Unit 3: Design and ecological foundations of natural farming - Practice Quiz

1 Which type of water body was commonly constructed in ancient India to collect and store rainwater?

2 What was a major agricultural function of ancient ponds, tanks, and reservoirs?

3 What does the term Ery commonly refer to in the traditional water-management system of South India?

4 How are tanks commonly arranged in an Ery system?

5 Which is an important benefit of the Ery system?

6 Which feature is most suitable for the design of a modern natural farm?

7 Why is soil kept covered with mulch or living plants on a natural farm?

8 What is the main purpose of integrating crops, trees, and livestock on a natural farm?

9 What is meant by ecological balance?

10 Which farm practice helps maintain ecological balance?

11 What can happen when natural predators are removed from a farm ecosystem?

12 What is ecological engineering in agriculture?

13 Which feature can be planted around fields to provide habitat for pollinators and natural enemies of pests?

14 Which action best represents community responsibility in natural farming?

15 What does an ecological footprint broadly measure?

16 What does a water footprint measure?

17 A carbon footprint is mainly associated with the release of which substances?

18 Which practice can help reduce a farm's nitrogen footprint?

19 Which of the following is an ecosystem service provided by bees?

20 Why are ecosystem services evaluated on a farm?

21 An ancient settlement receives highly seasonal rainfall and has gently sloping terrain. Which water body would have been most suitable for storing monsoon runoff for use during the dry season?

22 Why were interconnected tanks often more effective than a single large tank in ancient agricultural landscapes?

23 A village plans to restore an ancient pond primarily to improve groundwater recharge. Which action best supports this objective?

24 In a traditional South Indian Ery system, what is the main function of arranging irrigation tanks in a cascade?

25 An upstream Ery has accumulated excessive silt, reducing its storage capacity. Which response provides both hydraulic and agricultural benefits?

26 Farmers near an Ery deepen only the tank but ignore its feeder channels. Why may water availability remain poor?

27 A natural farm has an upper slope prone to runoff and a lower field prone to waterlogging. Which design is most appropriate?

28 Which farm layout best supports year-round habitat for pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests?

29 A farmer wants crop residues to cycle within the farm while minimizing purchased inputs. Which design choice is most consistent with natural farming?

30 A farm experiences repeated outbreaks of a leaf-eating insect after broad-spectrum pesticide use. Which explanation best reflects ecological balance?

31 Which observation provides the strongest evidence that ecological balance is improving on a diversified farm?

32 A field margin contains weeds that host both beneficial insects and potential crop pests. What is the most ecologically balanced response?

33 Several neighboring farms share a stream, but only one farm maintains a vegetated buffer. Which community action would most effectively reduce sediment entering the stream?

34 Which intervention is an example of ecological engineering for pest management?

35 Why does community responsibility have greater importance when natural farms share a watershed?

36 A farm uses of irrigation water to produce of vegetables. What is its direct blue water footprint per kilogram?

37 Two farms produce equal yields. Farm X applies less nitrogen fertilizer but loses more nitrate through runoff than Farm Y. Which conclusion is best supported?

38 A farmer replaces diesel pumping with solar pumping but then irrigates much more land and withdraws more groundwater. Which footprint outcome is most likely?

39 A hedgerow reduces soil erosion, stores carbon, and provides habitat for pollinators. These benefits are best evaluated as which combination of ecosystem services?

40 Researchers compare crop yield with and without access by pollinating insects. What are they primarily estimating?

41 An ancient semi-arid settlement used several small tanks connected by overflow channels instead of one large reservoir. Which interpretation best explains the potential resilience of this design?

42 A historical settlement contains a runoff-fed tank and a deep stepwell connected to the local aquifer. Which use strategy would most effectively buffer seasonal water scarcity?

43 A village plans to restore an interconnected Ery cascade. Which design decision most faithfully preserves its hydrological logic?

44 An Ery receives of water. Evaporation and seepage account for , a drought reserve requires , and must pass downstream. If field application efficiency is and crop net demand is , what maximum area can be irrigated?

45 A restoration project proposes concrete-lining every feeder channel in an Ery landscape to maximize delivery into tanks. Why may selective rather than complete lining better support landscape resilience?

46 A farm has an erosion-prone upper slope, a well-drained middle slope near the homestead, and a seasonally wet lower depression. Which spatial design best follows ecological-function matching?

47 A proposed natural farm maximizes crop diversity but has no provision for livestock movement, harvest access, firebreaks, or safe disposal of pond overflow. What is the strongest design criticism?

48 A farm has eliminated synthetic inputs but retains a single crop, repeated tillage, bare soil, and dependence on purchased manure. Which transition plan most directly addresses the underlying design weaknesses?

49 Which observation provides the strongest evidence of dynamic ecological balance rather than static constancy?

50 A pest population of 800 would increase by in one week without predation. Each predator consumes 40 pests per week, and other effects are negligible. What minimum predator population would prevent a net pest increase that week?

51 A farmer plants a repellent intercrop within the main crop and an attractive trap plant around the field to redirect stem borers. Which ecological engineering principle is primarily being applied?

52 Individual farms in a watershed construct infiltration structures, but downstream flooding persists because drainage channels and common grazing land are degraded. Which response best reflects community responsibility in natural farming?

53 Two systems are compared: a natural farm has low purchased inputs but lower initial yield, while a conventional farm has higher yield and greater external input use. Which assessment is most defensible?

54 A field receives of nitrogen, of which reaches a water body. The maximum acceptable and natural background concentrations are and , respectively. What is the grey water footprint?

55 Farm A emits , sequesters , and produces 3 t of grain. Farm B emits , has no measured sequestration, and produces 2 t. Based on net carbon footprint per tonne of grain, which conclusion is correct?

56 A farm receives in manure, through biological fixation, and in deposition. Harvested products remove . Under a farm-gate nitrogen balance, what is the nitrogen surplus?

57 A farm lowers its ecological footprint per tonne by increasing yield, but groundwater depletion and nitrogen pollution both increase. What is the most accurate interpretation?

58 An analyst values orchard output at its market price and then adds the full estimated value of pollination already embodied in that output. What correction is most appropriate?

59 When is the replacement-cost method most defensible for valuing a wetland's water-purification service?

60 A payment scheme rewards farms for increasing tree cover. Which evaluation design best tests whether the scheme generated additional ecosystem services rather than paying for changes that would have occurred anyway?