Agriculture Optional PYQs – Topic-wise (1995–2026)

Agriculture Optional PYQs Topic-wise for UPSC Mains (1995–2026) are listed below unit by unit, in the order of the official syllabus – 1755 questions in all. Click any unit to open all its previous year questions, arranged topic-wise with the latest first.

Paper I

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Ecology and Environment	6	84	Click here →
2	Cropping Patterns and Crop Production	8	129	Click here →
3	Forestry and Agroforestry	4	41	Click here →
4	Weeds	2	68	Click here →
5	Soils and Soil Fertility	10	113	Click here →
6	Soil and Water Conservation and Dryland Agriculture	3	67	Click here →
7	Water Management and Irrigation	6	85	Click here →
8	Farm Management and Agricultural Economics	7	110	Click here →
9	Agricultural Extension	6	85	Click here →

Trend: Marks are spread over all nine units. Cropping patterns and crop production, soils and soil fertility, and ecology and environment have been the largest units since 2013 (about 14–16% each), though ecology and cropping have eased in 2022–2026 while farm management and agricultural economics (about 14%) and dryland agriculture (11%) have gained. Weed control (topic 4.2) is the single most-asked topic of the paper, followed by agricultural extension (9.1), cropping and farming systems (2.3) and climate change (1.5); in the last five years dryland and rainfed agriculture, agricultural marketing and farm planning have come up more often.

Paper II

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Cell Biology and Genetics	8	126	Click here →
2	Plant Breeding	11	185	Click here →
3	Seed Technology	5	83	Click here →
4	Plant Physiology	10	170	Click here →
5	Horticulture	7	156	Click here →
6	Plant Protection	8	171	Click here →
7	Food Production, Food Security and Nutrition	9	82	Click here →

Trend: Plant physiology is the largest unit (about 20%), followed by plant breeding (about 16–18%), horticulture and cell biology and genetics (about 15% each). Fruits and plantation crops (topic 5.1) and the soil-water-plant relationship (4.2) are the most-asked topics, and fruit crops have risen further in 2022–2026. Food security and nutrition has gained (about 15% in 2022–2026, with malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies recurring), while plant protection has declined to about 9%. Seed production and the cell cycle have also been asked more often recently.

More questions

Other questions (outside the present syllabus) – 12 questions

How this collection is organised

Considering the changing exam pattern over three decades, we felt it necessary to declare some practices we’ve adopted in this collection.

1. Units and topics follow the official syllabus. The notification prints each paper as unnumbered paragraphs; we have treated each paragraph as a unit and given it a short title – Paper 1: 1 Ecology and Environment, 2 Cropping Patterns and Crop Production, 3 Forestry and Agroforestry, 4 Weeds, 5 Soils and Soil Fertility, 6 Soil and Water Conservation and Dryland Agriculture, 7 Water Management and Irrigation, 8 Farm Management and Agricultural Economics, 9 Agricultural Extension; Paper 2: 1 Cell Biology and Genetics, 2 Plant Breeding, 3 Seed Technology, 4 Plant Physiology, 5 Horticulture, 6 Plant Protection, 7 Food Production, Food Security and Nutrition. Each unit is divided into topics (for example Paper 1 – 5.9 Problem soils and their reclamation). Where a unit has many questions, they are further divided by these topics.

2. Questions on areas the syllabus does not name separately are placed under the nearest topic: for example, questions on individual field crops under the package of practices for cereals, pulses, oilseeds or other crops (Paper 1 – 2.5 to 2.8); SRI under cereals (2.5); herbicides under weed control (4.2); manures, composts and green manuring under integrated nutrient management (5.6); MSP and subsidies under agricultural price policy (8.6); male sterility under heritability, sterility and incompatibility (Paper 2 – 1.7) and hybrid seed under heterosis (2.8); tissue culture under biotechnology (2.11); and named pests and diseases under diagnosis of pests and diseases (6.1). Biofortification, asked in Paper 1, is under essential plant nutrients (Paper 1 – 5.4).

3. Every question is kept in its own paper. Some questions fit no topic of their paper’s present syllabus (for example, older Paper 2 questions on organic farming, global warming or biofertilisers, which are now Paper 1 subjects); they are kept under “Other Questions (Outside the Present Syllabus)” at the end of the paper concerned.

4. Some questions cover more than one topic. We’ve kept such questions in each topic of relevance.

5. Graphs at the start of each paper show the weightage of every unit in that paper, and graphs for each unit show the weightage of its topics. Weightage is the share of marks asked from a unit or topic, compared for 2013–2026 (white bars) and the last five years, 2022–2026 (black bars). A question placed under two topics has its marks split equally between them.

6. Each of the topicwise question is suffixed by a question code like this [2024/20m/2a]. This code indicates a) year in which the question was asked, b) maximum marks the question carried, c) prescribed word limit (where UPSC set one, e.g. 150w) and, d) the question number in actual paper, in given order.

7. Until 2012, each paper carried 300 marks (60 per question); since 2013 each paper carries 250 marks (50 per question). Where a question offered more parts than were to be answered (“answer any three” of four parts, up to 2009), every part is included with its own marks. The available copies of the 1995–2002 papers, of 2003 Paper 2 and of one question of 2005 Paper 2 print no marks; their codes assume the pattern of those papers (60 per question, divided equally between its parts, and 20 for each part of an “any three” question).

8. 2016–2026 papers are transcribed from the official UPSC question papers and 2009–2015 from scans of the printed papers. No scan of the 1995–2007 papers is available; they are taken from retyped copies. No copy of the 2008 papers could be found, so that year is not included.

9. The wording of the questions is as printed, including the papers’ own grammar and spellings of technical terms.

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Last updated: 30 October 2026