RAS question
Which of the following is NOT one of the six elements of the strategy outlined by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare?
Correct answer: (D) Banning all agricultural exports.
Banning all agricultural exports is not one of the six elements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare's strategy for agriculture and farmers' income.
Explanation
The Ministry's PIB release says the Government's agriculture objectives are food security, better nutritional availability and stronger farmers' income and livelihoods. To pursue these aims, the six-point strategy is centred on increasing production and productivity, reducing input costs, ensuring remunerative prices, providing compensation in case of losses, and accelerating agricultural diversification; PIB also stresses natural farming, pulses and oilseeds, and functional support such as procurement and local processing. Export bans are therefore outside the strategy. A blanket ban on agricultural exports would not follow from the listed elements, which are about raising output, lowering costs, managing risk and diversifying production rather than shutting markets.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Increasing agricultural production is wrong as the answer because increasing production and productivity is part of the strategy.
- (B) Reducing input costs is wrong as the answer because lowering farmers' input costs is one of the strategy's elements.
- (C) Compensating losses from natural disasters is wrong as the answer because providing compensation in case of losses is part of the strategy.
Concept
This tests government policy language in agriculture, especially whether a candidate can distinguish stated policy instruments from an extreme option. It recurs in RAS because agriculture, farmers' income and Centre-State policy coordination are regular governance themes.