UGC NET Sustainable & Integrated Farming Systems: practice questions

1 · Systems thinking applied to farms · medium

The FAO and World Bank study by Dixon and colleagues (2001) classified farming systems in developing regions into about:

1. 7 farming systems
2. 720 farming systems
3. 72 farming systems
4. 12 farming systems

2 · Integrated crop-livestock-fish systems · hard

Integrated farming system models reported from research farms often show much higher incomes than similar systems on ordinary farms. Which caution applies?

1. Ordinary farms usually produce more than research farms, so results are understated
2. Research-farm results may not reflect farmers' labour, skills, markets and risk
3. Integrated systems cannot be measured on ordinary farms at all
4. Research farms use no inputs, so their results are always conservative

3 · Rainfed and dryland farming systems · hard

FAO estimates indicate rainfed agriculture occupies roughly what share of world cropland and of world food production?

1. About four-fifths of cropland and well over half of food
2. About one-tenth of cropland and almost none of the food
3. All cropland and all food, since irrigation is negligible
4. About half of cropland and nearly all exported food

4 · Sustainable intensification: concept and critique · medium

The 2009 Royal Society report that made sustainable intensification prominent was titled:

1. Our Common Future
2. Silent Spring
3. Reaping the Benefits
4. Limits to Growth

5 · Sustainable intensification: concept and critique · hard

Higher yields make farming more profitable and encourage clearing new land, so total farmland grows. This is the:

1. Rebound or Jevons effect
2. Land equivalent ratio
3. Competitive production principle
4. Law of diminishing returns

6 · Energy budgeting of farming systems · hard

Why can the treatment of human labour change the ranking of traditional and mechanised systems in energy studies?

1. Human labour has no energy content, so it never affects any energy ratio
2. Mechanised systems use no fuel, so labour is their only energy input
3. Traditional systems always use more fertiliser energy than mechanised ones
4. Studies count labour as work-hours, as household food energy or not at all

7 · Smallholder livelihoods and resilience · easy

Lowder and colleagues (2016) estimated roughly how many farms worldwide are smaller than 2 hectares?

1. About 47 million
2. About 475 million
3. About 4.75 billion
4. About 4.75 million

8 · Natural farming and low-input systems: evidence review · hard

Why do farmer surveys of natural farming often report better results than some controlled station trials?

1. Surveys use self-selected farmers, recalled yields and partial labour costs
2. Station trials always use the wrong crops, so their results cannot be trusted
3. Natural farming works only on farms and never on any research station
4. Surveys measure yield more accurately than any controlled experiment