Passage

Passage-5 Historically, the biggest challenge to world agriculture has been to achieve a balance between demand for and supply of food. At the level of individual countries, the demand-supply balance can be a critical policy issue for a closed economy, especially if it is a populous economy and its domestic agriculture is not growing sufficiently enough to ensure food supplies, on an enduring basis; it is not so much and not always, of a constraint for an open, and growing economy, which has adequate exchange surpluses to buy food abroad. For the world as a whole, supply-demand balance is always an inescapable prerequisite for warding off hunger and starvation. However, global availability of adequate supply does not necessarily mean that food would automatically move from countries of surplus to countries of deficit if the latter lack in purchasing power. The uneven distribution of hunger, starvation, under- or malnourishment, etc., at the world-level, thus owes itself to the presence of empty-pocket hungry mouths, overwhelmingly confined to the underdeveloped economies. Inasmuch as 'a two-square meal' is of elemental significance to basic human existence, the issue of worldwide supply of food has been gaining significance, in recent times, both because the quantum and the composition of demand has been undergoing big changes, and because, in recent years, the capabilities of individual countries to generate uninterrupted chain of food supplies have come under strain. Food production, marketing and prices, especially price-affordability by the poor in the developing world, have become global issues that need global thinking and global solutions.

According to the above passage, which of the following are the fundamental solutions for the world food security problem ? 1. Setting up more agro-based industries 2. Improving the price affordability by the poor 3. Regulating the conditions of marketing 4. Providing food subsidy to one and all Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only ✓ UPSC's answer
(c) 1, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Why the answer is (b)

• The passage explicitly states that 'Food production, marketing and prices, especially price-affordability by the poor in the developing world, have become global issues that need global thinking and global solutions.'

• This sentence directly identifies 'marketing' (implying regulation of conditions) and 'price-affordability by the poor' as the key areas requiring solutions.

• Therefore, improving price affordability (Statement 2) and regulating the conditions of marketing (Statement 3) are the fundamental solutions derived from the text.

• The passage does not mention setting up agro-based industries (Statement 1) or providing universal food subsidies (Statement 4) as specific solutions.

• Consequently, only statements 2 and 3 are supported by the passage, making option (b) the correct answer.

Why the other options are wrong

(a) 1 and 2 only: Option (a) incorrectly includes Statement 1 (agro-based industries), which is not mentioned in the passage as a solution, and excludes Statement 3 (marketing conditions), which is explicitly cited.
(c) 1, 3 and 4 only: Option (c) incorrectly includes Statements 1 and 4, which are not supported by the text, and excludes Statement 2 (price affordability), which is explicitly identified as a key issue.
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4: Option (d) incorrectly includes Statements 1 and 4, which are not mentioned in the passage, thereby adding unsupported solutions to the correct pair.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2016, held on 7 August 2016. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.