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Agriculture PYQs (previous year questions) for UPSC Prelims: Agriculture (Economy) had 53 questions across the 11 official UPSC Prelims papers we tagged (2016–2026), and appeared in 11 of them. Asked in 11 of 11 years. The concepts asked in the most papers: Plantation Crops, Sustainable Agriculture, Minimum Support Price.
Year-wise question count
Asked in 11 of 11 years.
Most-asked concepts
Sorted by the number of papers a concept appeared in.
| Concept | Questions | Papers | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservation Agriculture | 2 | 2 | 2020, 2018 |
| Fertilizers | 2 | 2 | 2020, 2016 |
| Minimum Support Price | 2 | 2 | 2020, 2018 |
| Plantation Crops | 2 | 2 | 2022, 2021 |
| Sustainable Agriculture | 2 | 2 | 2021, 2020 |
| Agricultural Trade | 2 | 1 | 2019 |
| Agricultural Credit | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Agricultural Emissions | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Agricultural Heritage | 1 | 1 | 2016 |
| Agricultural Households | 1 | 1 | 2018 |
| Agricultural Investment | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Agricultural Marketing | 1 | 1 | 2017 |
| Agricultural Productivity | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Agricultural Taxation | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Agrochemicals | 1 | 1 | 2019 |
| Animal Husbandry | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Aquaculture | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Climate-Smart Agriculture | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Crop Genomics | 1 | 1 | 2017 |
| Crop History | 1 | 1 | 2019 |
| Crop Insurance | 1 | 1 | 2016 |
| Crop Production | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Crop Requirements | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Cropping Pattern | 1 | 1 | 2019 |
| Edible Oils | 1 | 1 | 2018 |
| Farmer Collectives | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Food Prices | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Food Procurement | 1 | 1 | 2019 |
| Irrigation | 1 | 1 | 2016 |
| Irrigation Practices | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Millets | 1 | 1 | 2016 |
| Nitrogen Fixation | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oilseeds | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Organic Farming | 1 | 1 | 2018 |
| Pulses | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Pulses and Legumes | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rainfed Farming | 1 | 1 | 2026 |
| Sericulture | 1 | 1 | 2026 |
| Soil Health | 1 | 1 | 2017 |
| Soil Management | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Soils | 1 | 1 | 2018 |
| Sugarcane Cultivation | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Sustainable Farming | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| System of Rice Intensification | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tea Board | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Water Conservation | 1 | 1 | 2017 |
| Water Use Efficiency | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
How to practise Agriculture PYQs
- Start with the concepts at the top of the table. They have come back the most.
- Solve one year’s Agriculture questions from the official PDF against the clock, then check the answer listed below.
- Log every miss as a concept gap, a calculation slip or a misread. Each needs a different fix.
- Once a concept is clean in two papers, move to the next. Then sit a full paper from the year pages.
Questions by year
Each line gives the question number, type, concept, our one-line summary and the official answer, with a link to the official PDF.
UPSC Prelims2026
UPSC Prelims2025
UPSC Prelims2024
UPSC Prelims2023
- Q.4 · MCQ · Agricultural Productivity: Comparing arable area, irrigation and yields of India and China (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.26 · MCQ · Farmer Collectives: Meaning of 'Small Farmer Large Field' (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.27 · MCQ · Oilseeds: MSP, season and tribal use of niger seed (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.55 · MCQ · Aquaculture: Role of biofilters in recirculating aquaculture systems (official answer: B) PDF
UPSC Prelims2022
- Q.21 · MCQ · Agricultural Emissions: Crop that is the main human-made source of methane and nitrous oxide (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.22 · MCQ · System of Rice Intensification: Benefits of the System of Rice Intensification (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.48 · MCQ · Nitrogen Fixation: Which plants are nitrogen-fixing (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.62 · MCQ · Plantation Crops: How many listed states are tea producers (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.79 · MCQ · Tea Board: Status, ministry and offices of the Tea Board (official answer: D) PDF
UPSC Prelims2021
- Q.51 · MCQ · Sustainable Agriculture: Differences between permaculture and chemical farming (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.52 · MCQ · Plantation Crops: Statements on the origin and uses of palm oil (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.57 · MCQ · Water Use Efficiency: Least water-efficient crop among the options (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.59 · MCQ · Climate-Smart Agriculture: Statements on CCAFS, CGIAR and ICRISAT (official answer: D) PDF
UPSC Prelims2020
- Q.61 · MCQ · Agricultural Investment: What counts as public investment in agriculture (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.63 · MCQ · Food Prices: Factors that affected rice prices in India recently (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.66 · MCQ · Agricultural Credit: Purposes covered by Kisan Credit Card credit support (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.69 · MCQ · Minimum Support Price: Statements on MSP procurement limits and market prices (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.80 · MCQ · Soil Management: Uses of biochar in farming (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.83 · MCQ · Conservation Agriculture: Advantages of zero tillage in agriculture (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.86 · MCQ · Pulses: Statements on pulse production trends in India (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.87 · MCQ · Crop Requirements: Identify the crop from its climatic requirements (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.89 · MCQ · Sugarcane Cultivation: Statements on sugarcane planting methods (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.90 · MCQ · Sustainable Agriculture: Practices considered eco-friendly agriculture (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.91 · MCQ · Irrigation Practices: Advantages of fertigation in agriculture (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.94 · MCQ · Fertilizers: Statements on chemical fertilizer prices and raw materials (official answer: B) PDF
UPSC Prelims2019
- Q.21 · MCQ · Crop History: Crops domesticated in the New World and taken to the Old World (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.37 · MCQ · Agricultural Trade: Largest rice exporter in the last five years (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.39 · MCQ · Agrochemicals: What carbofuran, phorate and triazophos are used as (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.79 · MCQ · Food Procurement: Components of FCI's economic cost of food grains (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.83 · MCQ · Cropping Pattern: Statements on area under kharif crops in recent years (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.84 · MCQ · Agricultural Trade: India's highest-value agricultural import (official answer: D) PDF
UPSC Prelims2018
- Q.3 · MCQ · Agricultural Households: Findings of the NSSO 70th round survey of farm households (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.10 · MCQ · Edible Oils: Edible oil imports versus output and customs duty (official answer: A) PDF
- Q.59 · MCQ · Conservation Agriculture: Practices that fall under conservation agriculture (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.82 · MCQ · Soils: Organic matter, sulphur cycle and salinisation in soils (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.93 · MCQ · Minimum Support Price: Crops covered by MSP announcements (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.100 · MCQ · Organic Farming: Statements on NPOP, APEDA and Sikkim's organic status (official answer: B) PDF
UPSC Prelims2017
- Q.33 · MCQ · Agricultural Marketing: Advantages of the National Agriculture Market scheme (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.45 · MCQ · Crop Genomics: Uses of genome sequencing in Indian agriculture (official answer: D) PDF
- Q.71 · MCQ · Water Conservation: Farm practices that help conserve water (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.72 · MCQ · Soil Health: Aims of the Soil Health Card Scheme (official answer: B) PDF
UPSC Prelims2016
- Q.21 · MCQ · Crop Insurance: Premium and coverage under PM Fasal Bima Yojana (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.24 · MCQ · Fertilizers: Reason for promoting neem-coated urea (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.27 · MCQ · Agricultural Heritage: Goal of FAO's GIAHS initiative (official answer: B) PDF
- Q.48 · MCQ · Millets: Statements on the millets nutritional security initiative (official answer: C) PDF
- Q.83 · MCQ · Irrigation: Advantages of drip irrigation (official answer: C) PDF
Other Economy topics
FAQ
How many Agriculture questions come in UPSC Prelims?
In the official papers we tagged: 2 in 2026, 3 in 2025, 2 in 2024, 4 in 2023, 5 in 2022, 4 in 2021, 12 in 2020, 6 in 2019, 6 in 2018, 4 in 2017 and 5 in 2016. That is 53 questions in all, about 25% of Economy.
Which Agriculture topics repeat in UPSC Prelims?
Asked in the most papers: Plantation Crops, Sustainable Agriculture, Minimum Support Price. The concept table lists every one with its count.
Are these official UPSC Prelims questions?
Yes. Every question is from an official UPSC Prelims paper hosted on our year pages. The one-line summaries are ours; open the PDF linked beside each question for the full text.