a) Sugarcane
b) Sunflower
c) Pearl Millet
d) Red gram
4. Ans: a
Explanation:
Sugarcane is generally considered the least water-efficient crop, meaning it requires a large amount of water to produce a unit of yield compared to many other crops, making it a very water-intensive crop.
Hence, option a is correct.
5. Consider the following statements:
1. In the tropical zone, the western sections of the oceans are warmer than the eastern sections owing to the influence of trade winds.
2. In the temperate zone, westerlies make the eastern sections of oceans warmer than the western sections.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 Only
b) 2 Only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
5. Ans: c
Explanation:
The Planetary winds are the dominant influence on the flow of ocean currents. They are so strong, for example, in the North Indian Ocean, the direction of the currents changes completely with the direction of the monsoon winds which come from the north east in winter and south west in summer.
Between the equator and the tropics, there blow the Trade Winds which move ‘equatorial waters polewards and westwards’, thus warming up the western margins of the oceans and eastern coasts of continents.
Example: the North-East Trade Winds move the North Equatorial Current and its derivatives, the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream Drift to warm the southern and eastern coasts of USA adjacent to the Western Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, the South East Trade Winds drive the South Equatorial Current which warms the eastern coast of Brazil (lying adjacent to the Western Atlantic Ocean) as the warm Brazilian current.
Hence, statement 1 is correct.
In the temperate latitudes, blow the Westerlies. They are less reliable than the Trade Winds. They make the eastern sections of the oceans warmer than the western.
They result in a north-easterly flow in the northern hemisphere. For example, the Warm Gulf Stream is driven to the western coast of Europe as the North Atlantic drift, thus warming the Eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Also, in Southern Hemisphere, the westerlies drive the west wind drift equatorwards as the Peruvian Current off South America and the Benguela current off Southern Africa. Thus in the Southern hemisphere, the Eastern part of the ocean, in this case the Atlantic, gets warm.
Hence, statement 2 is correct.
Read: Previous Year UPSC Geography Questions (PYQs) With Explanation 2022