Consider the following crops of India:

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three crops qualify, so the answer is (d). Cowpea, green gram and pigeon pea are leguminous crops. Each gives a pulse grain, each can feed livestock, and each can be grown and turned into the soil as green manure.

• ✓ 1. Cowpea's dry beans are used as a pulse. Because of its nutritive value and soil-improving properties, it is also used as fodder, green manure and cover crop. It is a Kharif pulse grown for grain, forage and green manure.
• ✓ 2. Green gram (moong) is eaten as whole or split dal. Its plant and haulms are fed to cattle. It is also grown as a green-manure crop, enriching the soil through nitrogen fixation.
• ✓ 3. Pigeon pea (arhar/tur) seed is the familiar dal. Its leaves and pods are a palatable, protein-rich fodder. Its leafy biomass can also be returned to the soil as green manure.
• ✗ (b) This wrongly drops cowpea and pigeon pea, which also serve all three purposes.
• ✗ (a) This leaves out pigeon pea, which is also a pulse that yields fodder and green manure.

Remember · Cowpea, green gram and pigeon pea are triple-purpose legumes. They give pulse grain, fodder and green manure, and they enrich soil by fixing nitrogen.

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2012, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). · Report an error