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 papersMoving agricultural and food products efficiently from source to buyer: planning, procurement, inventory, transport, warehousing, cold chain and outsourced logistics.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, logistics and supply chain management (heavy)
How our questions for State agricultural university MBA admission spread across the units of Agri Supply Chain & Logistics Management. Difficulty: 11 easy, 8 medium, 0 hard.
| Cold chain | 4 | |
| Traditional and modern agri supply chains | 3 | |
| Procurement and the purchasing cycle | 2 | |
| Contract and corporate farming as procurement | 2 | |
| Elements of logistics | 2 | |
| Distribution strategies and pool distribution | 2 | |
| Supply-chain drivers, metrics and obstacles | 1 | |
| Demand planning and forecasting | 1 | |
| Transport and fleet management | 1 | |
| Warehousing in the supply chain | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
In an agri-food supply chain, which flow typically moves upstream from consumer towards farmer?
B. Money (payments)
Product moves downstream from farm to consumer and money moves upstream as payment; information moves both ways. Produce and packaged goods are the downstream physical flow, not the upstream one.
Further reading: Chopra and Meindl, Supply Chain Management
Which is a recognised strength of traditional agricultural marketing chains compared with modern organised chains?
A. They buy any quantity and quality and often extend credit to farmers
Traditional chains are flexible, accept small and mixed-quality lots and traders often lend to farmers. Traceability, cold chains and sharing sales data are features of modern chains, which is why they are the tempting but wrong choices.
A feed company's annual cost of goods sold is 360,000,000 and its average inventory at cost is 60,000,000. Its inventory turnover and approximate days of inventory are
A. 6 turns and about 61 days
Turnover = COGS / average inventory = 36/6 = 6; days of inventory = 365/6 = about 61 days. Inverting the ratio gives 0.17, and confusing turns with days gives the other wrong answers.
Further reading: Chopra and Meindl, Supply Chain Management
Raw milk is most commonly priced to farmers on the basis of
B. its fat and solids-not-fat content
Most dairies pay on fat and SNF (or fat and protein) because these determine product yield. Pricing on volume alone would reward watering; distance and breed are not the pricing basis.
Side-selling in contract farming refers to
B. farmers selling contracted produce to other buyers, often when spot prices are higher
Side-selling is a farmer breach that occurs when outside prices are high. Opportunistic rejection by the buyer when prices fall is the mirror-image risk on the buyer's side.
Further reading: Eaton and Shepherd (2001), FAO
Which organisational model of contract farming is typical of a sugar mill contracting large numbers of cane growers with tight quality and harvest scheduling?
C. Centralised model
A single processor contracting many farmers with strong control is the centralised model; sugar cane, tobacco, poultry and processing vegetables are standard examples.
Further reading: Eaton and Shepherd (2001), FAO
A milk-collection vehicle that follows a fixed route picking up from several village collection centres and delivering to one chilling plant is an example of
A. a milk run
A milk run is one vehicle serving several pick-up (or delivery) points on one route; milk collection is the literal origin of the term. Drop-shipping is direct manufacturer-to-customer shipping.
Further reading: Chopra and Meindl, Supply Chain Management
For long-distance movement of bulk grain, which mode generally has the lowest cost per tonne-kilometre?
D. Water (barge or ship)
Water is generally the cheapest per tonne-km for bulk, followed by rail, then road; air is the most expensive. Road is preferred for the first and last mile, not for long-haul bulk.
Further reading: Bowersox et al., Supply Chain Logistics Management
Which pre-cooling method is especially suited to leafy vegetables such as lettuce?
C. Vacuum cooling
Vacuum cooling evaporates water from the large leaf surface under low pressure, cooling leafy greens rapidly. Onions must be kept dry, sealed bags block cooling, and curing is a different process.
Further reading: Kader (ed.), Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
Frozen foods are commonly required to be held at
C. minus 18 degrees C or colder
Minus 18 degrees C or colder is the common frozen-storage standard; 0-4 degrees C is a typical chilled range. Exact rules vary by regulation and product.
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