ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersSelling to farmers: how demand for seed, fertiliser, pesticides and machinery behaves, how those markets are structured and regulated, and how dealer networks work.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, marketing of agricultural inputs (present); light in agricultural master's entrance examinations
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) Agri-Business Management
Unit 4 'marketing of agricultural inputs': derived demand, input demand estimation, fertiliser subsidy history (RPS, decontrol, NBS, DBT), seed policy and the seed generation system, pesticide industry structure, dealer margins and channel design, input credit and interlinked markets.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Management of Agricultural Input Marketing. Difficulty: 8 easy, 52 medium, 29 hard.
| Fertiliser subsidy | 12 | |
| Regulatory controls on inputs | 10 | |
| Seed marketing: policy and trade practices | 9 | |
| Tractor and farm machinery market segments and shares | 9 | |
| Promotional media for input marketing | 8 | |
| Input credit | 8 | |
| Nature of demand for agricultural inputs | 7 | |
| Farmer buying behaviour for pesticides | 7 | |
| Dealer and distributor networks | 7 | |
| Fertiliser market structure | 6 | |
| Pesticide market profile | 6 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A profit-maximising farmer uses a variable input up to the point where
B. the value of its marginal product equals its price
Profit is maximised where VMP = input price. Using the input until marginal product is zero (or total output is maximum) ignores the input's cost; that is the technical, not economic, optimum.
A field day for a new rice fungicide is best timed
A. when treated and untreated plots differ most visibly
The purpose of a field day is to let farmers see the result. Holding it before application or on a bare field shows nothing; for a fungicide the contrast is clearest some days after treatment during disease pressure.
For launching a genuinely new crop-protection molecule among smallholders, which promotional method is generally most effective in creating trial?
A. On-farm demonstrations with host farmers who are local opinion leaders
New products need farmers to see results on local fields, which demonstrations with respected hosts provide. Mass advertising builds awareness but seldom creates trial of an unproven product; distributor discounts move stock into the channel, not into farmers' fields.
Nigeria's Growth Enhancement Support scheme (launched 2012) is notable for
D. delivering subsidy entitlements to registered farmers via mobile e-wallets redeemable at private agro-dealers
GES registered farmers and sent entitlements to their phones, to be redeemed at participating private dealers, aiming to cut leakage and build private distribution. It did not nationalise distribution or pay cost-plus producer subsidy.
A farmer's pesticide 'failed' last season. Which explanation is LEAST likely to be solved by switching to another brand of the same active ingredient?
C. Pest resistance to that mode of action
Resistance is to the mode of action, so another brand of the same active will also fail; the remedy is rotation to a different group. Counterfeit, expired stock or poor advice may be fixed by changing brand or source.
Tractor sales typically fluctuate more than farm output from year to year because
A. a tractor is a large durable purchase that farmers postpone or advance
Durable purchases respond to income and credit expectations: good years bring purchases forward, bad years postpone them, magnifying swings. Tractors are not consumed in a season, prices are not generally fixed, and credit matters a great deal.
A dealer's working capital requirement is 1,849,315 and it is financed entirely by a bank cash-credit limit at 12 per cent a year. What is the annual interest cost?
A. about 221,918
Interest = 1,849,315 × 0.12 ≈ 221,918. 18,493 is one month's interest; 2,071,233 is principal plus interest. 22,192 slips a decimal, using 1.2 per cent.
In the European Union, active substances in plant protection products are approved at EU level and products are authorised by member states under
A. Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009
1107/2009 covers plant protection products. 2019/1009 covers fertilising products, 1831/2003 feed additives and 2019/6 veterinary medicinal products.
Which of the following is NOT a standard principle of input regulation?
B. Fixing a single brand for each input nationally
Input laws commonly rest on registration, licensing, quality standards, labelling, inspection and enforcement. Mandating a single brand for an input is not a general regulatory principle.
Which of the following is the most important non-price determinant of tractor demand in countries where most tractors are bought on loan?
A. Availability and terms of institutional and non-bank finance
Where most tractors are financed, down-payment requirements, interest rates and lenders' willingness to lend decide whether a purchase happens. The other options have no direct link.
Ten here, 89 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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