SYLLABUS FOR ICAR AICE PHD JRF/SRF (PGS) EXAM FOR 12. VEGETABLE SCIENCE / OLERICULTURE

SYLLABUS FOR THE ALL INDIA COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR

ADMISSION TO DOCTORAL DEGREE PROGRAMMES AND THE AWARD OF

JRF/SRF (PGS):

SYLLABUS FOR ICAR AICE PHD JRF/SRF (PGS) EXAM FOR

12. VEGETABLE SCIENCE / OLERICULTURE:

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Unit 1: Production Technology of Cool Season Vegetable Crops

• Introduction, climatic, and soil requirements
• Commercial varieties/hybrids
• Sowing/planting times and methods
• Seed rate and seed treatment
• Nutritional and irrigation requirements
• Intercultural operations
• Weed control
• Mulching
• Physiological disorders
• Harvesting of various vegetables, including potato, chow chow, cabbage, cauliflower, knolkhol, broccoli, root crops (carrot, radish, turnip, beetroot), bulb crops (onion, garlic), peas, beans, and palak.

Unit 2: Production Technology of Warm Season Vegetable Crops

• Introduction, climatic, and soil requirements
• Commercial varieties/hybrids
• Sowing/planting times and methods
• Seed rate and seed treatment
• Nutritional and irrigation requirements
• Intercultural operations
• Weed control
• Mulching
• Physiological disorders
• Harvesting of various vegetables, including tomato, eggplant, pepper (hot and sweet), okra, vegetable cowpea, Dolichos lablab, cluster bean, cucurbitaceous crops, sweet potato, cassava, yams, coclocasia, moringa, and amaranths.

Unit 3: Breeding of Vegetable Crops

• Cytogenetics and genetics
• Breeding objectives
• Breeding methods (introduction, selection, hybridization, mutation)
• Varieties and varietal characterization
• Resistance breeding for biotic and abiotic stress
• Quality improvement
• Biotechnology and its use in breeding in vegetable crops
• Molecular markers, genomics, marker-assisted selection, and QTLs in various vegetable crops.

Unit 4: Growth and Development

• Cellular structures and their functions
• Growth and development definitions
• Growth analysis in vegetable production
• Physiology of dormancy and germination of vegetable seeds, tubers, and bulbs
• Role of hormones and growth regulators
• Application of synthetic hormones and plant growth retardants
• Role of light, temperature, and photoperiod
• Physiology of fruit set, fruit development, fruit growth, flower and fruit drop
• Parthenocarpy in vegetable crops
• Ethylene, senescence, and abscission
• Fruit ripening and physiological changes associated with ripening
• Plant growth regulators in relation to morphogenesis and tissue culture techniques.

Unit 5: Seed Production

• Importance and status of the vegetable industry
• Modes of propagation in vegetables
• Seed morphology and development
• Floral biology
• Quality seed production steps and methods
• Seed production technology for various vegetable types
• Clonal propagation and multiplication in tuber crops
• Hybrid seed production technology
• Use of male sterility and self-incompatibility in hybrid seed production.

Unit 6: Systematics of Vegetable Crops

• Principles of classification
• Methods of classification
• International code of nomenclature of vegetable crops
• Origin, history, evolution, and distribution of vegetable crops
• Taxonomy and botanical description of various vegetable families, genera, and species
• Role of molecular markers in evolution and taxonomy of vegetable crops.

Unit 7: Production Technology of Underexploited Vegetable Crops

• Introduction and botany
• Climatic and soil requirements
• Commercial varieties/hybrids
• Planting time and method
• Seed rate and seed treatment
• Nutritional and irrigation requirements
• Intercultural operations
• Weed control
• Mulching
• Physiological disorders
• Harvesting of underexploited vegetables.

Unit 8: Post-Harvest Technology of Vegetable Crops

• Importance and scope of post-harvest management
• Maturity indices and standards
• Methods of maturity determination
• Biochemistry of maturity and ripening
• Harvesting practices
• Grading and packaging
• Post-harvest physiological and biochemical changes
• Disorders and prevention
• Storage methods and practices
• HACCP, Codex, FSSAI.

Unit 9: Organic Vegetable Production Technology

• Principles and components of organic production
• Managing soil fertility, pests, diseases, and weeds in organic farming
• Crop rotation
• Methods of enhancing soil fertility
• Mulching and green manure crops
• Composting and biodynamic preparations
• Organic certification standards and challenges.

Unit 10: Hi-tech Production Technology of Vegetable Crops

• Importance of protected cultivation
• Greenhouse technology
• Effect of environmental factors
• Energy management
• Low-cost structures
• Engineering aspects
• Types of protected structures
• Cladding materials
• Irrigation and fertigation
• Special horticultural practices
• Hydroponics and soilless culture
• Enhancing productivity and off-season cultivation.