Cereal Crops Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Macaroni wheat is Triticum durum.

Durum wheat has hard, high-protein grains that give semolina, the raw material of pasta such as macaroni, which is why it is called macaroni wheat. It is grown in India mainly in central and peninsular states.

Triticum aestivum is common bread wheat, the main wheat of India. Triticum dicoccum is emmer wheat and Triticum monococcum is einkorn, both ancient hulled wheats grown only on a small scale.

Answer: C

Bajra is a kharif crop.

Pearl millet is sown with the onset of the south-west monsoon in June-July and harvested in September-October. It tolerates heat and low rainfall, which makes it a staple kharif cereal in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and the drier parts of Madhya Pradesh.

Rabi crops such as wheat and gram are sown in winter, and zaid crops such as watermelon and cucumber are grown in the short summer season between rabi and kharif.

Answer: D

The main cereal crops of Madhya Pradesh are wheat and paddy.

Wheat is the leading rabi cereal of the state, which is among India's largest wheat producers and is known for its sharbati wheat from districts such as Sehore. Paddy (rice) is the main kharif cereal, grown mainly in the eastern districts such as Balaghat, Mandla and Rewa, with large increases in recent years.

Maize, jowar, bajra and ragi are grown in parts of the state, maize especially in the west and south, but none of these pairs makes up the main cereals.

Answer: D

The answer is None of these: all three listed hybrids have shown promising results in Tripura.

The Economic Review of Tripura 2019-20 states that new paddy hybrids have been identified, Arize 6444, Rajlaxmi, PHB 71, KRH-4 and VNR-2111, and that trials in farmers' fields have shown promising results under the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). The paper prints 'VMR 2111' and 'PMB 71', which are evidently VNR 2111 and PHB 71.

Since Raj Laxmi, PMB (PHB) 71 and VMR (VNR) 2111 are all on that promising list, none of them is a hybrid that is not performing, which makes option D correct.

Answer: A

The variety known as miracle rice is IR-8.

IR-8 was released by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines in 1966, from a cross between the Indonesian variety Peta and the Taiwanese semi-dwarf Dee-geo-woo-gen. Its short, stiff stem let it take heavy doses of nitrogen without lodging, and it could yield several times as much as traditional tall varieties. Introduced in India in 1966-67, it became a symbol of the Green Revolution in rice.

CR Dhan 802 and DRR Dhan-54 are recent releases of the ICAR rice institutes at Cuttack and Hyderabad, decades after the Green Revolution, and Gomati is not the variety that carries the 'miracle rice' label.

Answer: C

The protein of maize is Zein.

Zein is the prolamin, the alcohol-soluble storage protein, of the maize endosperm and makes up roughly half of the grain's protein. It is poor in the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which is why quality protein maize was bred from the opaque-2 mutant to reduce zein and raise those amino acids.

'Zien' is a misspelling of zein. Zea is the genus name of maize, not a protein. Lysine is an amino acid that maize protein lacks, so it is the opposite of the right answer.

Answer: B

The male inflorescence of maize is the Tassel.

Maize is monoecious: the male and female flowers are on separate inflorescences of the same plant. The tassel at the top of the stem is a terminal panicle carrying the male spikelets, which shed pollen. The female inflorescence is the ear (cob) in a leaf axil lower down.

Silk is the long style of the female flowers that hangs out of the ear and catches pollen, and the ear head is the female cob, so both belong to the female side. 'Naid' is not a botanical term for any part of the maize plant.

Answer: A

SRI is associated with rice production.

SRI is the System of Rice Intensification, developed in Madagascar in the 1980s. It transplants young seedlings singly at wide spacing, keeps the soil moist rather than flooded, and adds organic matter, raising yields while using less seed and water. Tripura has adopted it widely across its paddy fields.

It has nothing to do with rural connectivity, e-marketing or respect for elders.