With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements : 1. A substantial saving in seed material is made when 'bud chip settlings' are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field. 2. When direct planting of setts is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds. 3. If bad weather conditions prevail when setts are directly planted, single-budded setts have better survival as compared to large setts. 4. Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- A.1 and 2 only
- B.3 only
- C.1 and 4 only
- D.2, 3 and 4 only
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, 1 and 4 only. Bud chip nurseries save seed cane and tissue-culture settlings are used, but single-bud setts do worse than larger setts when planted directly.
Farmers traditionally plant sugarcane by laying setts, cut pieces of cane with two or three buds, directly in furrows, which needs several tonnes of seed cane per hectare. In the bud chip method only the small bud with a bit of surrounding tissue is scooped out and raised in trays in a nursery; the young settlings are then transplanted, cutting the seed requirement sharply and leaving the rest of the cane for crushing. Tissue culture is also used to produce healthy, disease-free settlings of new varieties. A single-bud sett planted directly has a small food store and loses moisture fast, so its germination and survival are poorer than a sett with more buds, especially in bad weather.
A is wrong because statement 2 is false. B is wrong because statement 3 is false. D is wrong because it includes statements 2 and 3 and leaves out statement 1.
Exam tip: bud chip nursery and tissue-culture settlings are the modern seed-saving ways to plant sugarcane.
Practice Questions
View allConsider the following statements : 1. Areas where rainfall exceeds 250 cm 2. Annual temperature 25°C - 27°C 3. Average humidity exceeds 75% 4. Trees do not shed the leaves To which one of the following types of vegetation does the above represent ?
- A.Tropical wet evergreen
- B.Tropical semi evergreen
- C.Tropical moist deciduous
- D.Tropical dry evergreen
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Very heavy rainfall, high and steady temperature, humidity above 75 per cent and trees that stay green all year are the marks of tropical wet evergreen forests.
Read the full explanation →In shifting cultivation, the ash of the burnt vegetation serves mainly as
- A.A pesticide
- B.A manure that supplies nutrients to the soil
- C.A weedicide that kills the forest roots
- D.A means of levelling the slope
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In slash-and-burn farming the felled trees and undergrowth are dried and burnt on the spot, and the ash left behind is rich in potash and other mineral nutrients, which the cultivator depends on because no chemical fertiliser or farmyard manure is used.
Read the full explanation →Mediterranean agriculture is particularly famous for which activity?
- A.Viticulture
- B.Dairy farming
- C.Shifting cultivation
- D.Commercial grain farming
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The Mediterranean climate, with its hot dry summer and mild wet winter, suits the vine better than almost any other region, and the lands around the Mediterranean sea, together with California, central Chile, the Cape region of South Africa and parts of southern Australia, are the world's great wine-producing areas…
Read the full explanation →The 'kolkhoz' of the former Soviet Union was an example of
- A.Cooperative farming
- B.Collective farming
- C.Plantation agriculture
- D.Market gardening
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The kolkhoz was the collective farm of the former Soviet Union, in which land, implements, livestock and labour were pooled and the farm worked under state direction with production targets fixed by the plan; the state farm, worked wholly by wage earners, was called the sovkhoz.
Read the full explanation →Intensive subsistence agriculture, marked by very small holdings, heavy use of manure and a high yield per hectare, is characteristic of
- A.The prairies of North America
- B.The monsoon lands of Asia
- C.The steppes of Eurasia
- D.The pampas of South America
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Where population is dense and holdings have been divided by inheritance over generations, as in India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia, the farmer puts in abundant labour, manure and irrigation water on a tiny field and takes more than one crop a year.
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