UGC NET Climate Adaptation, Climate-Smart Agriculture & Disaster Risk: practice questions

1 · Adaptive capacity and resilience frameworks · easy

C.S. Holling's 1973 work distinguished two views of resilience. Ecological resilience refers to

1. the number of species a system contains at any one time
2. the speed at which a system returns to its original equilibrium
3. the total biomass a system holds at its steady state
4. the disturbance absorbed before a regime shift

2 · Adaptive capacity and resilience frameworks · easy

The sustainable livelihoods framework groups household assets into five capitals. Which list is correct?

1. Human, natural, financial, physical and social
2. Crop, livestock, fish, forest and soil
3. Food, water, energy, shelter and health
4. Land, labour, capital, enterprise and technology

3 · Climate-smart agriculture: productivity, adaptation, mitigation · easy

In which year and setting was climate-smart agriculture launched by FAO?

1. 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit alongside the Convention on Biological Diversity
2. 2015, at the Paris climate conference as part of the Paris Agreement text
3. 2010, at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change
4. 1996, at the World Food Summit in Rome with the Rome Declaration

4 · Stress-tolerant varieties, crop diversification and shifting calendars · medium

What is the main trade-off of crop diversification as a risk-management strategy?

1. It removes all weather risk but requires every farmer to own livestock as well
2. It raises income variability but always raises average income above specialisation
3. It lowers income variability but tends to cut average income versus specialising
4. It has no costs at all, so every farmer should grow as many crops as possible

5 · Stress-tolerant varieties, crop diversification and shifting calendars · easy

Drought-tolerant maize varieties developed for sub-Saharan Africa by CIMMYT, IITA and national programmes are valued because they

1. convert to sorghum when drought becomes severe in mid-season
2. are perennial and need to be sown only once every five years
3. need no rainfall at all once they have germinated in the field
4. yield more under moderate drought with no penalty in good years

6 · Water-smart and soil-smart practices · medium

Why does crop residue mulch help crops survive dry spells?

1. It cuts evaporation and runoff, keeping rain in the root zone
2. It darkens the soil surface, warming it to speed up root growth in drought
3. It releases carbon dioxide that closes stomata and stops all transpiration
4. It adds enough water from its own tissues to replace a week of rain

7 · Agromet advisories and early-warning systems · medium

Which forecast range is most useful for deciding the timing of a pesticide spray over the next two days?

1. Seasonal outlook
2. Decadal projection
3. Extended-range outlook
4. Short-range forecast

8 · Agromet advisories and early-warning systems · easy

The UN Early Warnings for All initiative aims to

1. provide free weather radios to every farmer in least developed countries by 2020
2. eliminate all disaster deaths worldwide by 2050 through structural flood defences
3. protect everyone on Earth with early-warning systems by the end of 2027
4. replace national meteorological services with a single global forecasting agency

9 · Risk transfer: crop insurance and index insurance as adaptation · easy

What is basis risk in index insurance?

1. The mismatch between a farmer's actual loss and the payout determined by the index
2. The risk that farmers deliberately neglect crops because they are insured
3. The risk that only the riskiest farmers buy insurance, raising premiums for all
4. The risk that the insurance company becomes insolvent after a widespread drought

10 · Maladaptation and limits to adaptation · hard

What distinguishes a 'soft' from a 'hard' limit to adaptation in AR6?

1. Soft limits: occur above 3 °C of warming; hard limits: occur only above 5 °C of warming
2. Soft limits: set by law; hard limits: set by the price of insurance in a given market
3. Soft limits: apply only to ecosystems; hard limits: apply only to human systems such as cities
4. Soft limits: options exist but are unavailable; hard limits: no action avoids intolerable risk