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 :
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- (b)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (c)(A) is true, but (R) is false
- (d)(A) is false, but (R) is true
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).
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (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)(A) is true, but (R) is false — 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)(A) is false, but (R) is true — 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.
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.
Assertion-Reason questions are decided in two steps, and candidates lose the mark at step two. Step one: is each statement independently true? Here both are. Step two — the step that actually costs marks — is the Reason a *cause* of the Assertion, or merely another true fact about the same subject? Ownership pattern and field productivity belong to different causal chains: one is institutional, the other agronomic. A quick test is to ask whether flipping the Reason would flip the Assertion. If Maharashtra's mills were all converted to private companies tomorrow, its cane yield and recovery rate would not fall to Uttar Pradesh's level, because the climate and the varieties would be unchanged. That is the signature of code (b).
- Uttar Pradesh has the largest area under sugarcane and the largest cane production in India; since the late 2010s it has generally also been the largest sugar-producing state.
- Maharashtra records a distinctly higher cane yield per hectare than Uttar Pradesh — it has led on yield in every season from 2009-10 onwards (2025-26: about 76 t/ha against UP's about 67 t/ha). This yield gap is the productivity gap the Assertion refers to.
- The drivers of the yield gap are agro-climatic and varietal: tropical warmth, high solar radiation, a long dry crushing season, assured irrigation and the eighteen-month adsali planting cycle.
- Maharashtra's sugar industry is overwhelmingly cooperative; India's first cooperative sugar factory was established in Ahmednagar district. Uttar Pradesh's mills are mostly in the private sector.
- Sugar recovery rate = sugar produced as a percentage of cane crushed. Do NOT assume Maharashtra leads on it: ISMA's state averages give UP 11.46% vs Maharashtra 11.27% in 2018-19 (the season before this exam), 11.29% vs 11.28% in 2019-20, and 10.20% vs 9.50% in 2025-26. Recovery and yield-per-hectare are separate yardsticks and they point different ways here.
- Present-day note for a 2026 reader: Uttar Pradesh still leads on area, cane output and — in recent seasons — on sugar recovery too (10.20% in 2025-26, ahead of Maharashtra's 9.50%), while Maharashtra retains the lead on cane yield per hectare. The two states swap the top slot in sugar production from season to season depending on rainfall and the diversion of cane juice to ethanol.
Answer (b): the Reason is a true statement about the same industry, but it is not the explanation of the Assertion.
- Treating any two true statements as a causal pair. In Assertion-Reason questions, always test the causal link separately after checking the truth of each statement.
- Confusing production (total tonnes) with productivity (tonnes per hectare) and with sugar recovery (per cent of cane crushed). Uttar Pradesh wins the first, Maharashtra the other two.
- Assuming Uttar Pradesh's lead is permanent in sugar output as well as cane output — the two states trade the sugar-production top slot depending on the monsoon and on ethanol diversion.
UPPSC leans on Assertion-Reason and NOT-correctly-matched formats for Indian agriculture and asks the Uttar Pradesh angle almost every year; UPSC prefers statement-based questions on the policy layer — FRP, the Essential Commodities Act, by-products and the Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative — rather than on state rankings.
The correct sequence in decreasing order of the four sugarcane producing States in India is
- (a) Maharashtra, U.P., Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh
- (b) U.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh
- (c) Maharashtra, U.P., Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
- (d) U.P., Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
Answer(b) U.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh
The same underlying fact from the other side — UPSC asks you to rank the cane-producing states and rewards knowing that Uttar Pradesh, not Maharashtra, is first in output, which is exactly what makes the 2019 Assertion true.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The cooperative sugar factory movement in India began with the country's first cooperative sugar mill set up in which state?
- (a)Uttar Pradesh
- (b)Maharashtra
- (c)Gujarat
- (d)Tamil Nadu
Answer(b) Maharashtra — India's first cooperative sugar factory was established in Ahmednagar district, and the cooperative model has dominated the state's sugar industry ever since.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Maharashtra's higher sugarcane yield per hectare compared with Uttar Pradesh is mainly explained by
- (a)the cooperative ownership of its sugar mills
- (b)a tropical climate with high solar radiation, assured irrigation and the eighteen-month adsali cycle
- (c)a higher State Advised Price for sugarcane
- (d)a larger area under sugarcane cultivation
Answer(b) A tropical climate with high solar radiation, assured irrigation and the eighteen-month adsali cycle — how much cane a hectare yields is decided by climate, variety and water, not by who owns the mill, what price is announced, or how large the cane area is.