The relationship between climatic regimes and agricultural production is termed Agro climatology.

Key Point

Ago-climatology often known as agricultural climatology is a field in the interdisciplinary science of agro-meteorology, in which principles of climatology are applied to agricultural systems.

• Its origin relates to the foremost role that climate plays in plant and animal production.
• It basically deals with the interaction between long-term meteorology variables (i.e. climate) and agriculture.

Additional Information

Climatology is the study of the earth’s climate and the factors that affect past, present, and future climatic changes.

Agro-meteorology is the study and use of weather and climate information to enhance or expand agricultural crops and/ or increase production.

The correct answer is Continental steppe climate.

Key Points

• Inland areas generally exhibit a continental steppe climate.
• They have extreme weather conditions as they are very far from the ocean.
• Continental steppe climate ranges from temperature 45°C in summer and −55 °C in winter.
• Steppe means dry and grassy plain.
• The day and night fluctuation is very high.
• Extreme continentality is the characteristic feature of the Continental steppe climate mostly seen in 40° ad 70° north latitude. 

The thermal conductivity into the soil depends on Texture, moisture, and organic matter content.

Key Points

• Soil thermal conductivity depends on soil composition, bulk density, practical shape, and especially water content.
• Measurement of thermal conductivity can be defined as the rate at which heat is transferred by conduction through a unit cross section area of a material when a temperature gradient exits perpendicular to the area.
• The soil thermal conductivity (λ) is the ratio of the magnitude of the conductive heat flux through the soil to the magnitude of the temperature gradient.

Explanation:

There are three types of weather forecasting viz., Short-range, medium-range, and long-range forecasting.

Short Range Forecasting:

• Short-range forecasting has a validity period of up to 72hours.
• Short-range is classified into two types viz., Now-casting and Very short-range forecasting.
• Now-casting has a validity of 0-2 hours.
• Very short range has forecasting of 0-12 hours.
• Farmers marine Agencies, the general public gets benefited or main users of short-range forecasting.
• Short-range forecasting predicts Rainfall distribution, heavy rainfall, heat and cold wave conditions, thunderstorms, etc.

Medium Range forecasting

• Medium range forecasting has a validity period of beyond 3 days and up to 10 days.
• Farmers are the users of medium-range forecasting.
• Medium range forecasting predicts the occurrence of rainfall, temperature

Long Range forecasting

• Long Range forecasting has a validity period of beyond 10 days up to a month and season.
• Planners are the users of long-range forecasting.
• Long-range forecasting is provided for Indian monsoon rainfall.
• Long-range forecasting outlooks are usually expressed in the form of expected deviation from the normal condition.

The Correct Answer is Wind velocity

• The anemometer measures wind velocity.
• An anemometer is a device used for measuring wind speed, and is a common weather station instrument.
• The term is derived from the Greek word anemos, which means wind, and is used to describe any wind speed measurement instrument used in meteorology.
• The first known description of an anemometer was given by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450.

The correct answer is >10 hrs  Key Points

• Long day plants require light way above the critical photoperiod to induce flowering. They usually flower during the seasons when the days are of long duration, such as during the early summer and late spring.
•  A long-day plant requires >12 hours of sunlight, or <12 hours of uninterrupted darkness, to produce a bloom or flower.
• The obligate long-day plants flower strictly only when the plant is exposed to the required photoperiod, whereas the facultative long-day plants flower in any photoperiod, but flowering is faster under a certain photoperiod.
• Examples of long-day plants are as follows:
• Long day obligate plants: Carnation (Dianthus), Oat (Avena)
• Long day facultative plants: Wheat (Triticum aestivum), Pea (Pisum sativum)

Additional Information On the basis of the amount of dark and light periods required, the plants can be classified into three types. They are:

1. Long Day Plants: They require the periodic exposure of light exceeding the critical period to induce flowering.
2. Short Day Plants: They require the periodic exposure of light less than the critical period to induce flowering. A short-day plant requires <12 hours of sunlight, or >12 hours of uninterrupted darkness, to produce a bloom or flower.
3. Day-neutral Plants: The flowering in many plants does not depend on the photoperiod. 

Confusion Points

• Photoperiodism is the response of plants to light and dark periods.
• Photoperiod: The recurring cycle of uninterrupted light and dark periods a plant is exposed to; usually 24 hours, with varying ratios of uninterrupted light and dark periods.

the correct answer is ​All of the above.

Key Points

• Climate Change can affect crop yield as well as the types of crops that can be grown in certain areas, by impacting agricultural inputs such as water for irrigation, amounts of solar radiation that affect plant growth, as well as the prevalence of pests.
• The rise in temperatures caused by increasing greenhouse gases is likely to affect crops differently from region to region.
• For example, moderate warming (an increase of 1 to 3°C in mean temperature) is expected to benefit crop yields in temperate regions, while in lower latitudes especially seasonally dry tropics, even moderate temperature increases (1 to 2°C ) are likely to have negative impacts for major cereal crops. Hence, option 1 and 2 are correct.
• Warming of more than 3°C is expected to have a negative effect on production in all regions. Hence, option 3 is correct.
• Important Points
• Researchers from Columbia University in the US studied the effects of climate on five major crops in India: finger millet, maize, pearl millet, sorghum, and rice.
• It can be noted that recently, the United Nations' State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report 2018 said that climate change is already having a negative effect on global agriculture and is driving up the number of hungry people around the world.
• The study, however, found that the yields from grains such as millet, sorghum, and maize are more resilient to extreme weather.
• On the other hand, yields from rice experience larger declines during extreme weather conditions.
• By relying more and more on rice, India’s food supply is potentially vulnerable to the effects of varying climate.
• Therefore, expanding the area planted with alternative grains like finger millet, maize, pearl millet, sorghum can reduce variations in Indian grain production caused by extreme climate.
• The study shows that diversifying the crops that a country grows can be an effective way to adapt its food-production systems to the growing influence of climate change.
• It also offers benefits like improving nutrition, saving water, reducing energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

The correct answer is Red light. Key Points

• Phytochromes function as red/far-red photoreceptors in plants and are essential for light-regulated growth and development.
• Exposure to red light converts the chromoprotein to the functional, active form (Pfr), while darkness or exposure to far-red light converts the chromophore to the inactive form (Pr).
• Plants grow toward sunlight because the red light from the sun converts the chromoprotein into the active form (Pfr), which triggers plant growth; plants in shade slow growth because the inactive form (Pr) is produced.
• If seeds sense light using the phytochrome system, they will germinate.
• Plants regulate photoperiodism by measuring the Pfr/Pr ratio at dawn, which then stimulates physiological processes such as flowering, setting winter buds, and vegetative growth.

Additional Information

• phytochrome: any of a class of pigments that control most photomorphogenic responses in higher plants
• chromophore: the group of atoms in a molecule in which the electronic transition responsible for a given spectral band is located
• photoperiodism: the growth, development and other responses of plants and animals according to the length of day and/or night

Concept-

• Flowering in certain plants depends not only on a combination of light and dark exposures but also on their relative durations.
• This response of plants to periods of day/night is termed photoperiodism.
• On the basis of length of photoperiod, the plants have been classified into the following categories-
  • Some plants require exposure to light for a period exceeding a well-defined critical duration group of plants are called long-day plants.
  • While others must be exposed to light for a period less than this critical duration before the flowering is initiated in them are termed short-day plants.
  • There are many plants, however, where there is no such correlation between exposure to light duration and induction of flowering response, such plants are called day-neutral plants.

Explanation-

• Short-day plants require a long duration of the dark period.
• If the dark period is interrupted with brief exposure to red light (660 nm), the flowering will not take place.
• The inhibitory effect of red light on flowering during the critical dark period in short-day plants can be overcome by subsequent exposure to far-red rays.
• This is due to the fact that when exposed to far-red light, P_fr is converted to P_r.

Therefore the inhibitory effect of red light on flowering during a critical dark period in short-day plants can be overcome by far-red light.

Additional Information

• It is also interesting to note that while shoot apices modify themselves into flowering apices prior to flowering, they (i.e., shoot apices of plants) by themselves cannot perceive photoperiods.
• The site of perception of light/dark duration is the leaves. It has been hypothesized that there is a hormonal substance(s) that is responsible for flowering.
• This hormonal substance migrates from leaves to shoot apices for inducing flowering only when the plants are exposed to the necessary inductive photoperiod. 

The correct answer is A - III, B - I, C - II, D - IV.

Key Points

• The process of rapid removal of heat from freshly harvested fruits and vegetables is known as Precooling.
• It removes the field heat and slows metabolism and reduces deterioration before storage and transportation.
• Potato is precooled by a room cooling method that involves placing boxes of vegetables in a cold room at 18–20°C. 
• Tomato is precooled by forced cooling or pressure cooling method which is a process of rapid removal of heat through higher air pressure ranging from 0.001 to 0.003 m³/s kg.
• The freshly harvested vegetables like Carrots are packed in cartoons filled with crushed ice in the Ice cooling method.
• In vacuum cooling, the products like Cauliflower are cooled by evaporation of moisture by reducing the pressure to the point where water boils at a low temperature.