NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A Agribusiness Environment & Policy: practice questions

Question 1 · medium

In many low- and middle-income economies, which feature is the core of the rural income problem?

1. Agriculture's share of gross value added is larger than its share of employment
2. Agriculture employs a smaller share of workers than manufacturing
3. Agriculture's share of employment is much larger than its share of gross value added
4. Farm output has fallen in absolute terms in most years since the market reforms of the 1990s

Question 2 · easy

A state agency that buys staple grain at an announced price, stores it and releases it for public distribution or price stabilisation is best described as a

1. cooperative marketing federation
2. grain reserve and procurement agency
3. warehouse-receipt regulatory authority
4. cooperative development finance body

Question 3 · medium

China's household responsibility system, introduced from the late 1970s,

1. privatised all farmland through freehold titles
2. abolished all state procurement of grain immediately
3. let farm households farm allocated collective land and sell output above a quota, raising output sharply
4. was imposed as a condition of a World Bank structural adjustment loan and required land to be sold to agribusiness firms

Question 4 · easy

The three pillars of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture are

1. tariffs, quotas and exchange rates
2. market access, domestic support and export competition
3. SPS, TBT and TRIPS
4. food security, rural development and environment

Question 5 · easy

Why have regulators in several countries at times suspended futures trading in particular farm commodities?

1. Concern that speculation was adding to food price inflation
2. WTO rules require suspension whenever world prices rise
3. Futures contracts cannot legally be settled in a harvest month
4. Farmers are required by law to hedge all their output

Question 6 · easy

Which of the following is an in-kind food transfer rather than a cash or voucher transfer?

1. Subsidised or free grain issued through ration shops
2. An electronic food voucher redeemable at ordinary retailers
3. A monthly cash grant paid into a bank account
4. A deficiency payment to grain farmers

Question 7 · medium

Some food entitlement laws name the eldest adult woman as head of household for issuing ration cards. The main aim is to

1. simplify the counting of household members for the national population census
2. strengthen women's control over the household's food entitlement
3. let fair price shop dealers choose the cardholder
4. reduce the number of cards issued

Question 8 · medium

Suppose the economic cost of wheat to a public food agency is 3,900 currency units per 100 kg and it is issued to ration holders at 3 per kg. What is the subsidy on 60 kg of wheat?

1. 2,340
2. 3,600
3. 216
4. 2,160

Question 9 · medium

When a public distribution system starts issuing grain free of charge instead of at a low issue price, the subsidy per unit issued becomes

1. zero, because no money changes hands
2. equal to the former issue price
3. close to the full economic cost of the grain
4. equal to the support price alone, excluding other costs

Question 10 · medium

In the north-western Indo-Gangetic plain of South Asia, the most commonly cited policy causes of falling groundwater tables are

1. high import tariffs on edible oils
2. FDI in food processing, which led foreign firms to drill deep tube wells for their contract growers
3. free or cheap electricity for irrigation pumps and assured procurement favouring water-intensive rice
4. the Codex residue limits, which forced farmers to flush pesticides from their fields with extra water