ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment · India · Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ICAR)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment is a professional certification run by Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ICAR), for candidates in India. NET: one paper of 150 objective questions at 1 mark each, 2 hours, -1/3 negative, online, English or Hindi, Master's level. ARS: qualifying prelims, then mains 240 and interview 60.
Official site: pw.live.
We have not been able to confirm these details against the exam body's own specification, so fees, dates and pass marks are left out on purpose. Check the current format, eligibility, fees and dates on the official site.
Selling to farmers: how demand for seed, fertiliser, pesticides and machinery behaves, how those markets are structured and regulated, and how dealer networks work.
Our 24 ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment questions in this subject: 1 easy, 11 medium, 12 hard, across 9 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment and are not shown on any other exam's page.
According to the Hicks-Marshall rules of derived demand, demand for an input is more elastic when
A. the final product's demand is more elastic
A price rise for the input raises the cost and price of the product; if product demand is elastic, output and hence input use fall a lot. Having no substitutes, inelastic supply of other inputs and inelastic product demand all make input demand less elastic.
The international convention that provides the model for protecting plant breeders' rights, with Acts of 1961, 1978 and 1991, is
C. UPOV
UPOV is the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. ISTA sets seed testing rules and the OECD Seed Schemes certify varietal identity in trade; the Rotterdam Convention deals with hazardous chemicals.
In a market where government fixes the maximum retail price of a fertiliser and allocates supply, competition among manufacturers mainly takes the form of
A. availability, service and dealer relationships rather than price
With a fixed price there is little room to compete on price, and a straight fertiliser is a homogeneous product, so firms compete on timely supply, logistics and dealer support. Price cutting below a statutory price is limited and differentiation of a standard grade is small.
A company that buys technical-grade active ingredient and sells its own formulated products after the patent has expired is best described as a
A. generic formulator
Generic formulators operate in the post-patent tier, formulating off-patent actives. Research-based companies discover and patent new actives; a C&F agent only stores and dispatches.
In a market where the four largest tractor makers hold 30, 20, 15 and 10 per cent, the four-firm concentration ratio (CR4) is
B. 75 per cent
CR4 = 30 + 20 + 15 + 10 = 75 per cent. 1,625 is the sum of the four squared shares; 18.75 is their average.
The Rotterdam Convention (1998) deals with
C. prior informed consent before export of listed hazardous chemicals and pesticides
Rotterdam is the PIC convention. Persistent organic pollutants are under the Stockholm Convention (2001); plant varieties under UPOV; ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol.
In the WHO classification of pesticides by hazard, Class Ib means
D. highly hazardous
The classes are Ia extremely hazardous, Ib highly hazardous, II moderately hazardous, III slightly hazardous and U unlikely to present acute hazard.
In the United States, pesticides are registered by the Environmental Protection Agency under
C. FIFRA
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act governs US pesticide registration by the EPA. The Federal Seed Act concerns seed labelling; the VFD concerns antimicrobials in feed; the Essential Commodities Act is Indian.
A regulator proposes to cut the average time taken to register generic pesticides. Which is the main trade-off the regulator must weigh?
B. Faster entry and lower prices against thorough safety, residue and equivalence review
Faster generic registration increases competition and lowers prices, but a rushed review risks approving products whose equivalence, impurities or residue behaviour were not properly checked. Faster entry tends to lower, not raise, prices.
In an input channel, power shifts toward the dealer when
B. the product is a commodity with many suppliers and little brand pull
When many suppliers offer interchangeable products, the dealer's recommendation and shelf space decide sales, giving the dealer power. Strong brands, patents and name requests create pull and shift power to the manufacturer.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
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