UPSC Prelims 2023 CSAT Paper II · Q35 of 77 Comprehension medium

Passage

Passage - 3 Food consumption patterns have changed substantially in India over the past few decades. This has resulted in the disappearance of many nutritious foods such as millets. While food grain production has increased over five times since independence, it has not sufficiently addressed the issue of malnutrition. For long, the agriculture sector focussed on increasing food production particularly staples, which led to lower production and consumption of indigenous traditional crops/grains, fruits and other vegetables, impacting food and nutrition security in the process. Further, intensive, monoculture agriculture practices can perpetuate the food and nutrition security problem by degrading the quality of land, water and food derived through them.

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made : 1. To implement the Sustainable Development Goals and to achieve zero-hunger goal, monoculture agriculture practices are inevitable even if they do not address malnutrition. 2. Dependence on a few crops has negative consequences for human health and the ecosystem. 3. Government policies regarding food planning need to incorporate nutritional security. 4. For the present monoculture agriculture practices, farmers receive subsidies in various ways and government offers remunerative prices for grains and therefore they do not tend to consider crop diversity. Which of the above assumptions are valid ?

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

Why the answer is (b)

• Assumption 1 is invalid because the passage explicitly states that monoculture practices perpetuate food and nutrition security problems, contradicting the idea that they are inevitable for achieving zero-hunger.

• Assumption 2 is valid as the passage notes that focusing on staples led to lower production of nutritious foods and that monoculture degrades land, water, and food quality, negatively impacting health and the ecosystem.

• Assumption 3 is valid because the passage highlights that the focus on production over nutrition has impacted food and nutrition security, implying that government policies must incorporate nutritional security to address malnutrition.

• Assumption 4 is invalid because the passage does not mention government subsidies or remunerative prices as the reason for farmers' lack of crop diversity; it attributes the issue to the sector's long-standing focus on increasing staple production.

• Therefore, only assumptions 2 and 3 are supported by the text, making option (b) the correct answer.

Why the other options are wrong

(a) 1, 2 and 4 only
Option (a) is incorrect because it includes Assumption 1, which contradicts the passage's statement that monoculture degrades food quality, and Assumption 4, which is not mentioned in the text.
(c) 3 and 4 only
Option (c) is incorrect because it includes Assumption 4, which relies on external information about subsidies not present in the passage, and excludes the valid Assumption 2.
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Option (d) is incorrect because it includes Assumptions 1 and 4, both of which are not supported by the passage; Assumption 1 contradicts the text, and Assumption 4 is not mentioned.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2023, held on 28 May 2023. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

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