UPSC Civil Services Examination Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture & Food Systems: practice questions

Question 1 · easy

Which of these is an indirect pathway by which climate change affects crop production?

1. Spread of insect pests into areas once limited by frost
2. Faster photosynthesis of C3 crops under higher carbon dioxide
3. Pollen sterility caused by temperatures above 35 °C at flowering
4. Shortening of the grain-filling period as mean temperature rises

Question 2 · easy

AR6 Working Group II assessed the effect of climate change on global agricultural productivity growth over the past 50 years. What did it conclude?

1. Climate change has reversed it to a steady decline
2. Climate change has slowed it
3. Climate change has accelerated it through CO₂ alone
4. Climate change has had no detectable effect on it

Question 3 · medium

Experiments at carbon dioxide levels expected later this century found which change in the grain of C3 cereals such as wheat and rice?

1. Higher vitamin A and lower starch content
2. Higher zinc, iron and protein concentrations
3. Lower zinc, iron and protein concentrations
4. No change in any measured nutrient

Question 4 · easy

Rice varieties carrying the SUB1A gene are bred to tolerate which stress?

1. Soil salinity above 12 dS m⁻¹ all season
2. Complete submergence for up to two weeks
3. Air temperatures above 45 °C at flowering
4. Drought lasting the entire growing season

Question 5 · easy

How are many marine fish species responding to ocean warming?

1. Staying in place and increasing in body size
2. Moving permanently into freshwater rivers
3. Shifting their ranges poleward and into deeper water
4. Shifting their ranges toward the equator and shallower water

Question 6 · medium

Why can relative sea-level rise in a large river delta be several times the global mean rate?

1. The delta is subsiding from groundwater pumping, sediment trapping by dams and soil compaction
2. Deltas are rising tectonically, which tide gauges record as faster sea-level rise
3. Global sea level rises fastest wherever the ocean is shallow, regardless of land movement
4. Deltas receive extra seawater because rivers pull the ocean inland during the dry season

Question 7 · easy

Which four dimensions of food security follow from the 1996 World Food Summit definition?

1. Production, trade, price, input subsidy
2. Availability, access, utilisation, stability
3. Land, water, labour, capital
4. Calories, protein, fat, carbohydrate

Question 8 · medium

A flood contaminates drinking water and spreads diarrhoeal disease, so children absorb less of the food they eat. Which dimension of food security is most directly affected?

1. Availability
2. Agency
3. Access
4. Utilisation

Question 9 · medium

Which groups did AR6 identify as bearing the greatest food-security impacts of climate change?

1. Urban high-income consumers whose diets rely mainly on imported processed food
2. Low-income households, women, children, Indigenous peoples and smallholders
3. Food-processing multinationals, whose supply chains lack any diversification
4. Large commercial farms in high-income countries with full crop insurance coverage

Question 10 · medium

Which combination of climate risks is a leading concern for wheat in the Indo-Gangetic Plains?

1. Terminal heat during grain filling and groundwater depletion
2. Sea-ice loss and ocean acidification in irrigation canals
3. Glacier advance and rising snow cover in the plains
4. Frost at flowering and permafrost thaw beneath the fields