UPSC Civil Services Examination - Agriculture optional

India · Union Public Service Commission · civil-service · secondary source

15practice questions written to this syllabus
3subjects

Format

Two optional papers of 250 marks each. Written 1,750 + interview 275 = 2,025. CSAT qualifying at 33% since 2015.

Sections

Over the years

Checked against a secondary source (coaching or news site), not the conducting body; re-confirm before relying on it. The mark structure is from Wikipedia; upsc.gov.in returned 403, so the agricultural-economics content of the optional is not verified.

Official source: https://upsc.gov.in

Subjects this exam draws on

Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis3 questionsNatural Resource & Environmental Economics5 questionsSector-specific Agribusiness Electives7 questions

Five practice questions, worked

Original questions written to this exam's published syllabus and pattern. Not past papers.

1. Australia ended the single desk for bulk wheat exports in 2008. Which description fits the change?

  1. A move from export taxes to export subsidies for wheat growers
  2. Creation of a regulated network of domestic auction yards
  3. Replacement of a single statutory exporter by accredited competing exporters
  4. Introduction of a minimum support price for wheat backed by procurement
Answer and working

C. Replacement of a single statutory exporter by accredited competing exporters

The 2008 reform ended the single exporter's monopoly and let accredited companies compete to export bulk wheat. It involved no export subsidies, auction yards or support prices.

Agricultural Marketing & Price Analysis · Regulated markets and marketing boards

2. The Ricardian approach to estimating the impact of climate change on agriculture (Mendelsohn, Nordhaus and Shaw, 1994) differs from the crop-model (production function) approach mainly because it:

  1. Holds farming practices fixed and simulates yields under future climate, so it fully captures farmer adaptation
  2. Uses laboratory experiments on CO2 fertilisation
  3. Regresses land values or net farm revenue on climate across regions, so it captures farmers' adaptation
  4. Relies on contingent valuation surveys of farmers
Answer and working

C. Regresses land values or net farm revenue on climate across regions, so it captures farmers' adaptation

Cross-sectional variation shows how farmers in warmer places already farm differently, so the estimated effect includes adaptation. Crop-model studies holding practices fixed tend to overstate damage. The Ricardian method cannot capture adjustment costs, CO2 fertilisation or price changes well.

Natural Resource & Environmental Economics · Command-and-control versus emission trading

3. In most ammonia plants worldwide, the hydrogen that reacts with atmospheric nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch process is obtained from

  1. steam reforming of natural gas, with naphtha or coal used where gas is scarce
  2. fermentation of crop residues in large anaerobic digesters beside the plant
  3. acid digestion of rock phosphate, which releases hydrogen as a by-product
  4. electrolysis of seawater using grid power, which supplies most current output
Answer and working

A. steam reforming of natural gas, with naphtha or coal used where gas is scarce

Steam reforming of natural gas is the dominant hydrogen route, which is why gas price sets the cash cost of nitrogen. Electrolytic (green) hydrogen exists but is a small share; acid digestion of rock phosphate makes phosphoric acid, not hydrogen.

Sector-specific Agribusiness Electives · Fertiliser manufacture and demand (ABM 512)

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