Crops & Revolutions — PPSC previous year questions

Gram (chana) is a rabi crop, sown in October–November and harvested in March–April. Paddy, maize and millets such as bajra and jowar are kharif crops, sown with the onset of the monsoon in June–July and harvested in September–October.

The Yellow Revolution refers to the sharp rise in oilseed production in India, launched through the Technology Mission on Oilseeds in 1986; Sam Pitroda is regarded as its father. The White Revolution (Operation Flood, Verghese Kurien) concerned milk, the Green Revolution (M.S. Swaminathan) foodgrains, and the Brown Revolution leather, cocoa and non-conventional products.

Dr Verghese Kurien founded Amul and chaired the National Dairy Development Board. He planned and led Operation Flood (1970–96). This cooperative dairy programme made India the world's largest milk producer. It is known as the White Revolution. 'Operation White', 'Operation Milk' and 'Operation Milky White' are made-up names.

Rice is a kharif crop that needs high temperature above 25°C, high humidity and annual rainfall above 100 cm, and it grows best in deep clayey and loamy soils that hold water, so statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is wrong: the tar-wattar (direct seeding) method developed by PAU does save water, but the crop matures about a week earlier than transplanted rice, not later.

Surti is a breed of buffalo from Gujarat, not a cow. Gir (Gujarat), Tharparkar (Rajasthan) and Mewati (Haryana-Rajasthan border) are all indigenous cattle breeds.

Sonora 64 and Lerma Rojo 64 are the semi-dwarf, high-yielding wheat varieties bred by Norman Borlaug in Mexico and imported by India in 1965–66; they launched the Green Revolution in Punjab, Haryana and western UP under M.S. Swaminathan and C. Subramaniam. Kalyan Sona and Sonalika were later selected from them in India. The rice equivalents were IR-8 and Jaya, and the 'Co' varieties belong to sugarcane.

Maize, cotton and groundnut are kharif crops. Farmers sow them with the start of the monsoon (June–July) and harvest them in autumn. Rice, jowar, bajra, soybean and sugarcane are kharif too. Rabi crops — wheat, gram, mustard, barley — are sown in October–November and cut in spring. Zaid crops such as watermelon, cucumber and fodder grow in the short summer season between the two.

The Pink Revolution is the colour name given to growth in pharmaceuticals, along with onions and prawn or meat processing. Yellow Revolution is oilseeds, Red Revolution is meat and tomatoes, and Purple Revolution is lavender farming in Jammu & Kashmir.

The Green Revolution in foodgrains goes with M.S. Swaminathan, the White Revolution in milk with Verghese Kurien, the Blue Revolution in fisheries with Arun Krishnan and the Golden Revolution in horticulture and honey with Nirpakh Tutej, giving A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1, which only code (c) fits. Note that many books credit the Blue Revolution to Hiralal Chaudhari (with Arun Krishnan) for pioneering induced breeding of carp in 1957; if a paper offers Chaudhari and not Krishnan, choose him.

The Sweet Revolution is the government's push, begun around 2016-17, to promote scientific beekeeping and honey production under the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission. It is one of the 'colour' revolutions of Indian agriculture: White for milk, Green for foodgrains, Blue for fish, Golden for horticulture and Yellow for oilseeds.