Organic Farming Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Use of herbicides to check weeds is not a characteristic of organic farming. Organic systems prohibit synthetic herbicides and rely on mulching, crop rotation, hand weeding and cultivation to control weeds.

Protecting the long-term fertility of soil, biological nitrogen fixation with recycling of farm waste, and use of natural predators and bio-pesticides are all principles of organic farming.

The idea behind organic farming is to manage weeds without synthetic chemicals, so herbicides are excluded. The permitted weed control methods are cultural and mechanical, such as mulching, crop rotation and hoeing.

Answer: D

The National Programme for Organic Production was launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with APEDA as the implementing agency, in 2001. It provides the standards for organic production and the certification system for exports.

The Ministry of Agriculture runs other organic schemes, and the Ministry of Skill Development and the Ministry of Environment are not responsible for NPOP.

The programme was launched in 2001 under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act and it is run by APEDA under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It sets the standards for organic production and the accreditation of certification bodies.

Answer: A

The Rishi Krishi system is linked to Mohan Shankar Deshpande. Sources I found name him as author on a Rishi-Krishi, Deshpande technique of farming and as the originator of a liquid manure called Amrutpani, but I found no independent history of how the system evolved, so the key's attribution is supported only in part.

Subhash Palekar is known for Zero Budget Natural Farming, which is a different system.

Answer: C

Adaptability is not one of the principles of organic farming. The four principles of organic agriculture are health, ecology, fairness and care, so ‘principle of adaptability’ is not among them.

Ecology, health and care are all principles of organic farming, so options A, B and D are wrong for a NOT question.

The four principles stated by IFOAM for organic agriculture are health, ecology, fairness and care. Adaptability is not one of the four, so it is the answer to a question that asks for the one that is not a principle.

Answer: B

Oak bark (Quercus robur) is used in the biodynamic preparation BD 505. In biodynamic farming, the numbered preparations 502 to 507 are made from yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian.

BD 504 is made from stinging nettle, 506 from dandelion and 507 from valerian.

BD 505 is made of oak bark packed in the skull of a domestic animal and buried in a wet place over winter, and it is used on the compost. BD 504 is nettle, 506 dandelion and 507 valerian.

Answer: A

Spraying vermi-wash protects crops from bacterial infections, according to the key. Vermi-wash is the liquid collected after water passes through a vermicompost bed, and it is used as a foliar spray with some protective effect. I could not confirm the claim for bacterial diseases from a source.

Vermicompost, bone meal and safflower cake are soil applications and cannot be sprayed.

Answer: C

The first such State is Sikkim.

Sikkim adopted a policy of converting to organic farming in 2003, phased out chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and was declared India's first fully organic state in January 2016, with all its farmland, about 75,000 hectares, certified organic. Its achievement later won the FAO's Future Policy Award.

Madhya Pradesh has the largest area under organic cultivation in India, which makes it a tempting distractor, but it is not fully organic. Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh have organic farming policies too, but neither was the first state to depend wholly on organic farming.

Answer: A

The system described is Organic farming.

The wording follows the Codex Alimentarius definition: organic agriculture is a holistic production management system that promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It relies on crop rotation, organic manures, biological pest control and the exclusion of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

Inorganic farming depends on synthetic inputs. Dryland and irrigated farming describe the water regime of a farm, not a production system built around biological cycles.

Answer: D

The father of organic farming is Sir Albert Howard.

The British botanist Sir Albert Howard worked for many years in India, where at the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore, he developed the Indore method of composting. His book An Agricultural Testament (1940) set out the principles of returning organic matter to the soil, and he is regarded as the founder of the modern organic movement.

V.V. Dokuchaev (the paper's "Peter Dokuchev") is known as the father of soil science, and Stevenson and Sorenson are not associated with founding organic farming.

Answer: D

In organic farming chemical fertilizers are not used.

Organic farming avoids synthetic inputs: chemical fertilisers, chemical pesticides and herbicides, and genetically modified seeds. It keeps the soil fertile with natural inputs instead.

The other three options describe practices organic farming actively uses. Manures (farmyard manure, compost, vermicompost) and biofertilisers such as Rhizobium, Azotobacter and blue-green algae are its main sources of nutrients, and intercropping and crop rotation are standard methods for controlling pests and maintaining fertility.