Direction for the following 6 (six) items: Read the following five passages and answer the items (41-46) that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

Spanish ships in the late 16th century first brought the potato tuber from South America to Europe whereby in the early 19th century, it had become a reliable backup to cereal crops, particularly in the cold, rain-soaked soils of Ireland. The Irish were soon almost wholly dependent on the potato as their staple food. And they were planting primarily one prodigious variety, the ‘Lumper’ potato, whose genetic frailty would be cruelly exposed by the fungus ‘Phytophthora infestans’. In 1845, spores of the deadly fungus began spreading across the country, destroying nearly all the Lumpers in its path. The resulting famine killed or displaced millions.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the critical message of the passage?

The correct answer is: Relying on a homogeneous food source is not desirable.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

1. Analyzing the Passage:
The passage describes how the Irish population became almost entirely dependent on a single variety of potato known as the 'Lumper'. Because this single crop variety had genetic frailty, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans infected the crops, it destroyed nearly all the Lumpers across the nation, resulting in catastrophic famine and displacement of millions.

2. Evaluating the Options:

Option 1: "For introducing any foreign plant into a country, the soil and climate conditions of that country should be suitable."
The passage mentions that Ireland's cold, rain-soaked soil was suitable for growing potatoes, but this suitability is not the central lesson or critical message of the passage.

Option 2: "As a staple food of a country, tuber crops like potato cannot replace cereal crops."
The passage shows that potatoes did successfully act as a staple backup crop; the issue was not the type of crop (tuber vs. cereal), but rather the complete reliance on a single, genetically uniform crop variety.

Option 3: "Some of the fungal infections of plants cannot be prevented or stopped from spreading across large areas."
While the fungus did spread rapidly, the fundamental flaw highlighted by the author was the genetic frailty caused by monoculture/homogeneity, which left the entire crop vulnerable to the infestation.

Option 4: "Relying on a homogeneous food source is not desirable."
This statement perfectly captures the core lesson and critical message of the passage. The extreme vulnerability and tragic outcome arose because the Irish relied almost exclusively on a single variety of potato (a homogeneous food source) without genetic diversity.