Read the paragraph given below and answer the question.
Bee-keeping is the maintenance of hives of honeybees for the production of honey. Honey is a food of high nutritive value and also finds use in the indigeneous systems of medicine. Honeybee also produces beewax, which finds many uses in industry, such as in the preparation of cosmetics and polishes of various kinds. The increased demand of honey has led to large-scale beekeeping practices: it has become an established income generating industry, whether practiced on a small scale or on a large scale.
Bee-keeping can be practiced in any area where there are sufficient bee pastures. There are several species of honeybees which can be reared. Beehives can be kept in one's courtyard, on the verandah of the house or even on the roof.
Bee-keeping is also known as:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Apiculture
Option (2) Apiculture — Correct. Of the options, only apiculture means bee-keeping; the word comes from Apis, the honeybee. Sericulture is silkworm rearing and pisciculture is fish rearing.
Note 1: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
Note 2: The same question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2023 on 02-07-2023 (Slot 3).
Note 3: This question is from Chapter 9, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production, of the pre-rationalised NCERT book. This chapter is not in the present NCERT book (2026-27). The extract below is from the pre-rationalised edition.
NCERT Extract (Pre-rationalised edition, Chapter 9, Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production):
Bee-keeping – “Bee-keeping or apiculture is the maintenance of hives of honeybees for the production of honey. It has been an age-old cottage industry. Honey is a food of high nutritive value and also finds use in the indigenous systems of medicine. Honeybee also produces beeswax, which finds many uses in industry, such as in the preparation of cosmetics and polishes of various kinds.”