Direction for the following 4 (four) items: Read the following four passages and answer the items (11-14) that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Approximately 80 percent of all flowering plant species are pollinated by animals, including birds and mammals, but the main pollinators are insects. Pollination is responsible for providing us with a wide variety of food, as well as many plant-derived medicines. At least one-third of the world’s agricultural crops depend upon pollination. Bees are the most dominant taxa when it comes to pollination and they are crucial to more than four hundred crops. Pollination is an essential service that is the result of intricate relationships between plants and animals, and the reduction or loss of either affects the survival of both. Effective pollination requires resources, such as refuges of pristine natural vegetation.

On the basis of the passage given above, the following assumptions have been made:
1. Sustainable production of India’s cereal food grains is impossible without the diversity of pollinating animals.
2. Monoculture of horticultural crops hampers the survival of insects.
3. Pollinators become scarce in cultivated areas devoid of natural vegetation.
4. Diversity in insects induces diversity of plants.
Which of the above assumptions is/are valid?

Correct Option: 3 and 4 only

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Let us analyze each of the given assumptions based strictly on the provided passage:

Assumption 1: Sustainable production of India’s cereal food grains is impossible without the diversity of pollinating animals.
This assumption is invalid. The passage mentions agricultural crops in general and notes that pollinators are crucial to over 400 crops, but it makes no specific claim regarding "India’s cereal food grains" nor does it state that cereal grain production is impossible without pollinating animals (most cereal crops like wheat and rice are wind-pollinated or self-pollinated).

Assumption 2: Monoculture of horticultural crops hampers the survival of insects.
This assumption is invalid. The passage does not discuss "monoculture of horticultural crops" or its direct effects on insect survival.

Assumption 3: Pollinators become scarce in cultivated areas devoid of natural vegetation.
This assumption is valid. The passage explicitly highlights that "Effective pollination requires resources, such as refuges of pristine natural vegetation." Therefore, cultivated areas lacking natural vegetation lack essential resources, making pollinators scarce.

Assumption 4: Diversity in insects induces diversity of plants.
This assumption is valid. The passage states that pollination is the result of intricate relationships between plants and animals, where "the reduction or loss of either affects the survival of both." This mutual interdependence supports the idea that insect diversity plays a key role in supporting and inducing plant diversity.

Thus, assumptions 3 and 4 are valid, making "3 and 4 only" the correct choice.