Fundamentals of Agronomy

Contents: 1. Agriculture and agronomy: history and development. 2. Factors affecting crop production. 3. Classification of field crops. 4. Soil: composition and properties. 5. Soil fertility and productivity. 6. Tillage and tilth. 7. Seeds and sowing. 8. Crop nutrition. 9. Manures and fertilizers. 10. Fertilizer management in crop production. 11. Growth and development of crops. 12. Ideotypes of crop plants. 13. Crop adaptation and distribution. 14. Principles of cropping systems. 15. Crop management technologies in problematic areas. 16. Harvesting and threshing of crops. 17. Weeds, weed management, herbicides and allelopathy.

Agronomy is the core subject of agricultural sciences. A strong foundation for agricultural education emerges by understanding the principles of Agronomy. Majority of the Students who join for the degree programmes in agriculture universities are never exposed to the crops and crop production aspects. The beginner’s to agriculture needs to be introduced the meaning, scope and principles of agronomy. With this back ground and keeping in mind the common syllabus prescribed by the Dean’s committee for agriculture education in the country efforts are made to compile and present the information on introduction to agronomy, agriculture, meaning, scope and importance, history of development of agriculture, agricultural education and research in the country and elsewhere, factors affecting plant growth, manures and fertilizers, principles of agronomy viz. soil management, crop management, weed management, management of problematic soils, cropping systems, selection of planting materials, their treatment  in simple language. At the end of each chapter subjective and objective questions are provided for practice.