GS Paper III — Q14
What are the present challenges before crop diversification? How do emerging technologies provide an opportunity for crop…
What are the present challenges before crop diversification? How do emerging technologies provide an opportunity for crop diversification? (Answer in 250 words)
हिंदी में प्रश्न पढ़ें
फसल विविधता के समक्ष मौजूदा चुनौतियाँ क्या हैं ? उभरती प्रौद्योगिकियाँ फसल विविधता के लिए किस प्रकार अवसर प्रदान करती हैं ? (250 शब्दों में उत्तर दीजिए)
Model answer
Drafted with AI by UPSC Answer Check against this question's marking rubric, to the 250-word length. UPSC does not publish answers for Mains — this is one way to score well, not an official key. How we build rubrics and answers.
(a) Challenges before diversification: Crop diversification means shifting from paddy-wheat monocultures to high-value, climate-resilient crops. The obstacles are:
- Economic: Assured procurement and MSP tilt incentives towards cereals, while pulses and horticulture face price volatility and weak forward market linkages.
- Structural: Over 86% of farmers are small and marginal, limiting scale; groundwater depletion and poor cold chains cause high post-harvest losses in perishables.
- Institutional: Slow APMC reforms, insurance gaps under PMFBY and weak research-extension support for minor crops raise the risk of switching.
(b) Opportunities from emerging technologies:
- Precision agriculture: IoT soil sensors, drones and variable-rate technology optimise inputs, making resource-intensive alternatives cost-effective.
- Biotechnology and AI: Drought-tolerant and genome-edited varieties reduce climate risk in dryland zones, and AI advisories match crops to soil and weather.
- Digital markets and aggregation: Blockchain traceability and e-NAM-type platforms help secure price premiums, and tech-enabled FPOs aggregate fragmented produce and link it to buyers.
Costs, digital literacy gaps and weak extension limit adoption, so scaling through AgriStack and decentralised procurement reforms must accompany them.
How this answer will be evaluated
Framework: Situation > Analysis > Measures > Assessment
What earns full marks: Clearly identifies 3-4 challenges and maps specific emerging technologies to them, with a balanced assessment.
Evaluation rubric
Each sub-part is marked on its own, against the marks and word limit printed on the paper.
- The answer Identify 3-4 challenges to crop diversification and map emerging technologies as solutions. 15 marks · 250 words
challenges— 3-4 challenges → solutions mapped to them → conclusion
Must cover
- Identify 3-4 specific challenges (e.g., MSP bias, water scarcity, market access).
- Map emerging technologies (e.g., precision ag, AI, drones) to specific challenges.
- Explain how technology provides an opportunity for diversification.
- Give a balanced assessment of the potential impact, noting adoption barriers.
Loses marks
- Focusing only on MSP without addressing other challenges.
- Listing technologies without explaining their specific application to diversification.
- Vague or generic statements without concrete examples.
Earns more
- Mention specific technologies like AI, IoT, or drones.
- Reference specific crops or regions for context.
- Discuss the economic or environmental benefits of diversification.
- Mention policy support for technology adoption.
Extra mark
- Cite a specific government scheme or initiative supporting crop diversification.
- Mentions cost and digital-literacy barriers to technology adoption.
What "Explain" is asking you to do
Make the working of something clear — what sets it off, what follows from what, and what it produces. Explain is the Commission's mechanism word: it dominates the technical papers and the “explain why” stems, where the marks sit in the causal chain and not in the label.
Structure that answers it
State what it is → the initiating condition → the chain of cause, step by step → an instance where it plays out → what the chain produces
Where marks are lost
Describing what something looks like instead of why it works that way. Naming the stages without linking them reads as description too.
Practice this exact question
Write your answer and it is marked point by point against the model answer above — what you covered, what you missed, what you got wrong.
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