Unit 5: Management practices and mechanization - Practice Quiz

1 Which natural resource played a major role in supporting agriculture in medieval Thanjavur?

2 Which crop was especially important in the irrigated agricultural system of Thanjavur?

3 Historical agricultural records from Allahabad and Chengalpattu indicate that Indian farmers used:

4 Which material is commonly used as a nutrient source in natural farming?

5 What is the main purpose of growing a green manure crop?

6 Which natural farming input is prepared using earthworms?

7 Which plant is commonly used to prepare a botanical pest-control extract?

8 How does crop rotation help manage crop diseases?

9 Which practice controls weeds without using synthetic herbicides?

10 What is one weed-management benefit of mulching?

11 Which implement can remove weeds between crop rows?

12 What is the main function of a seed drill?

13 Which is an important goal when selecting machinery for natural farming?

14 Why should natural farm produce be kept separate during processing?

15 Which information is useful for tracing a packaged natural farming product?

16 What is the primary purpose of an accurate product label?

17 Using farm-made inputs can improve economic viability mainly by:

18 Which record helps a farmer determine whether a natural farming enterprise is profitable?

19 What is the main purpose of certification in natural farming?

20 What does PGS commonly stand for in farm-product certification?

21 A village in medieval Thanjavur obtained high paddy yields from land served by tanks and canals. Which intervention would most directly help maintain this productivity?

22 A researcher wants to compare crop productivity reported in eighteenth-century Allahabad and Chengalpattu records. Which method would produce the most reliable comparison?

23 Records from a Chengalpattu village show paddy in irrigated fields, millets on dry land, and pulses after the main crop. What does this pattern most strongly indicate?

24 An eighteenth-century revenue record reports a high assessed output for an Allahabad village. What additional evidence is most important before treating this figure as the actual farm yield?

25 A natural farming field has low available nitrogen and sufficient phosphorus. Which practice would best address the main nutrient limitation over time?

26 A soil test shows low organic carbon, weak aggregation, and poor water retention. Which nutrient-management strategy is most suitable under natural farming?

27 A farmer applies Jeevamrit to a field but adds very little crop residue or mulch. Which outcome is most likely?

28 A farmer prepares a nutrient budget for a natural farming system. Which item should be counted as an internal nutrient source?

29 Aphids are increasing in a natural farming vegetable plot, but ladybird beetles are also abundant. What should the farmer do first?

30 A seed-borne fungal disease repeatedly affects a natural farming crop. Which preventive combination is most appropriate?

31 Weeds are most damaging during the early growth of a direct-seeded crop. Which strategy provides the best integrated control under natural farming?

32 Pheromone traps in a natural farming field show a sudden increase in moth catches. How should this information be used?

33 A farmer wants to sow a cover crop without removing the mulch from the previous crop. Which machine is most suitable?

34 A small natural farming group needs a costly mechanical weeder for only ten days each season. Which arrangement is likely to be most economically suitable?

35 A mill processes both certified natural produce and conventional produce. Which practice best prevents loss of product integrity?

36 A processed food contains certified natural millet but conventional sugar. Which labelling approach is most appropriate?

37 A natural produce enterprise has annual fixed costs of ₹30,000, a selling price of ₹30 per kg, and a variable cost of ₹18 per kg. What is its break-even output?

38 A conventional farm produces 5,000 kg sold at ₹24 per kg with a cost of ₹90,000. After conversion to natural farming, yield falls by 8%, price rises by 12%, and cost falls to ₹78,000. How does net income change?

39 A group of small farmers sells mainly in a local market and wants a participatory, lower-cost assurance system. Which certification approach is most suitable?

40 During an inspection, a farmer cannot show input records for one certified field. What is the most appropriate response by the certification system?

41 A Thanjavur inscription reports paddy output in kalam and cultivated area in veli. Which procedure is most defensible before comparing the implied yield with modern tonnes per hectare?

42 An eighteenth-century Chengalpattu record lists grain delivered as land revenue. Why can the recorded grain-to-area ratio not automatically be interpreted as crop yield?

43 Evidence from medieval Thanjavur and eighteenth-century Allahabad and Chengalpattu indicates high productivity in some locations. Which conclusion is methodologically strongest?

44 A natural-farming field exports kg N/ha annually in harvested products. New nitrogen inputs are kg from biological fixation, kg from imported manure, and kg from atmospheric deposition. Returned residues contain kg N/ha originally taken up from the same field. Ignoring other flows, what is the annual field nitrogen balance?

45 Soil testing shows severe phosphorus deficiency, while total soil phosphorus is moderate but largely unavailable. Which natural-farming strategy best distinguishes phosphorus mobilization from phosphorus addition?

46 A farmer incorporates a large quantity of cereal straw with a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio immediately before sowing a nitrogen-demanding crop. Which outcome and response are most appropriate?

47 A liquid microbial formulation is applied at L/ha and contains only nitrogen by mass. Assuming density is approximately kg/L, which interpretation is most accurate?

48 A sucking-pest population is increasing, but predators and parasitoids are also abundant. What is the most defensible decision rule under natural farming?

49 A botanical insecticide kills of a target pest but also kills of its principal predator. A microbial product kills of the pest and of the predator. When pest pressure is below the emergency threshold, which choice best supports long-term regulation?

50 A seed-borne fungal disease is followed by severe field infection under humid conditions. Which management package addresses the greatest number of points in the disease cycle?

51 A field has a large surface weed-seed bank, and the crop is highly sensitive to early competition. Which sequence is most likely to reduce weed pressure without herbicides?

52 Two inter-row weeders have equal purchase cost. Machine X covers ha/h but causes crop damage; Machine Y covers ha/h and causes crop damage. Weeding delay would reduce yield by per day. Which additional information is essential for a rational choice?

53 A seed drill previously used on a farm handling prohibited chemically treated seed is hired for a certified natural-farming field. What is the strongest contamination-control procedure?

54 A processor begins with kg of certified grain, purchases another kg, sells kg as labelled product, and closes with kg. If documented processing loss may not exceed of throughput, what does the mass balance indicate?

55 Fresh produce loses of its mass during drying. A processor receives kg and packs all resulting dried product. Which labelling and traceability practice is most accurate?

56 A conventional crop yields t/ha, sells for ₹22,000/t, and has variable costs of ₹48,000/ha. A natural-farming alternative yields t/ha and has variable costs of ₹32,000/ha. What minimum natural-product price gives the same gross margin?

57 A natural-farming system lowers purchased-input costs by ₹18,000/ha but requires additional hours of family labour. The family can earn ₹140/hour in reliable off-farm work. Ignoring other changes, what is the correct economic interpretation?

58 A farmer cooperative considers a mechanical weeder with annual fixed cost of ₹120,000 and variable cost of ₹800/ha. Manual weeding costs ₹2,600/ha. At approximately what annual serviced area do the two alternatives break even?

59 Which evidence most directly supports certification of a natural-farming operation as a process-based production system rather than merely a residue-tested product?

60 A certified field lies beside a conventional field, and a residue is detected after suspected spray drift. The concentration is below the statutory maximum residue limit. What is the most appropriate certification response?