Agriculture economy, MSP & food security

Answer: (b) 3 only

The Soil Health Card Scheme aims at soil-test-based fertiliser use: each farmer gets a card showing the nutrient status of the soil and the dosages to apply, which discourages overuse. It is not an irrigation scheme and it is not a tool for bank lending.

• ✗ 1. Expanding the area under assured irrigation is the aim of a different scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (launched 2015-16). A soil health card only reports what nutrients the soil has.
• ✗ 2. The card gives nutrient recommendations to the farmer. None of the scheme's stated objectives concerns banks assessing loan amounts from soil quality.
• ✓ 3. The card lets a farmer apply only the recommended dosage of nutrients, and the scheme was designed to correct deficiencies and wasteful fertiliser practices, so it checks overuse.

Remember · Soil Health Card (launched 2015): a soil-test report for each farmer, with crop-wise nutrient advice. It is meant to promote balanced fertiliser use, not irrigation or credit.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1, 2 and 3

From 2015 the Global Hunger Index (GHI) has been built from four indicators: undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. All three listed items are among them; the only one missing from the list is child wasting.

• ✓ 1. Undernourishment, the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake, is the only GHI indicator that covers the whole population.
• ✓ 2. Child stunting (low height for age among children under five) captures chronic undernutrition; it replaced child underweight when the formula was revised in 2015.
• ✓ 3. Child mortality, the death rate of children under five, is the fourth GHI indicator.
• • Since then In 2016 IFPRI co-published the GHI. Recent editions are prepared by Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, and India's government has criticised the index's method (PIB, December 2021).

Remember · GHI = undernourishment + child wasting + child stunting + child mortality (four indicators since 2015; child underweight was dropped).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) WTO affairs

The coloured 'boxes' are the WTO's way of classifying farm subsidies under the Agreement on Agriculture, borrowed from traffic lights. Green box support is allowed freely, amber box support distorts trade and must be reduced, and blue box support is tied to programmes that limit production.

• ✓ (a) The WTO backgrounder on domestic support explains that subsidies are grouped into green (permitted), amber (to be reduced) and, in agriculture, a blue box for production-limiting programmes.
• ✗ (c) UNFCCC talks use terms like NDCs, Annex I and CDM, not subsidy boxes.
• ✗ (d) An India-EU free trade agreement would negotiate tariffs and market access; the box classification belongs to the multilateral WTO Agreement on Agriculture.

Remember · WTO farm subsidy boxes: green = minimal trade distortion, allowed; amber = trade-distorting, capped and reduced; blue = production-limiting; no red box in agriculture.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 only

PMFBY, approved by the Cabinet on 13 January 2016, fixed different farmer premiums by season and crop type (2% kharif, 1.5% rabi, 5% annual commercial and horticultural crops), so there is no single 2% rate for all crops. It did, however, extend post-harvest loss cover from cyclonic rain to unseasonal rain as well, across India.

• ✗ 1. The 2% rate applies only to kharif crops; rabi crops carry 1.5% and annual commercial or horticultural crops 5%, with the government paying the balance premium.
• ✓ 2. PIB's comparison table shows PMFBY covering post-harvest losses all over India for cyclonic and unseasonal rain, whereas the earlier modified scheme covered only cyclonic rain in coastal areas.

Remember · PMFBY (2016) farmer premium: kharif 2%, rabi 1.5%, commercial/horticultural 5%. Covers prevented sowing, localised risks and post-harvest losses (cyclone, unseasonal rain).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil

A thin coat of neem oil makes urea release its nitrogen into the soil slowly, so more of it is taken up by the crop and less is lost; this raises nitrogen use efficiency and cuts the quantity of urea needed. Neem coating also makes subsidised urea hard to divert to industrial uses. The Centre made neem coating compulsory for all domestic urea from 1 September 2015 and for imported urea from 1 December 2015.

• ✓ (b) Neem coating slows the release of nitrogen from urea to the soil, which the Department of Fertilizers credits for higher nitrogen use efficiency and lower urea consumption.
• ✗ (a) Neem compounds act by slowing the conversion and release of nitrogen already supplied by urea; they are not promoted for boosting biological nitrogen fixation by soil microbes.
• ✗ (c) Slower release can reduce nitrogen losses, but no coating stops nitrous oxide emission from fields altogether; 'not at all released' overstates the effect.
• ✗ (d) Neem-coated urea is a fertiliser only; it contains no weedicide.

Remember · Neem-coated urea (100% mandatory from 2015): slow nitrogen release, higher nitrogen use efficiency, lower urea use, and no diversion of subsidised urea to industry.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The Kharai camel of Kutch, Gujarat, is known as the "swimming camel": it swims across salty water to reach mangroves, which are a key part of its diet. It is not a wild animal; it is a recognised domestic breed reared by Jat and Rabari herding families.

• ✓ 1. The Kharai is famous for swimming through saline water to reach mangrove islands. This is what earned it the name "Swimming Camel". Down To Earth reports that the breed can swim up to three kilometres into the sea in search of mangroves; the ICAR article cited here gives no distance.
• ✓ 2. Mangroves are a key part of its diet and the camel swims across salty water to reach them, an adaptation to its coastal habitat.
• ✗ 3. Kharai camels are domesticated. Camel-breeding Jat and Rabari families rear them, and the Government of India designated the camel as an endangered domestic breed.

Remember · Kharai camel (Kutch, Gujarat): a domesticated, endangered breed that swims across saline water to feed on mangroves.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1 and 2 only

INSIMP was a sub-scheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched in 2011-12 with Rs 300 crore for 16 States, to demonstrate improved millet production and post-harvest technologies in an integrated way. Millets are a small-farmer crop, so statements 1 and 2 hold; nothing in the official description makes it a scheme to move commercial-crop farmers into millets.

• ✓ 1. The Ministry's operational guidelines say the scheme aims to demonstrate improved production and post-harvest technologies in an integrated manner, that technical assistants are placed in production and post-harvest clusters, and that processing and value addition are meant to create consumer demand for millet foods. UPSC's key accepts the statement.
• ✓ 2. The guidelines note that small millets are taken up by resource-poor tribal farmers in remote areas, and millets in general sustain the livelihood of over 60% of small and marginal farmers (NAAS paper). UPSC's key accepts this.
• ✗ 3. The guidelines offer free demonstration kits of nutrients and plant-protection inputs (micro-nutrients, fungicides, bio-fertilizers, DAP, urea, potash, pesticides) for farmers in the millet units, up to 2 hectares each. The kits contain no micro-irrigation equipment, and nothing in the guidelines makes it an aim to pull farmers of commercial crops into millets.

Remember · INSIMP (2011-12): a Rs 300 crore sub-scheme of RKVY in 16 States to demonstrate millet production, post-harvest and value-addition technologies, mainly benefiting small farmers.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error