NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A (RDBS) · India · National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe farm science an agribusiness manager must know: crops, soils, pests, horticulture, livestock, irrigation and post-harvest. Agribusiness master's entrance syllabi draw roughly a fifth to a quarter of their questions from this ground.
In the exams: agricultural master's entrance examinations, agribusiness, about 20–25% of the paper (heavy); agricultural master's entrance examinations, agricultural economics (present); agricultural development bank officer recruitment, agriculture and rural development (heavy); professional-knowledge papers in agricultural field officer recruitment in banking (heavy)
How our questions for NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A spread across the units of Agriculture & Food Systems (bridge). Difficulty: 22 easy, 34 medium, 21 hard.
| Importance of agriculture in the national economy | 8 | |
| Livestock | 8 | |
| Basics of veterinary science | 8 | |
| Food and nutrition | 7 | |
| Watershed management | 6 | |
| Farm machinery and energy | 6 | |
| Irrigation and drainage | 6 | |
| Post-harvest handling | 6 | |
| Organisational set-up of agricultural research, education and extension | 6 | |
| Forestry | 5 | |
| Soils and NPK deficiency symptoms | 4 | |
| Major crops: rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeonpea, sugarcane, groundnut, tomato, mango | 3 | |
| Pests and diseases of major crops | 2 | |
| Horticulture | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) in irrigated rice is promoted because it
A. saves water and cuts methane emissions while keeping yields close to continuous flooding
In AWD the field is allowed to dry until the water table falls a set depth below the surface before re-flooding. Aerobic periods suppress methane-producing microbes and reduce water use, and well-managed AWD keeps yields close to continuous flooding. It does not remove the need for nitrogen or replace transplanting.
Further reading: IRRI, Alternate Wetting and Drying
An exporter plans to ship fresh mangoes to a market with strict quarantine rules. Which pest most often determines the treatment the fruit must receive before shipment?
A. Fruit fly, controlled by hot-water, vapour-heat or irradiation treatment
Fruit flies (Bactrocera species) lay eggs inside ripening fruit and are quarantine pests in many importing countries, so export protocols prescribe disinfestation by hot water, vapour heat or irradiation. Hoppers and powdery mildew attack flowers before fruit set, and malformation affects panicles, not shipped fruit.
Further reading: IPPC; national export protocols
India is the world's largest producer, consumer and exporter of
D. spices
India leads world spice production, consumption and export. Cut-flower exports are led by the Netherlands, Colombia, Kenya and Ecuador, apples by China, and coffee by Brazil and Vietnam.
Further reading: Spices Board of India; FAOSTAT
Poplar trees grown in rows with wheat on the same field in north-west India are an example of
D. agrisilviculture
Agrisilviculture combines trees with field crops. Silvopastoral systems combine trees with pasture and grazing animals, agrosilvopastoral systems combine all three, and social forestry means tree planting on public and community land for local needs.
Further reading: Nair, An Introduction to Agroforestry
The One Health approach is based on the observation that
B. most emerging human infections come from animals, linking human, animal and environmental health
About 60 per cent of known human infectious diseases and about three-quarters of emerging ones are zoonotic, and antimicrobial resistance moves between animals, people and the environment; One Health joins the three sectors in surveillance and control.
Further reading: WHO, FAO, WOAH, UNEP Quadripartite One Health
Subsurface drainage of waterlogged saline land is usually done with
C. perforated pipes buried in the field below the root zone
Subsurface drains, perforated pipes laid at depth and sloped to an outlet, lower the water table and carry leached salts away. Open surface drains remove surface water only, tree rows (bio-drainage) are a supplementary measure, and extra irrigation without drains worsens waterlogging.
Further reading: FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 61
A supermarket stores bananas at 4 °C to extend shelf life, and the peel turns dull and brown. The most likely cause is
B. chilling injury, because tropical fruits are damaged by low temperatures
Bananas and many tropical fruits suffer chilling injury below about 12 to 13 °C: peel browning, failure to ripen and loss of flavour. They are not frozen at 4 °C, and the symptoms are physiological, not caused by lack of ethylene or by fungi.
Further reading: Kader, Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
The HACCP system ensures food safety by
B. identifying hazards and controlling them at critical control points in the process
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a preventive system with seven principles: hazard analysis, critical control points, critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification and record keeping. End-of-line testing alone is the reactive approach HACCP replaced.
Further reading: Codex Alimentarius, General Principles of Food Hygiene
India's National Food Security Act 2013 provides subsidised grain to up to what share of the population?
D. 75% rural and 50% urban
The Act covers up to 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population, about two-thirds of the total, through the targeted public distribution system. Two-thirds is the overall figure, not the rural share.
Further reading: National Food Security Act 2013
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a CGIAR centre founded in 1960, is located in
D. Los Baños, Philippines
IRRI is at Los Baños in the Philippines. ICRISAT is at Patancheru near Hyderabad, IITA at Ibadan and CIMMYT near Texcoco in Mexico.
Further reading: CGIAR
Ten here, 77 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to NABARD Assistant Manager Grade A 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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