ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment · India · Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ICAR)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersShort business courses on individual input and livestock industries: seed, fertiliser, agro-chemicals, dairy, feed, poultry, farm power and renewable energy.
In the exams: agricultural development bank officer recruitment, animal husbandry, fisheries and farm engineering (heavy); agricultural field officer recruitment in banking, crops, soils, horticulture and animal husbandry (heavy)
How our questions for ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO recruitment spread across the units of Sector-specific Agribusiness Electives. Difficulty: 5 easy, 22 medium, 22 hard.
| Farm machinery business | 6 | |
| Livestock business | 6 | |
| Fertiliser manufacture and demand (ABM 512) | 5 | |
| Seed programmes and certification (ABM 514) | 5 | |
| Feed plant management and regulation (ABM 520) | 5 | |
| Floriculture business | 5 | |
| Renewable energy institutions (ABM 529) | 5 | |
| Dairy plant management and dairy marketing (ABM 527) | 4 | |
| Agro-chemicals and the Insecticides Act (ABM 513) | 3 | |
| Poultry and hatchery business (ABM 522) | 3 | |
| Farm power and its cost analysis (ABM 517) | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Which international convention requires exporters to obtain prior informed consent before shipping listed hazardous pesticides and industrial chemicals?
D. The Rotterdam Convention
Rotterdam operates the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure. Stockholm eliminates or restricts persistent organic pollutants, Basel controls hazardous wastes, and Montreal phases out ozone-depleting substances.
Patent and data protection on a leading proprietary insecticide expire in a major market. What is the most likely industry outcome over the next few years?
A. Generic registrations enter, prices fall, and the originator shifts to mixtures and new products
Expiry allows generic makers to register (often through the me-too route) and compete on price, so prices and originator share fall while total volume often grows. Registration is not withdrawn on patent expiry, and generics use the same channels.
Under India's Seeds Act, 1966, what is the legal position of seed certification and labelling for notified kinds and varieties offered for sale?
B. Labelling is compulsory; certification is voluntary
The Act requires notified kinds sold to meet minimum germination and purity and be labelled, but certification by a certification agency is voluntary; uncertified seed can be sold as truthfully labelled seed.
A broiler flock has 96% livability, 2.0 kg average live weight at 32 days and FCR 1.5. Using EPEF = (livability % x live weight kg) / (age days x FCR) x 100, what is the flock's EPEF?
A. 400
EPEF = 96 x 2.0 / (32 x 1.5) x 100 = 192 / 48 x 100 = 400. 417 uses 100% livability; 16.7 uses the mortality (4%) instead of livability; 4.0 omits the x 100.
During the flush season, milk procurement exceeds liquid-milk sales. What do dairy plants usually do with the surplus?
B. Convert it into storable products such as skim milk powder and butter
Plants dry surplus skim milk into SMP and churn fat into butter or ghee, then reconstitute or sell these in the lean season. Chilled raw milk cannot be held for months, and cutting the price to zero would break supply relationships.
A rose grower is choosing between a new protected variety with high royalties and an older variety with low royalties. What is the main commercial trade-off?
B. Higher prices and demand for the new variety against royalty cost per plant
Breeders' rights let breeders charge royalties per plant or stem; growers pay them when the new variety's market premium outweighs the cost. Older varieties remain legal to sell, auction sales do not exempt royalties, and breeders do not refund royalties.
What is the capital recovery factor at 8% interest over 25 years, using CRF = i(1+i)^n / ((1+i)^n - 1)?
C. 0.0937
(1.08)^25 = 6.8485; CRF = 0.08 x 6.8485 / (6.8485 - 1) = 0.0937. 0.0400 is 1/25 (straight-line, no interest); 0.0800 is the interest rate alone; 0.5479 omits the denominator.
A 1 MW solar plant costs 30 million, has a 25-year life, a 10% discount rate (capital recovery factor 0.1102), O&M of 0.3 million a year and a 20% capacity utilisation factor. What is its levelised cost of electricity?
B. 2.06 per kWh
Generation = 1,000 kW x 8,760 h x 0.20 = 1,752,000 kWh. Annual cost = 30,000,000 x 0.1102 + 300,000 = 3,606,000. LCOE = 3,606,000 / 1,752,000 = 2.06. 0.86 spreads capital straight-line with no interest; 1.89 leaves out O&M; 0.41 assumes the plant runs at 100% all year.
Solar pumps make the marginal cost of pumping almost zero. Which policy design most directly counters the risk of groundwater over-extraction?
D. Paying farmers for surplus solar power fed to the grid, so saved water earns income
If surplus solar power can be sold, every unit not used for pumping has a value, giving an incentive to save water. Larger subsidised pumps, free grid power and removed metering all lower the cost of pumping further.
Which risk does a long-term feed-in tariff mainly remove for a renewable power developer?
D. Uncertainty about the price received per kWh
A feed-in tariff fixes the price per kWh for a contract period. Weather (volume) risk and theft remain with the developer, and payment delay is a counterparty risk the tariff does not remove.
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