Which of the following statements regarding coconut production in Lakshadweep is/are correct? 1. Productivity per hectare is highest in India. 2. Oil content in nuts is highest in the world. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Coconut is effectively the whole of Lakshadweep's cultivated agriculture — the islands' small arable area is a near-monoculture of palms, and the Administration and coconut-sector literature describe the crop in exactly the terms the two statements use: the highest productivity per hectare in the country, and nuts with the highest oil content in the world, credited to the local Laccadive Ordinary Tall and Laccadive Micro Tall varieties. UPSC's key marks both statements correct, so the code that takes both is the answer.
- (a)1 only — Drops the oil-content claim, but that is the better-known of the two — Lakshadweep's copra is valued for an oil yield several points above mainland tall varieties, which is why the islands' coir and copra sector exists at all.
- (b)2 only — Drops the productivity claim, which the Administration also advances. Lakshadweep's palms are grown on coral sand with almost no fertiliser, and the per-hectare yield still ranks at the top of the national table it cites.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, which the official key does not. Coconut is the one crop the islands are known for in every official description of their economy.
Lakshadweep is India's smallest Union Territory by area, a chain of coral atolls off the Malabar coast with sandy, calcareous soils and very little cultivable land. Coconut dominates that land almost completely, and the local tall varieties — Laccadive Ordinary Tall and Laccadive Micro Tall — are prized for a high oil fraction in the copra. The processing chain that follows the crop, coir fibre and yarn and copra, is the territory's main land-based industry alongside fishing (especially tuna).
This is a recall item about an official claim, and it is worth being straight with you about how solid the numbers are. Both superlatives are standard in Lakshadweep Administration and coconut-sector literature and are what the examiner is testing. They were not settled here from a single official statistical table: the Coconut Development Board's statistics page would not open at the time of writing, and ICAR's own Lakshadweep profile gives a much lower figure of about 8,750 nuts per hectare a year and calls productivity low. So learn the claim as the exam states it, and treat the exact per-hectare number as unsettled rather than quoting a figure. The oil-content claim is the more consistently repeated of the two.
- Coconut is the only major agricultural produce of Lakshadweep; the territory's arable land is almost entirely under palms.
- The local varieties named in coconut-sector literature are Laccadive Ordinary Tall and Laccadive Micro Tall.
- Coir fibre, yarn and mats, made from coconut husk, are among the territory's main manufactured exports alongside fish.
- Lakshadweep is India's smallest Union Territory by geographical area — a point CDS itself tested in the 2020-II paper.
- Assuming Kerala must lead on per-hectare productivity because it leads on total area and output; area and productivity are different rankings.
- Quoting a precise nuts-per-hectare figure in an answer — the published series disagree, so the safer line is the ranking claim itself.
- Confusing Lakshadweep with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are volcanic-arc and sedimentary islands, not coral atolls.
Asked as a two-statement code item resting on two superlatives from the Union Territory's own official description of its coconut sector.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following best describes the physical nature of the Lakshadweep islands?
- (a)Volcanic islands
- (b)Coral atolls and reefs
- (c)Continental-shelf islands
- (d)Deltaic islands
Answer(b) Coral atolls and reefs — Lakshadweep is a coral archipelago, which is why its soils are sandy and calcareous.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Coir, an important product of the Lakshadweep economy, is obtained from which part of the coconut?
- (a)The endosperm
- (b)The fibrous husk
- (c)The hard shell
- (d)The leaf midrib
Answer(b) The fibrous husk — coir is the mesocarp fibre of the coconut, while the edible white kernel is endosperm.