SBI Clerk English Sectional Mock Test 09

1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given after it. A tomato that leaves a farm in the morning can lose much of its value by evening if it sits in the sun waiting for a truck. Estimates of post-harvest loss in India vary, but for fruits and vegetables they are large enough to matter for both farmers' incomes and consumers' prices. The usual answer has been to build more cold storage, and the country has added a great deal of capacity over the past two decades. Yet capacity alone has not solved the problem. Much of the existing cold storage was built for potatoes, which can be kept at one temperature for months, and sits far from the farms that grow more delicate produce. A cold room in a district town is of little use to a grower whose mangoes ripen within days and who has no refrigerated vehicle to carry them there. What is missing is not so much the warehouse as the chain: pre-cooling at the farm gate, refrigerated transport, and storage close to the market. Small, solar-powered cold rooms placed in villages are one attempt to fill this gap. They allow farmers to hold produce for a few days instead of selling at whatever price the first trader offers. The gain is often less about preventing rot than about bargaining power: a farmer who can wait is a farmer who can choose. Such units work only when someone takes responsibility for running them. Where a farmer producer organisation manages the room, collects a small fee and keeps records, the units tend to stay in use. Where they are simply handed over and left, many fall idle within a season or two.

   Q1.According to the passage, why has added cold storage capacity not solved the problem of post-harvest loss?

   • A.Much of it is designed for potatoes and located far from farms growing delicate produce.
   • B.Cold storage damages fruits and vegetables.
   • C.Consumers prefer produce that has not been stored.
   • D.Farmers refuse to pay any fee for storage.
   • E.The capacity has actually fallen over two decades.

2. Q2.What does the author mean by saying that what is missing is 'not so much the warehouse as the chain'?

   • A.Storage buildings are too small to be useful.
   • B.The links between farm, transport and market are absent even where storage exists.
   • C.Warehouses should be replaced by chains of shops.
   • D.Transport costs are lower than storage costs.
   • E.Farmers should stop using warehouses altogether.

3. Q3.According to the passage, the main gain from village cold rooms is often:

   • A.the removal of all traders from the market
   • B.higher prices for consumers
   • C.free electricity for the village
   • D.a complete end to the rotting of produce
   • E.greater bargaining power, since farmers need not sell to the first trader

Start the test to answer these. Correct answers and explanations are shown after you submit.