With reference to the cultivation of Kharif crops in India in the last five years, consider the following statements : 1. Area under rice cultivation is the highest. 2. Area under the cultivation of jowar is more than that of oilseeds. 3. Area of cotton cultivation is more than that of sugarcane. 4. Area under sugarcane cultivation has steadily decreased. Which of the statements given above are correct?

States that account for over 60% of rice area and note that about 43% of the total area under cereals is devoted to rice — indicates rice occupies a very large share of cereal area.

A student could compare this large rice share (≈43% of cereals) with known areas of other kharif cereals (maize, millets, jowar, bajra) from annual agricultural statistics to judge whether rice likely leads kharif area each year.

Gives a numeric area figure label for rice (shown as 43.8 — presumably million hectares) alongside areas for other crops, implying rice has a larger area than many other major crops.

The student could match the 43.8 value against official year‑by‑year kharif crop area tables (e.g., cropwise area by season) to see if rice remains largest across the five most recent years.

States clearly that rice is a kharif crop and lists it among major crops requiring monsoon — establishes rice is a principal kharif crop to be compared.

Use this to limit comparisons to kharif-season crops and then consult seasonal area data to test whether rice area exceeds each other kharif crop annually.

Identifies rice, maize, millets, bajra, ragi as dominant kharif crops — provides the relevant set of competitors when assessing which kharif crop has the largest area.

A student can fetch area figures for these named kharif crops from recent years' agricultural statistics and directly compare them to rice area to evaluate the statement.

Lists states with the largest area under rice cultivation (West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, etc.), implying broad geographic spread that supports a high national rice area.

Combine the knowledge of leading rice states with a map or statewise annual crop area data to aggregate state rice areas and compare with other kharif crops over the five years.

Gives a quantified share: jowar accounts for about 5.3% of total cropped area.

A student could compare this 5.3% figure with the overall share of oilseeds (from other snippets) to judge which crop group typically occupies more area in a season.

States oilseeds together occupy about 14% of total cropped area and lists major oilseed crops (many are Kharif crops in drylands).

Combine the 14% oilseeds share with the 5.3% jowar share to infer that oilseeds as a group generally cover more area than jowar in the cropping pattern.

Reports a long-term decline in sorghum area (from 18m ha in 1960 to 8.5m ha in 2010), indicating sorghum's national acreage has fallen.

Using this trend, a student might infer that jowar's share is unlikely to have overtaken larger crop groups (like oilseeds) in recent Kharif seasons without evidence of a reversal.

Lists jowar and oilseeds among dominant Kharif crops, showing both are important Kharif-season groups.

Knowing both occur in Kharif, a student can focus comparisons specifically to Kharif-season area shares (using the percentage data above) rather than total annual area.

Gives a local example (Palampur) where jowar is grown in the Kharif season as a fodder crop, illustrating regional Kharif use of jowar rather than implying national dominance.

A student could use such examples to understand regional concentration of jowar and then combine with national percentage data to assess whether jowar likely exceeds oilseeds nationwide during Kharif.

States that cotton is a Kharif crop and that cotton 'occupies about 4.7 per cent of total cropped area' in India.

A student could compare this 4.7% share to sugarcane's share (from other snippets) to judge whether cotton area is generally larger in recent seasons.

Gives sugarcane's share of total cropped area as 'only 2.4 per cent', and notes sugarcane is a continual Kharif crop.

Comparing 2.4% (sugarcane) with 4.7% (cotton) suggests cotton area is typically larger; a student could use this ratio to suspect cotton > sugarcane in recent Kharif seasons.

Provides concrete historical area figures for cotton (e.g., 122.35 lakh hectares in 2017; also mentions India has the largest area under cotton in the world ~105 lakh ha).

A student could compare these absolute cotton hectare figures with contemporaneous sugarcane hectare figures (from other sources or government statistics) to evaluate the statement for each recent Kharif season.

States sugarcane 'occupies about 3.5% (95 million hectares) of the total cropped area' (note: gives a different percent/area figure and calls sugarcane a continual Kharif crop).

Because this snippet gives a larger percentage for sugarcane than snippet 10, a student should check which sugarcane statistic is current; resolving this discrepancy using yearwise area data would help test whether cotton exceeded sugarcane in each of the last five Kharif seasons.

Explains that Kharif season is dominated by grain and other tropical crops, listing cotton among typical Kharif crops (context on seasonal cropping patterns).

Knowing cotton is primarily a Kharif crop while sugarcane is a long-duration/continuous crop helps a student reason about seasonal area reporting (e.g., whether Kharif-season area counts for sugarcane are directly comparable), prompting checks of how areas are measured for each season.

States sugarcane is a continual Kharif crop (10–12 months) and describes its climate/irrigation needs, linking its area to seasonal and irrigation factors.

A student could use this to infer that changes in monsoon/irrigation availability would affect year-to-year Kharif area for sugarcane.

Notes that sugarcane takes almost a year to grow, implying crop area and sowing/harvest timings overlap seasons and making area sensitive to seasonal shocks.

Combine with year-to-year monsoon or harvesting cycle data to assess if area could decline steadily or fluctuate.

Explains that monsoon failure/droughts can sharply reduce Kharif cropped area (example: 2009 Kharif area decreased by ~40%).

A student could check recent monsoon/drought records for the last five years to see whether such events could cause steady declines in sugarcane Kharif area.

Contains an assertion (in an exam-style question) that 'Area under sugarcane cultivation has steadily decreased', indicating this claim exists in some secondary sources.

Use this as a lead to seek official area-statistics (e.g., government agricultural area time series) to confirm or refute the asserted steady decline over the last five years.

Shows a documented long-term decline in area for another crop (sorghum), illustrating that crop-area declines do occur and can be measured over decades.

A student could treat this as an example that crop-area trends can be downward and thus motivate checking multi-year official area data for sugarcane.