State agricultural university MBA (ABM) admission · India · State agricultural universities via ICAR AIEEA-PG Group 19
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
How our questions for State agricultural university MBA admission spread across the units of Management of Agricultural Input Marketing. Difficulty: 24 easy, 24 medium, 8 hard.
| Promotional media for input marketing | 9 | |
| Dealer and distributor networks | 9 | |
| Nature of demand for agricultural inputs | 8 | |
| Fertiliser market structure | 6 | |
| Farmer buying behaviour for pesticides | 6 | |
| Seed marketing: policy and trade practices | 5 | |
| Pesticide market profile | 5 | |
| Tractor and farm machinery market segments and shares | 5 | |
| Regulatory controls on inputs | 2 | |
| Input credit | 1 |
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.
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.
In India, the tractor horsepower band that has for many years accounted for the bulk of sales is
C. 31 to 50 hp
The 31–40 and 41–50 hp segments together have long made up most Indian tractor sales, suiting mid-sized holdings and haulage. Very small and very large tractors are niche segments in India.
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.
An area manager reports record primary sales to distributors in May, but dealer-to-farmer sales in the season are low. The most likely consequence next season is
C. high channel stocks, overdue dealer credit and price cutting
Liquidation, not primary sales, is the real measure. Stock pushed into the channel without farmer offtake returns as carryover, unpaid credit and discounting. A shortage would follow the opposite situation.
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.
When comparing pesticide prices, a well-informed farmer should compare
D. cost per hectare of the recommended dose
Products differ in concentration and dose, so cost per hectare at the label dose is the right basis. Price per litre ignores that a more concentrated product needs less per hectare.
Ten here, 56 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to State agricultural university MBA admission 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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