Cambridge IGCSE Environmental Management: Land — Practice Questions (0680)

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — Cambridge International holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Land study guide and revision notes

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Section A

1. Name the three mineral particle types found in soil. [3]

2. Define “sustainable food production.” [2]

3. Name two strategies used to reduce soil erosion. [2]

Section B

4. Explain why loam soil is considered an ideal medium for growing crops. [4]

5. A farmer facing population pressure switches from mixed cropping to a single-crop (monoculture) system and clears surrounding vegetation to expand the cultivated area.

(a) Explain one way this decision could increase the risk of soil erosion. [3] (b) Suggest one strategy the farmer could adopt to reduce this risk while still farming the land. [3]

6. Explain the difference between subsistence and commercial agriculture. [2]

7. A region relies heavily on chemical fertilisers and irrigation to maximise crop yield each season.

(a) Identify one way this approach could become unsustainable over time. [2] (b) Suggest one alternative strategy from this topic that could help maintain yield more sustainably. [3]

8. Explain how mismanaged irrigation can lead to salinisation of farmland. [3]

9. A steep hillside is farmed without any erosion-control measures, and heavy rainfall washes topsoil into a river downstream.

(a) Name two impacts of this soil erosion, other than the direct loss of topsoil from the hillside. [2] (b) Explain how one named strategy from this topic could have prevented this outcome. [3]

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Answers

1. Sand, silt, clay [3].

2. Sustainable food production means producing enough food for the present generation using methods that allow future generations to continue growing food from the same land [2].

3. Any two of: terracing, contour ploughing, bunds, wind breaks, maintaining vegetation cover, adding organic matter to improve soil structure [2].

4. Loam soil has the right combination of mineral particles and pore spaces, giving it good moisture retention without becoming waterlogged [1–2]. It also has useful organic and inorganic nutrient content, adequate drainage, and is relatively easy to cultivate compared with heavier clay or looser sandy soils, making it well suited to supporting healthy crop growth [1–2].

5. (a) Clearing vegetation removes the roots that previously bound the soil together, and shifting to a single crop can leave soil bare between growing seasons; without this protective cover, wind and rain can erode the topsoil far more easily than under the previous mixed-cropping system [2–3]. (b) The farmer could use contour ploughing or terracing on any sloped land, or maintain a vegetation buffer strip around the cultivated area, to reduce the rate of soil loss while continuing to farm the expanded area [2–3].

6. Subsistence agriculture produces food primarily for the farmer’s own family or local community to consume [1], whereas commercial agriculture produces food primarily to sell for profit, often at a larger scale [1].

7. (a) Overuse of chemical fertilisers can lead to nutrient exhaustion or soil degradation over time, and mismanaged irrigation can cause salinisation or erosion, reducing the land’s long-term productivity even while short-term yields remain high [2]. (b) Strategies such as crop rotation, mixed cropping or intercropping, or switching to organic fertilisers, could help maintain soil health and yield more sustainably than continued heavy reliance on chemical inputs and irrigation alone [2–3].

8. Irrigation water often contains small amounts of dissolved salts [1]. In hot climates, much of this water evaporates from the soil surface, but the salts it carried remain behind and gradually build up in the soil over repeated irrigation cycles [1–2], eventually reaching concentrations high enough to harm or prevent crop growth (salinisation) [1].

9. (a) Any two of: silting of the river downstream, habitat and biodiversity loss, reduced crop yield on the hillside, or (in severe cases) an increased risk of mass movement such as landslides [2]. (b) Terracing could have prevented this outcome by creating flat, stepped platforms across the slope, which slow the flow of rainwater down the hillside and reduce its ability to wash topsoil away [2–3], instead of allowing water to run straight down an unbroken slope carrying loose soil with it.

A note on exam technique for this topic

Question 5 illustrates the cause-and-effect chain the study guide identifies as central to this topic: soil composition and cover (2.1) shape farming decisions (2.2), and poor farming decisions are the leading cause of soil erosion (2.3). A strong answer traces this chain explicitly — connecting the specific farming change described to the specific erosion risk it creates — rather than describing soil erosion causes and farming methods as two separate, unconnected lists. Question 9 rewards the same chain-tracing skill in reverse, working backwards from a described erosion outcome to identify both its downstream impacts and the specific preventive strategy that would have addressed the actual cause described, rather than naming a generic erosion-control method disconnected from the scenario. This same discipline – matching a specific strategy to a specific problem rather than listing every strategy known for this topic – is exactly what earns the application and evaluation marks Cambridge structured questions on Land are designed to test, whether the scenario appears on Paper 1’s shorter questions or Paper 2’s longer, scenario-based case study questions.