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?

Passage

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 focused on increasing food production particularly staples, which led to lower production and consumption of indigenous traditional corps/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.

Question

CSATEasyPrelims 2023Comprehension

Based on the above passage, the following assumptions have been made:

To implement the Sustainable Development Goals and to achieve zero-hunger goal, monoculture agriculture practices are inevitable even if they do not address malnutrition.
Dependence on a few crops has negative consequences for human health and the ecosystem.
Government policies regarding food planning need to incorporate nutritional security.
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?

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect: The passage neither promotes monoculture nor refers to it as inevitable. In fact, it makes a case against it in the line, “Further, intensive, monoculture agriculture practices can perpetuate the food and nutrition security problem"

Statement 2 is correct: The passage makes many indications that dependence on a few crops has negative consequences for human health and the ecosystem. This is evidenced by the lines, “disappearance of many nutritious foods such as millets." and "For long, the agriculture sector focused 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.

Statement 3 is correct: The passage mentions, “disappearance of many nutritious foods such as millets", "food grain production has increased over five times since independence, it has not sufficiently addressed the issue of malnutrition", "For long, the agriculture sector focused on increasing food production particularly staples....impacting food and nutrition security in the process. Further, intensive, monoculture agriculture practices can perpetuate the food and nutrition security problem...”. This makes a strong case for the government to incorporate nutritional security in its policies regarding food planning.

Statement 4 is incorrect: While this statement might be true in its own right, the passage does not mention anything about subsidies or any particular reason(s) behind monoculture.