Instructions

Study the given passage and answer the questions that follow.

With a large arable land area and temperate climate, our country is endowed by nature for agricultural production. As against the world average of only 11%,our arable land area is 51% of the total land area, which can produce two crops a year, even if half of the standard rainfall is received. More than 38 million hectares of land, though cultivable, has been left uncultivated and classified as ‘cultivable wasteland. This accounts for more than the total cultivated land area of our neighbouring four countries taken together. Not only is our rainwater being wasted, but the good top soils are also being eroded and ground water is being depleted. We have not yet given due planning focus to preserve our most valuable natural assets, land and water, which are responsible for agricultural production and consequently, the incidence of poverty. Furthermore, lower increase in prices of farm outputs Compared to those of farm inputs have led to poor profits, poor capital formation and stagnation in the farm sector. It is the people of any country including, of course, those who work in agriculture production, who make or mar its future, not just the politician, industrialists and technicians. Though the latter always play an important role for a country's development, the majority of its people should not be left wallowing in poverty as nothing much can be achieved for improving their status without improving production in agricultural sector and fixing higher minimum support prices for farm outputs, at least commensurate with increases in price with farm inputs.

Question 158

While quite a number of our natural resources and intervention initiatives are important, which should be our first action step to achieve economic prosperity?

Solution

Option A: The passage states that more than enough farmable land is required. No mention of water, land pollution, or scarcity has been made. These measures do not address any of the issues in the passage. 

Option B: This is what the author asks us to do near the end of the passage. The author says that it's not simply the responsibility of politicians, industrialists, and technicians to help out but of the entire nation, and we should be doing that as a priority. Therefore, this would be the correct answer. 

Option C: Similar to option A, water and land pollution are alien to the discussion in the passage. 

Option D: Although this might help the farmers increase the productivity of their work, it is not an issue mentioned by the author. It is the poor policy framework of our nation that needs to be corrected in order to improve the farmer's conditions and not the methods used by the farmers themself. 

Therefore, Option B is the correct answer. 


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