Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) with Sustainability Specialty · USA / Canada / international · International Certified Crop Adviser program (American Society of Agronomy)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersCertified Crop Adviser (CCA) with Sustainability Specialty is a professional certification run by International Certified Crop Adviser program (American Society of Agronomy), for candidates in USA / Canada / international. International exam plus a local/regional exam for CCA; specialty certifications (Sustainability, 4R Nutrient Management) each add an exam. Experience and education requirements apply.
Official site: certifiedcropadviser.org.
We have not been able to confirm these details against the exam body's own specification, so fees, dates and pass marks are left out on purpose. Check the current format, eligibility, fees and dates on the official site.
Reducing the harm climate does: vulnerability assessment, climate-smart agriculture, early warning, contingency plans, insurance and national adaptation planning. Index insurance as a financial product is in the Agribusiness track; here it is one adaptation tool among many.
Our 16 Certified Crop Adviser with Sustainability Specialty questions in this subject: 1 easy, 9 medium, 6 hard, across 8 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to Certified Crop Adviser with Sustainability Specialty and are not shown on any other exam's page.
A farm faces two flood types: a moderate flood with annual probability 0.10 causing a loss of 20,000, and a severe flood with annual probability 0.02 causing a loss of 100,000. What is the expected annual loss?
D. 4,000
EAL = 0.10 × 20,000 + 0.02 × 100,000 = 2,000 + 2,000 = 4,000. 120,000 adds the losses ignoring probability; 12,000 adds probabilities and multiplies by 100,000; 2,000 counts only one event type.
Which example shows a trade-off between climate-smart agriculture pillars?
C. Expanding pumped irrigation raises yields and resilience but adds energy emissions and depletes aquifers
Pumped irrigation helps productivity and adaptation while harming mitigation and long-run water security, a pillar trade-off. The other examples are synergies or win–wins in the cases described.
A crop needs a net irrigation of 400 mm. How much more water must be applied with surface irrigation at 50 per cent efficiency than with drip at 90 per cent efficiency?
C. 356 mm
Gross = net ÷ efficiency: surface 400/0.5 = 800 mm; drip 400/0.9 = 444 mm; difference = 356 mm. 160 mm multiplies net by the efficiency gap (0.4); 800 mm is the surface total; 400 mm is the net requirement itself.
Why can higher farm irrigation efficiency fail to save water at basin scale?
B. Saved water is often used to expand area or switch crops, and former return flows no longer reach users downstream
This is the irrigation efficiency paradox: much 'lost' water returned to rivers and aquifers, and efficiency gains often enable more consumptive use. Caps or allocation rules are needed. Drip is not inherently leakier, irrigation does not raise basin rainfall that way, and use is not fixed by law everywhere.
What are the three principles of conservation agriculture as defined by FAO?
B. Minimum disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop diversification
FAO's conservation agriculture rests on minimum mechanical disturbance, permanent organic cover and diversification through rotations or associations. The other lists contradict or are unrelated to it.
In alternate wetting and drying (AWD) for rice, when is the field typically re-flooded under the common guideline?
C. When the water level falls to 15 cm below the soil surface in a field tube
The 'safe AWD' guideline re-floods when the perched water table drops about 15 cm below the surface, measured in a perforated tube. Waiting for leaf rolling causes yield loss; one irrigation or continuous flooding are not AWD.
A severe cyclone warning is issued for a coastal district with a nearly mature rice crop. Which action is most appropriate?
C. Harvest the mature crop early and move grain, seed and inputs to safe storage
Early harvest and securing stores protect what can be saved. Fertiliser and pesticide would be washed away and wasted, and deliberate flooding does not anchor plants.
Why must contingency plans be revised periodically?
D. Onset dates, dry spells, heat extremes, varieties and markets change over time
Climate trends and changes in irrigation, varieties and markets make older recommendations obsolete. Legal expiry and political turnover are not the reasons, and zones and conditions do change.
A rainfall-index policy has a sum insured of 50,000, a trigger of 100 mm and an exit of 40 mm, with linear payout between them. Seasonal rainfall at the reference station is 70 mm. What is the payout?
A. 25,000
Payout = 50,000 × (100 − 70)/(100 − 40) = 50,000 × 30/60 = 25,000. 35,000 pays in proportion to rainfall received (70%); 15,000 divides by the trigger instead of the trigger–exit range; 50,000 pays the full sum, which applies only at or below the exit.
An index policy pays 20,000 with probability 0.10 and 40,000 with probability 0.05 in a year, and nothing otherwise. What is the actuarially fair premium?
A. 4,000
Fair premium = expected payout = 0.10 × 20,000 + 0.05 × 40,000 = 2,000 + 2,000 = 4,000. 60,000 adds payouts; 9,000 adds probabilities times 60,000; 2,000 counts only one outcome.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
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