[Mission 2023] STATIC QUIZ, 7 November 2022 – Environment

Solution: a)

Zero tillage is the process where the crop seed will be sown through drillers without prior land preparation and disturbing the soil where previous crop stubbles are present.

Zero tillage not only reduce the cost of cultivation it also reduces the soil erosion, crop duration and irrigation requirement and weed effect which is better than tillage. Zero Tillage (ZT) also called No Tillage or Nil Tillage.

Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops as well as the raising of livestock.

Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice involving growing two or more crops in proximity. 

Vertical farming is the practice of growing produce in vertically stacked layers. The practice can use soil, hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods. Vertical farms attempt to produce food in challenging environments, like where arable land is rare or unavailable.

Solution: a)

A “carbon credit” (also known as a “carbon offset”) is an electronic and serialized unit that represents one ton of CO2 equivalent that is reduced, avoided, or sequestered from projects applying an approved carbon credit methodology.

Decarbonization means the reduction of carbon. More specifically, the term refers to the conversion of the economic system or individual carbon emitting entity converting to reduce the carbon intensity of its (direct or value chain) emissions over time.

Solution: a)

Coal releases almost twice the amount of carbon dioxide relative to natural gas, on a kilogram-to-kilogram basis.

At the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC, countries agreed to phase down rather than phase out the use of coal.

India would have a renewable energy target of 500 GW by 2030 and meet 50% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.

Solution: a)

Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is mainly composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen but also has small amounts of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur, potassium, calcium and magnesium contained within organic residues.

After carbon enters the soil in the form of organic material from soil fauna and flora, it can persist in the soil for decades, centuries or even millennia. Eventually, SOC can be lost as CO2 or CH4 emitted back into the atmosphere, eroded soil material, or dissolved organic carbon washed into rivers and oceans. v

Solution: a)

Under it, CO2 gas is injected with residual oil in the ageing field in which total oil production has been declining.

It reduces its viscosity and makes it easier to displace oil from the rock pores. CO2 gas also swells oil, thereby pushing it towards the producing well for extraction.

CO2- Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) works most commonly by injecting CO2 into already developed oil fields where it mixes with and ‘releases’ the oil from the formation, thereby freeing it to move to production wells. CO2 that emerges with the oil is separated in above-ground facilities and re-injected into the formation.

CO2 EOR is an important component of U.S. oil production.