Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : Sugarcane and sugar production in U.P. is more than Maharashtra but productivity is less.

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : Sugarcane and sugar production in U.P. is more than Maharashtra but productivity is less.
Reason (R) : Most of the sugar factories in Maharashtra are in cooperative sector.
Codes :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, both statements are true, but the Reason does not explain the Assertion. The Assertion is true: Uttar Pradesh has by far the largest area under sugarcane in India and the largest cane output, and since the late 2010s it has usually been the largest sugar producer as well — yet its cane yield per hectare runs well below Maharashtra's, which is the productivity gap the statement points to. (Sugar recovery is a different matter and does not follow the same pattern: UP's recovery has equalled or exceeded Maharashtra's since 2018-19, so read "productivity" here as yield per hectare.) The Reason is also true on its own: Maharashtra's sugar industry grew up on the cooperative model and the overwhelming majority of its mills are cooperatives, while Uttar Pradesh's are predominantly private. But the two facts are not cause and effect. Maharashtra's higher yield comes from agro-climatic and varietal factors — a tropical location with high solar radiation, a long dry crushing season and a wide day-night temperature range that favours sucrose accumulation, assured irrigation on the cane block, and the eighteen-month adsali planting cycle. Who owns the mill affects how cane price is settled, how quickly farmers are paid and how politics runs in the sugar belt; it does not change how much cane a hectare yields in the field. Equally, Uttar Pradesh's larger absolute output is explained by its much larger area under cane, not by the ownership pattern of its factories. Two true statements with no causal link between them is exactly the definition of code (b).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This is the intended trap. Both statements are indeed true, but cooperative ownership is an institutional fact about who runs the mills — it cannot explain a difference in field productivity, which is decided by climate, variety, irrigation and the length of the crushing season. Uttar Pradesh's subtropical winter, frost risk and shorter crushing window are the real reasons its yield and recovery trail Maharashtra's.  (c) The Reason is factually true. Maharashtra pioneered the cooperative sugar factory in India — the first such mill was set up in Ahmednagar district — and the cooperative sector has dominated the state's sugar industry ever since, in sharp contrast to Uttar Pradesh, where private mills predominate.  (d) The Assertion is true. Uttar Pradesh leads India in sugarcane area and cane production, while Maharashtra leads on productivity measured as cane yield per hectare. Both halves of the Assertion hold, so it cannot be marked false.

Concept: India's cane belt splits into two contrasting zones. The subtropical belt — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab — accounts for most of the country's cane area; the tropical belt — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — accounts for most of the productivity. Subtropical cane grows through a cool winter with a risk of frost, gets a shorter crushing season and is heavily ratooned, so both tonnes per hectare and the sugar recovery rate (the sugar extracted as a percentage of cane crushed) are lower. Tropical cane enjoys year-round warmth, high sunshine, a long dry crushing season and, in Maharashtra, the eighteen-month adsali planting, all of which raise sucrose content. A state can therefore be first in output and second in efficiency at the same time — which is precisely the situation the Assertion describes.

State PCS 2019 Q51 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q51 — Geography PYQ with Answer