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UPSC CSE CSAT 2019 · Question 67 · Reading comprehension

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

Passage—5

Food varieties extinction is happening all over the world — and it is happening fast. For example, of the 7,000 apple varieties that were grown during the nineteenth century, fewer than a hundred remain. In the Philippines, thousands of varieties of rice once thrived; now only up to a hundred are grown there. In China, 90 percent of the wheat varieties cultivated just a century ago have disappeared. Farmers in the past painstakingly bred and developed crops well suited to the peculiarities of their local climate and environment. In the recent past, our heavy dependence on a few high yielding varieties and technology-driven production and distribution of food is causing the dwindling of diversity in food crops. If some mutating crop disease or future climate change decimates the few crop plants we have come to depend on to feed our growing population, we might desperately need some of those varieties we have let go extinct.

CSAT 2019 · Q67

Reading comprehension Medium

On the basis of the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

  1. 1.Humans have been the main reason for the large scale extinction of plant species.
  2. 2.Consumption of food mainly from locally cultivated crops ensures crop diversity.
  3. 3.The present style of production and distribution of food will finally lead to the problem of food scarcity in the near future.
  4. 4.Our food security may depend on our ability to preserve the locally cultivated varieties of crops.

Which of the above assumptions are valid?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) 2 and 4

Varieties bred to suit local conditions have given way to a few high-yielding varieties and technology-driven production and distribution, and we may need the lost varieties if disease or climate change strikes. So food security may depend on preserving local varieties, and eating from locally grown crops keeps that diversity alive.

  • ✗ 1. The passage is about varieties within a few crops, not the extinction of plant species at large.
  • ✓ 2. Diversity came from crops suited to 'their local climate and environment' and is being lost to a few varieties spread by technology-driven distribution; relying on local crops is what sustained it. 'Ensures' is strongly worded, but it follows the passage's contrast.
  • ✗ 3. The passage says 'if' disease or climate change strikes, 'we might' need the varieties — a risk, not a certain scarcity in the near future.
  • ✓ 4. 'We might desperately need some of those varieties' — food security may depend on keeping them.

Remember · 'If … might' in a passage supports 'may', never 'will finally lead to'; and crop varieties are not plant species.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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