Rain forests

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Rain forests

by massi2884 » Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:10 pm
One proposal for preserving rain forests is to promote the adoption of new agricultural technologies, such as improved plant varieties and use of chemical herbicides, which would increase productivity and slow deforestation by reducing demand for new cropland. Studies have shown that farmers in developing countries who have achieved certain levels of education, wealth, and security of land tenure are more likely to adopt such technologies. But these studies have focused on villages with limited land that are tied to a market economy rather than on the relatively isolated, self-sufficient communities with ample land characteristic of rain-forest regions. A recent study of the Tawahka people of the Honduran rain forest found that farmers with some formal education were more likely to adopt improved plant varieties but less likely to use chemical herbicides and that those who spoke Spanish (the language of the market economy) were more likely to adopt both technologies. Nonland wealth was also associated with more adoption of both technologies, but availability of uncultivated land reduced the incentive to employ the productivity-enhancing tech nologies. Researchers also measured land-tenure security: in Tawahka society, kinship ties are a more important indicator of this than are legal property rights, so researchers measured it by a household's duration of residence in its village. They found that longer residence correlated with more adoption of improved plant varieties but less adoption of chemical herbicides.

The findings of the study mentioned in line 27, if valid for rain-forest regions in general, suggest that which of the following is an obstacle most likely to be faced by those wishing to promote rain-forest preservation by implementing the proposal mentioned in line 1?

A. Lack of legal property rights tends to discourage local farmers from investing the time and resources required to successfully implement new agricultural technologies.
B. The ability to evaluate the wider economic ramifications of adopting new aricultural technologies depends on a relatively high level of formal education.
C. Isolation from the market economy tends to restrict local farmers' access to new agricultural technologies that could help them to increase their productivity.
D. Ready availability of uncultivated land tends to decrease local farmers' incentive to adopt new agricultural technologies that would reduce their need to clear new land for cultivation.
E. Traditions of self-sufficiency and reliance on kinship ties tend to diminish local farmers' receptivity to new agricultural technologies introduced by people from outside the local community.

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by essaysnark » Fri Nov 04, 2011 1:04 pm
Our money goes on D.

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by massi2884 » Sat Nov 05, 2011 3:43 am
Thank you. Can you please explain your reasoning?

Thanks.

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by essaysnark » Sat Nov 05, 2011 7:47 am
Sure thing massi2884:

Analyzing the question gets us this basic premise: The proposal is about adopting new technologies. Which of these sentences talks about what would PREVENT those technologies from being adopted?
Here goes:

A: "Lack of legal property rights" doesn't have anything to do with farmers adopting the technologies. All it says about property rights is that kinship ties are more important than property rights; the property rights thing is not discussed in regards to whether the farmers adopt the tech or not. The passage also doesn't say anything about "farmers investing time/resources" so this is not related enough.

B: This one is also off target - who needs to "evaluate the wider ramifications" of anything? The farmers in this passage certainly aren't doing that. And we are not told anything about a "relatively high level" of formal ed - only that farmers have "some" formal education. This one doesn't match what the passage is telling us.

C: There's nothing in the passage that tells us about ACCESS to the technologies. The whole thing is about ADOPTION of the technologies - which implies that they are readily available (or, we assume, are going to be provided by the people making the proposal in line 1). So this one is unsupported by the passage.

D: This answer is a rephrasing of this sentence: "availability of uncultivated land reduced the incentive to employ the productivity-enhancing tech nologies." Plus, it supports the idea within the proposal in line 1 about "preserving rain forests" - preserving rain forests means that we want to stop the farmers from "clear[ing] new land for cultivation."

E: From the end of the passage, we learn that kinship ties predict land tenure security, which is the same as "longer residence"; the last sentence says that longer residence INCREASED adoption of some of the technologies, which contradicts what the E sentence says.



Our process was about ruling out any that didn't work and seeing what was left; it was very difficult to identify the correct one simply by reading through the choices. We had to break each down into its component part to see if fit the criteria. Those are always harder than problems where a correct answer is more obvious in the first read-through.

Hope this helps!
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by massi2884 » Sun Nov 06, 2011 1:11 pm
Thanks for the detailed explanation.