Agriculture: Farm economy, land reforms and revolutions

H-4 was developed by Dr C.T. Patel at the Cotton Research Station, Surat, of the then Gujarat Agricultural University, and released in 1970 as the world's first commercial hybrid of cotton, an intra-hirsutum cross. Its success made India a pioneer of hybrid cotton, and by the 1990s hybrids covered a large part of the cotton area. Genetically modified Bt cotton came only in 2002, so option (a) is wrong, and the other two options misdescribe the hybrid.

Traditional tall varieties responded to nitrogen by growing taller and leafier, and then lodged (fell over) under the weight of the grain, so extra fertiliser often reduced yield. The semi-dwarf HYVs have short, stiff straw and a high harvest index, so the extra nitrogen goes into grain while the plant stays upright. Cereals do not fix nitrogen through nodules (that is a legume trait), and most HYVs are of shorter, not longer, duration.

The Green Revolution HYVs were bred for fertiliser response (a), many were of shorter duration, allowing two or more crops a year on irrigated land (c), and many were relatively photo-insensitive, so they could be sown across seasons and latitudes (d). What they did not do was perform well without water: their yield potential depended on assured irrigation, which is why rainfed and dryland areas largely missed the first wave. Option (b) is therefore the exception.

The first decade of the Green Revolution was largely a wheat revolution: the Mexican-derived wheats spread fast in the irrigated north-west, while rice gains came later and more slowly, so statement 1 is correct. The new varieties needed assured water and fertiliser, so the early gains were concentrated in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, widening regional disparities, so statement 2 is correct. Statement 3 is wrong: replacing many local landraces with a few uniform varieties caused genetic erosion, narrowing diversity in farmers' fields.

The reduced-height (Rht) genes of the Green Revolution wheats came from Norin 10, a Japanese semi-dwarf wheat taken to the United States after the Second World War and crossed by Orville Vogel and then by Norman Borlaug into the Mexican material. Dee-geo-woo- gen is the Taiwanese rice that supplied the semi-dwarfing gene of rice varieties such as Taichung Native 1 and IR8, so options (b) and (c) belong to rice. Sonora 64 is one of the Mexican wheats that carried the Norin 10 genes, not their source.

In the mid-1960s India imported semi-dwarf wheat seed bred by Norman Borlaug's programme in Mexico, the forerunner of CIMMYT; Lerma Rojo 64A and Sonora 64 were the varieties first grown on a large scale, so statement 1 is correct. Indian scientists, notably at IARI, selected better-adapted, amber-grained lines from this material, released as Kalyan Sona and Sonalika, so statement 2 is correct. Statement 3 is wrong: IR8, the 'miracle rice' of 1966, came from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines; ICRISAT, at Patancheru, works on dryland crops such as sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea and groundnut.

HB-1 (Hybrid Bajra-1) was the first commercial grain hybrid of pearl millet, released in 1965 by Punjab Agricultural University. It was made possible by Tift 23A, a cytoplasmic male-sterile line developed by Glenn Burton at Tifton, Georgia, which allowed large-scale hybrid seed production without hand emasculation. Hybrid maize in India had started earlier with double-cross hybrids such as Ganga 1 (1961), sorghum hybrids such as CSH-1 came in 1964 using a different CMS source, and hybrid rice was released only in the 1990s.

Rice is self-pollinated, so hybrid seed needs a female parent that cannot pollinate itself. In the three-line system, the A line carries cytoplasmic male sterility; it is multiplied by crossing with a maintainer (B line), which has normal cytoplasm but the same nuclear genes, so the progeny stay sterile (statement 1). The hybrid is made by crossing the A line with a restorer (R line), whose fertility-restoring genes make the F1 fertile so it can set grain (statement 2). The two-line system uses photoperiod- or thermo-sensitive genic male sterility: the line is sterile in one environment and fertile in another, so it multiplies itself and no maintainer is needed (statement 3). All three are correct.

Statements 3 and 4 are correct (b). The answer draws on the NITI Aayog paper on India's changing rural economy (2017). Statement 1 is wrong because worker productivity rose in both rural and urban areas after 1991, though faster in towns. Statement 2 is wrong because the rural share of the workforce fell, as people moved to cities and towns. Statement 3 is right because within villages the non-farm economy (construction, trade, transport, services) grew fast and now makes up most of rural output. Statement 4 is right because rural employment growth slowed.

Notice the term "jobless growth", used for India's high GDP growth with weak job creation. The PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) is now the main source on jobs.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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Option (b) is correct. After independence, land reforms aimed to give land to the tiller and the landless. The steps were abolishing zamindari and other intermediaries, tenancy reform, fixing ceilings on holdings and giving surplus land to the landless. Option (a) is wrong because ceilings were first fixed on individual holdings, and the 1972 national guidelines shifted them to family holdings. Option (c) is wrong because cash crops did not become the main form of farming because of land reforms. Option (d) is wrong because plantations, orchards, religious trusts and some efficient farms were exempted from ceilings, which weakened the reform.

Notice the success stories: Kerala and West Bengal's Operation Barga (1978). Land reform laws were placed in the Ninth Schedule to protect them from court challenges.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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Only objective 3 belongs to RAD (d). Item 3 is right: Rainfed Area Development (RAD), an area-based part of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), promotes Integrated Farming Systems. It grows crops along with horticulture, livestock, fishery and agro-forestry, so a farmer in a dry area has more than one income source when the rain fails. Item 1 is wrong: monoculture raises risk. Item 2 is wrong: irrigated rice has nothing to do with a rainfed programme.

Notice why it matters: about half of India's net sown area is rainfed, growing much of its pulses, millets and oilseeds. NMSA is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008). Related: Per Drop More Crop for micro-irrigation.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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Only one statement is correct (a). Statement 1 is right: India has about 156 million hectares of arable land, among the largest in the world and more than China's roughly 120 million. Statement 2 is wrong: by the data used for the question, China irrigated a larger share of its farmland than India, where much farming still depends on the monsoon. Statement 3 is wrong: China's yields per hectare of rice and wheat are much higher than India's, thanks to more fertiliser, seeds and mechanisation.

Notice the lesson: India's problem is not land but productivity. Small fragmented holdings, rain-fed farming and low investment hold it back, which is why schemes stress micro-irrigation and seeds.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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Statements 1 and 4 are correct (d). Statement 1 is right: the Tea Board was set up under the Tea Act, 1953, so it is a statutory body. Statement 4 is right: it keeps overseas offices in Dubai and Moscow to promote Indian tea in key markets. Statement 2 is wrong: like the Coffee, Rubber and Spices boards, it works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, because these are export crops, not under the Agriculture Ministry. Statement 3 is wrong: its head office is in Kolkata; it is the Coffee Board that sits in Bengaluru.

Notice the other boards: the Spices Board is in Kochi and the Rubber Board in Kottayam. The commodity boards have long been under review for merger and reform.

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All three statements are correct (d). Statement 1 is right: Climate-Smart Villages in Haryana, Punjab, Bihar and other States were set up under CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security), an international research programme. They test farm practices that adapt to climate change and cut emissions. Statement 2 is right: CCAFS ran under the CGIAR, whose system office is in Montpellier, France. Statement 3 is right: ICRISAT at Patancheru, Hyderabad, is one of the CGIAR research centres.

Notice other CGIAR centres: IRRI (Philippines, rice), CIMMYT (Mexico, maize and wheat) and IWMI (Sri Lanka). India's own programme is NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture) of the ICAR.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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