KEA Assistant Horticulture Officer Syllabus 2026 - Check Exam Pattern

Overview

Organization

Assistant Horticulture Officer

Location

National

Official Website

https://cetonline.karnataka.gov.in/

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Topics Covered

• Fundamentals of Horticulture: Scope, importance and economic significance of horticulture; classification, distribution, nutritional importance, area, production, productivity, export and import of fruit crops; horticultural regions of India and Karnataka; principles of orchard establishment, planning, layout and management; nursery techniques and quality planting material production; soil and climatic requirements; planting systems, planting densities, high-density and ultra-high-density planting; canopy architecture and orchard floor management; irrigation, fertigation, nutrient management, integrated nutrient management, weed management, mulching and soil health management; principles and methods of training and pruning; bearing habits of fruit crops, flowering, fruit set and factors influencing fruitfulness and unfruitfulness; crop regulation, rejuvenation of senile orchards, top working, frame working, use of plant growth regulators, precision horticulture, protected cultivation, mechanization, climate-resilient fruit production and sustainable orchard management.
• Plant Propagation and Nursery Management: Principles of sexual and asexual propagation; seed biology, dormancy, germination and seed treatments; apomixis, polyembryony, monoembryony, chimeras and bud sports; propagation through cuttings, layering, grafting, budding, division, runners, suckers, offsets, stolons, corms and specialized vegetative structures; physiological, anatomical and biochemical basis of rooting and graft union formation; stock-scion relationships and graft incompatibility; propagation structures including mist chambers, greenhouses, polyhouses, glasshouses, hot beds, cold frames and phytotrons; nursery establishment, management, certification and accreditation; mother block establishment, budwood certification and maintenance; micrografting, micropropagation and tissue culture applications; nursery tools, implements and mechanization; role of plant growth regulators in propagation; production and maintenance of quality planting materials.
• Production Technology of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit Crops: Origin, distribution, taxonomy, classification, varieties and rootstocks; climatic and soil requirements; propagation, planting systems and orchard management; canopy management, flowering and fruiting behaviour; crop regulation, irrigation, fertigation, nutrient and weed management; use of plant growth regulators; physiological disorders and their management; integrated production technologies; harvesting, maturity indices, post-harvest handling, grading, packaging, storage, transportation, value addition and export requirements of mango, banana, citrus, grape, guava, papaya, sapota, pineapple, pomegranate, jackfruit, avocado, litchi, mangosteen, passion fruit, rambutan, durian, carambola, bilimbi, loquat, breadfruit, rose apple and other important tropical and subtropical fruits.
• Special production problems including alternate and irregular bearing in mango and citrus, citrus decline, bud forecasting in grapes, seediness and Konkan disease of banana, sex expression and seed production in papaya, latex extraction and papain production, and economics of commercial fruit production.
• Production Technology of Temperate and Dryland Fruit Crops: Origin, distribution, classification, varieties, rootstocks, climatic adaptation, chilling requirements, propagation, planting systems, training and pruning, pollination, pollinizers and self-incompatibility, canopy management, irrigation, nutrient management, physiological disorders, harvesting and post-harvest management of apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, cherry, strawberry, kiwi, persimmon, almond, walnut, pecan, hazelnut, chestnut and macadamia.
• Principles and practices of dryland horticulture including agro-climatic characterization of arid and semi-arid regions, watershed management, rainwater harvesting, soil and water conservation, moisture conservation, runoff management, micro-irrigation, antitranspirants, mulching, shelterbelts, drought management, climate-resilient production technologies, canopy management and special production techniques for ber, aonla, bael, custard apple, jamun, wood apple, pomegranate, carissa, date palm, tamarind, fig, phalsa, West Indian cherry and other arid fruit crops; management of replant problems, premature leaf fall, alternate bearing and other physiological constraints.
• Protected Cultivation and Precision Horticulture: Precision technologies for protected cultivation, fertigation management, environmental control systems and smart greenhouses; IoT devices; environmental, soil and plant sensors; weather stations; automation in irrigation and fertigation; robotics; autonomous farm machinery; decision support systems; Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), drone technologies, field mapping and spatial data analysis.
• Fruit Crop Improvement and Biotechnology: Scope and objectives of fruit breeding; origin, evolution, centres of diversity and domestication of fruit crops; germplasm exploration, characterization, evaluation, conservation and utilization; breeding behaviour, floral biology, pollination mechanisms, incompatibility systems and reproductive biology; introduction, selection, hybridization, mutation breeding, polyploidy, clonal selection, rootstock breeding and exploitation of naturally occurring variants including bud sports and chimeras; breeding strategies for yield, quality, shelf life and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses; molecular breeding, marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, genome editing, transgenic approaches, tissue culture, embryo rescue and somatic hybridization; DUS testing, varietal protection, intellectual property rights and recent advances in fruit crop improvement.

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