Agriculture & Cropping MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: A - 1 and 3 only

Among Kharif crops, rice occupies the largest area in India, so statement 1 is correct. Oilseeds cover far more area than jowar, so statement 2 is wrong. Cotton's area (well over a hundred lakh hectares) clearly exceeds that under sugarcane, so statement 3 is correct. Sugarcane area has fluctuated rather than steadily declined, so statement 4 is wrong. Only statements 1 and 3 are correct.

Correct answer: C - 1, 2 and 3

Kharif crops are sown with the onset of the southwest monsoon around June-July and harvested in autumn; cotton (1), groundnut (2) and rice (3) are all classic monsoon-season Kharif crops, so option (c) is correct. Wheat (4) is the principal Rabi crop, sown in winter and harvested in spring, so it is not a Kharif crop, which eliminates options (a) and (d). Option (b) is too narrow because it omits cotton, which is also Kharif.

Correct answer: B - Gujarat

Correct answer (b) Gujarat. Gujarat fits all three clues: its northern part, including Kachchh and the Banaskantha belt, is arid to semi-arid, its central region around Saurashtra and the mainland is a major cotton-growing tract, and cash crops such as cotton, groundnut and tobacco dominate over food crops. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu do not match this exact combination of an arid north with central cotton and cash-crop dominance, so (a), (c) and (d) are incorrect.

Correct answer: D - None of the above

Contour bunding involves building earthen embankments along the contour lines of sloping or undulating land to check the velocity of runoff and reduce soil erosion by water. None of the three given settings (wind-prone desert margins, flat flood-prone plains, or weed-infested scrublands) describes this; the technique is meant for sloping terrain. Hence option (d), None of the above, is correct.

Correct answer: C - Rearing of animals and cultivation of crops together

Mixed farming is specifically defined as the practice of combining crop cultivation with the rearing of livestock on the same farm, so that the two activities support each other (animal manure fertilises crops, crop residues feed animals). Option (a) describes a cropping pattern mixing cash and food crops, not the crop-plus-livestock combination. Option (b) describes mixed cropping or intercropping, where multiple crops share one field. Since option (c) precisely captures the defining feature, option (d) is also incorrect.

Correct answer: C - Only three States

Kerala (Munnar, Wayanad), Himachal Pradesh (Kangra) and Tripura are all recognised tea-producing states in India. Andhra Pradesh, although it has minor cultivation in some pockets like Araku, is not generally counted among India's known tea-producing states. Hence three of the four listed states qualify, making option (c) correct.

Correct answer: C - Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana

Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, both in West Africa, are the world's two largest cocoa producers and together account for well over half of global output. Algeria and Morocco lie in North Africa's Mediterranean and arid belt, unsuited to cocoa. Botswana and Namibia are dry southern African nations, and Madagascar and Mozambique grow some cocoa but nowhere near the leading volumes. Therefore option (c) is correct.

Correct answer: A - Tobacco, cocoa and rubber

Tobacco, cocoa and rubber were all domesticated in the Americas, the New World, and reached Europe, Asia and Africa only after the Columbian exchange, so option (a) is correct. Option (b) fails because cotton was cultivated in the Old World as well, with Gossypium species long grown in the Indus region and Africa. Option (c) is doubly wrong since coffee originated in Ethiopia and sugarcane in New Guinea and the Indian subcontinent, both Old World domesticates. Option (d) includes coffee and wheat, and wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, again an Old World crop, so only the first group is purely New World.