UP Agriculture, Crops and Livestock: Notes with PYQs

The correct answer is B, Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh grows more sugarcane than any other state, chiefly in the western districts of Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Bijnor and in the Tarai belt, where deep alluvial soil, assured canal and tubewell water and a long growing season suit the crop; the state also has the largest number of sugar mills. Option A, Maharashtra, stands next and usually records a higher sugar recovery rate, which is why it is the strongest distractor and sometimes the answer to a question about sugar production or recovery rather than cane. Option C, Karnataka, is a significant grower of the south but well behind. Option D, Tamil Nadu, has high yields per hectare but a far smaller area. Read the question carefully: cane area and cane output point to Uttar Pradesh.

The correct answer is D, intensive subsistence farming. Where many people depend on a limited area of land, as in the Ganga plain of Uttar Pradesh, holdings are small, the farmer uses a great deal of family labour and manure, irrigation is applied wherever possible and two or three crops are taken from the same field each year; this is intensive subsistence farming. Option A, extensive subsistence farming, works large areas with little labour per hectare and belongs to thinly peopled regions. Option B, commercial farming, is carried on for sale with hired labour and bought inputs, as on a plantation. Option C, primitive subsistence farming, means shifting cultivation with the hoe and the digging stick, practised by tribal communities on forest patches. The clue in such questions is always the phrase about population pressure.

The correct answer is D, Barley. Barley is a rabi crop of northern India, sown between October and December after the monsoon and harvested in March and April along with wheat, gram, pea, lentil and mustard; it tolerates poorer and saltier soils than wheat, which is why it is grown in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. Option A, rice, is the main kharif crop of the north, sown with the rains and harvested in autumn, though a boro or summer crop is taken in a few areas. Option B, jowar, and Option C, maize, are also chiefly kharif crops, maize being taken in the rabi season only in a few states such as Bihar. Fix the rabi list in memory as wheat, barley, gram, pea, lentil, mustard and berseem.

The correct answer is D, Mustard. Mustard is a rabi oilseed, sown in October and November and harvested in February and March, and in Uttar Pradesh it is grown mainly in the Agra, Mathura and Aligarh tract; the cool dry weather of the rabi season suits it. Option A, cotton, is a kharif crop sown with the monsoon and picked from October onwards. Option B, groundnut, is also mainly a kharif oilseed, though a summer crop is taken in a few southern states. Option C, maize, is sown with the rains as a kharif cereal in most of the country. The trap here is that both mustard and groundnut are oilseeds, so a candidate who remembers only the crop type and not the season picks the wrong one; learn each crop with its season.

The correct answer is B, the ravines of Etawah. The Jamunapari takes its name from the Yamuna and comes from the ravine country where the Yamuna, Chambal and Kwari meet around Etawah and Chakarnagar; it is the largest Indian goat breed, recognised by its long drooping ears, roman nose and tuft of hair on the hindquarters, and it has been exported to improve goat stock in other countries. Option A, the Tarai of Pilibhit, is the home of the Ponwar cattle breed. Option C, Bundelkhand, is associated with gram and pea cultivation and with the Bundelkhandi goat. Option D, the Vindhyan tract of Mirzapur, is known for its forests and stone rather than a named goat breed. Learn Jamunapari with Etawah and Barbari with Mathura and Etawah together.

The correct answer is A, the highest fat content in its milk. The Bhadawari buffalo comes from the Bhadawar tract along the Yamuna and Chambal in Agra, Etawah and the neighbouring districts, and although its yield is modest the fat percentage of its milk is the highest among Indian buffalo breeds, which makes it valued for ghee. Option B is wrong because the largest yields come from the Murrah of Haryana and the Mehsana and Jaffarabadi of Gujarat. Option C is wrong because the Bhadawari is a milch breed, not a draught animal; among cattle of the state, the Kherigarh and Ponwar are the draught breeds. Option D is wrong because cold resistance is a feature of hill breeds, not of a buffalo of the plains. Remember Murrah for yield and Bhadawari for fat.

The correct answer is A, Izatnagar in Bareilly. The Indian Veterinary Research Institute is at Izatnagar in Bareilly district, with its older campus at Mukteswar in Uttarakhand, and it is the premier institution for veterinary research, vaccine work and animal disease control in India; the Central Avian Research Institute is on the same Izatnagar campus. Option B, Makhdoom in Mathura, is the seat of the Central Institute for Research on Goats. Option C is a mixed name: Pusa is in Samastipur in Bihar and in New Delhi, while Lucknow has the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture and the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources. Option D, Kalyanpur in Kanpur, is the campus of a state agricultural university and of the National Sugar Institute nearby.

The correct answer is A, Siddharthnagar. Kalanamak is a scented rice of the Tarai districts around Siddharthnagar, close to Kapilvastu, and tradition links it with the Buddha, who is said to have given the grain to the people of the region; its husk is black, the grain fragrant, and it has been registered as a geographical indication. Option B, Barabanki, is the centre of mentha or menthol mint cultivation. Option C, Farrukhabad, is a leading potato and vegetable district along with Agra, Kannauj and Aligarh. Option D, Pratapgarh, is famous for aonla, the Indian gooseberry, which also carries a geographical indication. In such questions each district has one crop label, so prepare them as pairs rather than as separate facts. The same district also appears in questions on the Tarai rice belt, so keep Siddharthnagar, Kapilvastu and Kalanamak together in one line of revision.

The correct answer is C, nine. Uttar Pradesh is divided into nine agro-climatic zones so that crop advice can follow soil, rainfall and temperature rather than district boundaries. They are the Bhabhar and Tarai zone along the Himalayan foot, the Western Plain, the Mid Western Plain, the South Western Semi Arid zone, the Central Plain, the Bundelkhand zone, the North Eastern Plain, the Eastern Plain and the Vindhyan zone. Option A, five, and Option B, seven, are the kind of round figures offered as distractors. Option D, eleven, is also wrong for the state. Note the different idea the paper may test instead: the Planning Commission divided the whole country into fifteen agro-climatic regions, of which the Upper Gangetic Plain region covers most of Uttar Pradesh, so read the question to see whether it asks about the state or the country.

The correct answer is A, mentha or menthol mint. Uttar Pradesh grows most of the Indian mint crop, concentrated in Barabanki, Rampur, Badaun, Sambhal and the neighbouring districts, and the menthol and mint oil distilled from it go largely to export, which has made mint a cash crop of the zaid and early kharif season there. Option B, sunflower, is grown chiefly in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra. Option C, castor, is associated above all with Gujarat and Rajasthan. Option D, linseed, is a rabi oilseed of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and parts of Uttar Pradesh but not a crop of these particular districts. Keep the district label in mind: Barabanki means mentha, just as Malihabad means the Dussehri mango. Mint is also asked as an industrial or aromatic crop, so note that it is distilled rather than crushed for oil like the other oilseeds listed here.