ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersMarketing to rural consumers and farmers: their environment, behaviour, and the products, prices, channels and media that reach them.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations (present); light in agricultural master's entrance examinations
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) — Agri-Business Management
Rural marketing under the marketing unit: definition and features of rural markets, the four A's, rural consumer and farmer behaviour, diffusion of innovations, segmentation bases, low unit packs and price points, haats, mandis and rural distribution, rural media, and short calculations of market potential and distribution reach.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Rural Marketing. Difficulty: 13 easy, 46 medium, 25 hard.
| Rural distribution: haats and mandis | 11 | |
| Rural consumer behaviour | 9 | |
| Rural pricing | 9 | |
| Rural retail | 9 | |
| Concept and scope of rural markets | 8 | |
| Socio-cultural and demographic environment | 8 | |
| Rural finance and purchasing power | 8 | |
| Media planning and rural communication | 8 | |
| Farmer behaviour as a buyer | 7 | |
| Product strategy for durables and non-durables | 7 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A district purchasing-power index built from irrigation, bank deposits and durable ownership is most appropriately used to
D. rank districts for relative priority, not to forecast exact sales volumes
Composite indices combine proxies of uncertain weight, so they are good for ranking and prioritising but not for precise volume forecasts or household measurement.
A rural buyer asks for a detergent by describing 'the yellow packet with the picture of a bucket'. What does this most suggest for the brand owner?
D. pack colours and visuals act as the brand, so they must stay consistent and be protected from look-alikes
Low-literacy buyers recognise brands by sight, so visual identity carries the brand and makes imitation a real threat. Changing the pack often would confuse such buyers.
In the purchase of a tractor by a farm family, the dealer who advises on models and arranges finance, the son who compares specifications online, and the father who decides together form
A. a buying centre
Several people with different roles (influencer, information gatherer, decider) make up a buying centre, a concept from organisational buying that fits high-value farm purchases.
In a hub-and-spoke rural distribution system, the 'spokes' are best described as
B. sub-stockists, wholesalers or vans carrying goods from a town stockist to nearby villages
The hub is the town stockist or depot; spokes are the links that carry goods out to smaller towns and villages. Factories and head office sit upstream.
In DAGMAR, the communication stages through which the audience is moved are
D. unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction, action
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results) sets measurable objectives along these stages. AIDA is attention-interest-desire-action; the other two are Rogers' innovation-decision and older adoption stages.
An evaluator wants to measure whether a rural van campaign raised sales. The strongest design among these is to
B. compare sales changes in randomly chosen covered villages with similar uncovered villages
A randomised comparison with control villages separates the campaign effect from seasonal and harvest effects. A before-after comparison alone confounds the campaign with the season; attendance and poster counts measure activity, not effect.
Which limitation of digital channels for rural marketing is best documented in mobile-industry reports for many low-income countries?
D. women are less likely than men to own a mobile phone, so digital-only campaigns miss many women
The mobile gender gap is a recurring finding in industry reports. Coverage is extensive in many countries, local-language messages are feasible, and sharing is common, which also spreads misinformation.
A firm recruits women from self-help groups as door-to-door sellers of small consumer products. The strongest rationale is that this channel
D. extends reach into villages too small to support a shop stocking the brand, while giving sellers income
The model reaches very small villages and uses trusted local women, with income as a social benefit. It still needs supply, training and supervision, and it is not the cheapest channel everywhere.
In East Africa, the mobile-money model that spread after its launch in Kenya in 2007 relies on
C. networks of local agents, such as small shops, who convert cash to mobile balances and back
Cash-in and cash-out agents in shops let people without bank accounts use money on basic phones. The model does not need bank branches or smartphones.
Pay-as-you-go solar lighting sold to rural households in East Africa makes the product affordable mainly by
B. letting buyers pay small mobile-money instalments, with the device locking if payments stop
Small, frequent mobile payments match irregular incomes, and remote locking secures repayment. It is a pricing and payment innovation, not a giveaway.
Ten here, 84 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.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
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