Development under MOEFCC.
10. Agricultural
extension- importance, role and methods, Role of KVKs – Krishi Vigyan Kendra
11. Ecology
& Environment, GHGs – concept & countries, Adaptation vs Mitigation,
Impact of climate change on agriculture and rural livelihood, Carbon credit, IPCC,
UNFCCC, COP meetings. Funding mechanisms, Initiatives by GOI-NAPCC, SAPCC,
INDC.
12. Rural areas
– concept and importance for India, Rural population – composition and trends,
Problems of rural labor, Issues in handlooms, PRIs – functions and working,
MGNREGA, NRLM, Ajeevika, Rural Drinking Water Programs, Swatch Bharat, Rural
housing, PURA, Other programs, Rural Credit System – Evolution and growth, Role
and functions of RBI, NABARD, SIDBI, etc.
Preparation Strategy

Does the change in exam pattern impact your strategy?

In short, yes.
The ESI, ARD, GK and Computer section together constitute 120 marks and
Quantitative Aptitude, English Language and Reasoning 80 marks. While the
former topics are mostly static and current affairs in nature and require less
time, the latter topics are based on mental ability, decision making and
problem-solving skills. Therefore, you should be aiming to secure maximum marks
in the theory section in less time and use the remaining time for the practical
sections (Quant, Reasoning, English).
Strategy for Agriculture & Rural Development
(ARD) section Phase 1
  • Focus on Schemes, Sub-schemes and policies launched by the
    Government for the welfare of Rural areas and Agriculture. A whopping 8
    questions were based on Schemes and sub-schemes on Agricultural & Rural
    Development
    alone; 4 from Rural development and 4 from Agriculture.
  • Know the full-form of schemes such as PMFBY, PMKSY, PMKKKY, etc. The
    questions in exam will have the abbreviations and not full-forms.
  • Agriculture & Rural Development Section of both Phase 1 and 2 of
    NABARD include questions that are based on figures, data and facts. They’re
    more in number in the Phase 2 exam specifically.
  • The Agriculture part of ARD has more static questions and not much
    in Rural part. This however doesn’t mean you should ignore the theoretical part
    of Rural Development. But you don’t need to spend too much time on theory part
    of Rural Development. The topics in Rural Development are more generic and
    topics in Agriculture are specific.
  • Total number of questions that were based on current affairs were
    more compared to total number of questions based on static knowledge. Current
    affairs: 16 marks, Static: 9 marks.
  • Therefore, we suggest you focus more on current affairs. The
    questions are pretty straight forward and are based on the data, facts and
    figures of programs, policies and schemes.
  • The questions (both current
    affairs based and theory based
    ) were asked from the topics from Phase 2
    syllabus of ARD. Therefore, one must cover the syllabus of Phase 2 for the
    Phase 1 exam.

Strategy for Agriculture & Rural Development
(ARD) section Phase 2
In phase 2,
there were very few questions based on core agriculture in ARD section. The
maximum questions were from current
affairs
. Therefore, we suggest you cover current affairs on topics in ARD
from the following sources:
  • Kurukshetra
  • The Hindu Newspaper
  • The Economic Survey
  • The Union Budget
  • News on Schemes & Sub-schemes

Annual Reports of:
  • Ministry of Agriculture
  • Ministry of Rural Development
  • NABARD
  • Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Cover all current affairs related to ARD of 1
year. If your exam is in August 2017, cover ARD current affairs from August 2016 to July 2017. While you should
focus more on the current affairs, do not ignore the static part.
Mock Tests
Since the exam
is nearing, there is not much time left to study books cover to cover to NABARD
Exam 2017 preparation. Therefore, to prepare for the exam in lesser, time we
recommend you use preparation material prepared by experts and top rankers
after thorough research and analysis.
The Mock tests
for instance, are created by experts and top rankers keeping in mind the latest
exam pattern and syllabus. They help you:
Determine your speed and
accuracy
Identify your strengths and
weaknesses
Analyze your performance
Know your all-India Ranking

We hope the
above helps you kick-start your Agriculture
& Rural Development section preparation
for the upcoming NABARD exam. Save this guide as a pdf
to refer whenever required.
We wish you all
the very best for your exam.