Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Jute is an indigenous plant of India. Reason (R) : Jute is a Kharif crop sown from February to June and harvested from July to October. Select the correct answer from the codes given below :
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
- (b)(A) is false, but (R) is true.
- (c)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
- (d)(A) is true, but (R) is false.
Correct — C, both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A). Take the two statements separately, which is the whole discipline of an assertion–reason item. The Assertion is true. Jute is a bast fibre taken from two cultivated species of Corchorus — C. capsularis, white jute, and C. olitorius, tossa jute — and the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta and the Indo-Burman tract around it are a home of the genus rather than a place it was carried to: tossa jute is described as native to South Asia, and the use of jute fibre in the subcontinent is traced back to the Indus Valley period. Indian geography texts accordingly treat jute as an indigenous crop, in contrast with, say, maize, potato, chilli, tobacco or rubber, all of which arrived from the New World or from South-East Asia. The Reason is also true, and it is a fair statement of the jute calendar: jute is sown with the pre-monsoon showers from roughly February to June, grows through the hot, humid, high-rainfall months, and is cut from July to October, after which the stems are retted in standing water and the fibre is stripped. Because it is sown before and grown through the south-west monsoon and harvested at its close, Indian texts classify it with the kharif crops. Now put the two together and the item resolves itself. Where a plant originated is a question of botanical and archaeological history — the natural distribution of wild Corchorus, early evidence of its use — while when it is sown and cut is a question of the crop calendar that Indian farmers work to today. The second cannot cause or account for the first. Egyptian cotton has an Indian relative; wheat is sown in November in India and originated in West Asia; the sowing month simply carries no information about nativity. So both statements stand, and the Reason explains nothing about the Assertion — which is precisely option (c).
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). — Right on the facts, wrong on the logic, and this is the option most candidates lose the mark to. It assumes that because jute suits the Indian monsoon calendar so neatly, that calendar must be why jute is Indian in origin. But a cropping season is something farmers choose to fit a climate; it is not evidence of where a species evolved. Sugarcane suits the same climate and is also indigenous; maize is a kharif crop too and is not indigenous at all. A reason only explains an assertion when it supplies the cause of the fact asserted, and a sowing-and-harvest window supplies no cause of botanical origin.
- (b)(A) is false, but (R) is true. — The Assertion is not false. Jute belongs to the small group of commercially important fibre crops that Indian geography treats as native to the subcontinent, its natural home being the hot, humid, alluvial delta country of Bengal and Assam, and its use in the region running back to antiquity. India is also still the world's largest producer of raw jute. Marking (A) false here would require jute to be an introduced species like rubber or tobacco, which it is not.
- (d)(A) is true, but (R) is false. — The Reason is a correct description of the crop. Jute is sown from about February to June, needs a warm, wet growing period with high humidity and heavy rain, and is harvested from July to October when the plants flower and the fibre is at its best; standing water is then used to ret the cut stems. Because that cycle runs with the south-west monsoon, standard Indian texts list jute among the kharif crops. Nothing in the Reason as printed is inaccurate — the flaw in this item lies in the relationship between the two statements, not in either statement.
An assertion–reason item asks two separate questions and then a third. Is (A) true? Is (R) true? And, only if both are true, does (R) supply the cause of (A)? Here (A) is a claim about botanical origin and (R) is a claim about the agricultural calendar, and the two belong to different orders of fact — which is why the item lands on the 'both true, R does not explain A' code. Jute itself is the golden fibre of the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta: a warm-and-wet crop needing roughly 150–250 cm of rain, temperatures of about 24–35°C, humidity around 70–80% and fresh alluvial soil renewed by flooding, with standing water nearby for retting the harvested stems.
The tempting wrong answer is (a). The Reason is so obviously true and so obviously Indian-sounding that a candidate reads the two statements as one continuous account of 'why jute is our crop' and marks (a) without testing the causal link. Break the habit by asking what kind of claim each statement is. 'Indigenous' is a question about where the species evolved and where its wild relatives grow; 'sown February to June, harvested July to October' is a question about what farmers do in a given year. A cropping calendar is chosen to fit the climate, so it can tell you a crop suits India — it cannot tell you the crop originated in India. Maize is the clean counter-example: also a kharif crop, sown and harvested to the same monsoon rhythm, and native to Mesoamerica.
- Jute is a bast fibre from two cultivated species of Corchorus — C. capsularis (white jute) and C. olitorius (tossa jute). Tossa jute is described as native to South Asia and jute use in the subcontinent is traced to the Indus Valley period, which is the ground for calling it indigenous; a few botanical accounts place C. olitorius's origin in Africa, so the safer formulation is that South Asia is a centre of origin and diversity of the genus.
- Crop calendar: sown roughly February to June with pre-monsoon showers, harvested July to October, then retted in standing water to separate the fibre — a kharif crop in Indian classification.
- Growing requirements: about 24–35°C, relative humidity near 70–80%, roughly 150–250 cm of rainfall (about 5–8 cm a week during growth), and fresh, plain alluvial soil renewed by flooding — conditions the lower Ganga–Brahmaputra plain supplies better than anywhere else in India.
- India is the world's largest producer of raw jute — about 1.8 million tonnes in 2020 against Bangladesh's roughly 0.8 million tonnes — with West Bengal contributing the bulk of Indian output, followed by Bihar and Assam.
- Institutional support: the Jute Corporation of India (1971) is the price-support agency, the National Jute Board (2010) handles promotion, and the Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities) Act, 1987 reserves part of foodgrain and sugar packaging for jute sacking.
- Marking (a) whenever both statements are true. In an assertion–reason item the third question — does (R) cause (A)? — must be answered separately, and a crop calendar can never establish botanical origin.
- Confusing 'largest producer of raw jute' (India) with 'largest exporter of jute goods' (Bangladesh), and confusing jute the fibre with mesta, its coarser substitute.
- Assuming a kharif label settles a crop's origin, or that an indigenous crop must be kharif. Wheat is indigenous to West Asia and is India's great rabi crop; maize is kharif in India and native to Mesoamerica.
UPPSC likes crops in the assertion–reason format, where the reason is a true but unrelated statement about season, soil or industry; UPSC more often gives a climate profile — rainfall band, temperature range, soil — and asks you to name the crop, as it did with cotton in 2020 and with jute in the 1999 matching item.
The lower Gangetic plain is characterised by humid climate with high temperature throughout the year. Which one among the following pairs of crops is most suitable for this region?
- (a) Paddy and cotton
- (b) Wheat and jute
- (c) Paddy and jute
- (d) Wheat and cotton
Answer(c) Paddy and jute
The same crop tested through its environment — jute belongs to the hot, humid, heavily watered lower Gangetic plain, which is exactly the delta setting that makes it an indigenous Indian plant and sets its February-to-October calendar.
Match List I with List II and select the correct answer using the codes given below the Lists: List I I. Cotton II. Flax III. Sugar beet IV. Jute List II A. Rainfall 1000-1500 mm; Temperature 40°-60 °C B. Rainfall 1500-2000 mm; Temperature 25°-35 °C C. Rainfall 600-800 mm; Temperature 5°-18 °C D. Rainfall 500-1000 mm; Temperature 18°-22 °C E. Rainfall 500-600 mm; Temperature 18°-22 °C Codes:
- (a) I-A, II-C, III-D, IV-B
- (b) I-B, II-C, III-E, IV-D
- (c) I-D, II-E, III-B, IV-A
- (d) I-D, II-C, III-E, IV-B
Answer(d) I-D, II-C, III-E, IV-B
Pins the numbers behind the Reason in this UPPSC item — UPSC placed jute at 1500–2000 mm of rain and 25–35°C, the hot, wet band that only the south-west monsoon months supply, which is why the crop is sown before the monsoon and cut at its close.
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
Answer(b) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
The identical trap on another crop — two individually true statements about agriculture that a candidate reads as one argument. Practising this one trains the habit of asking whether the Reason actually causes the Assertion instead of merely sounding relevant.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs of conditions is most suited to jute cultivation?
- (a)50–75 cm rainfall and black regur soil
- (b)150–250 cm rainfall and fresh alluvial soil with standing water
- (c)60–100 cm rainfall and lateritic soil on a plateau
- (d)Below 50 cm rainfall with assured canal irrigation
Answer(b) 150–250 cm rainfall and fresh alluvial soil with standing water — jute needs a hot, humid, heavy-rainfall growing season of about 24–35°C, soil renewed by flooding in the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta, and standing water nearby to ret the harvested stems. Black regur with 50–75 cm of rain describes cotton, not jute.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following crops is NOT indigenous to India?
- (a)Jute
- (b)Sugarcane
- (c)Maize
- (d)Rice
Answer(c) Maize — it was domesticated in Mesoamerica and reached India only after the Columbian exchange, whereas jute, sugarcane and rice all have their origin or a major centre of domestication in South and South-East Asia. Note that maize is nonetheless a kharif crop in India, which is why the cropping season tells you nothing about origin.