Just a thought...

[gmatrant]

Declining values for farm equipment and land，the collateral against which farmers borrow to through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring．


(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season，are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season，are

In case we modified D to read as below , would it be a better choice than E (which is the actually the OA)

D is modified as below...
(D) which farmers use as collateral to get through the harvest season, are

[gmatrant]

Pls comment on this.. thanks..

[stop@800]

You wants to say
equipment and land are used to get through the harvest season
but howw????

the answer shud say that
farmers borrow against these

"to borrow against to get through" is looking weird in D
Also which is not needed because the next clause is modifier.

[Bidisha800]

No, it will not be correct.
"Which" introduces a nonrestrictive clause. If you remove that clause the meaning of the sentence doesn't change. In this example, that is not the case. Therefore, E is right.

[gmatrant]

Declining values for farm equipment and land are going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

This does make sense.. bidisha why do you say this is wrong.

The modified sentence is as follows
Declining values for farm equipment and land are ,which farmers use as collateral to get through the harvest season, are going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring

[nervesofsteel]

I think which in D refers to Equipment and Land.. rather than Declining values
that's why it is wrong..

Where as in E the collaterals are specified correctly..

[madhukumar_v]

OG Says that Justapoxing two infinitives (as in D) is unnecessarily redundant.

>> to borrow against to get through

[tallynik]

Declining values for farm equipment and land，the collateral against which farmers borrow to through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring．


(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season，are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season，are

In case we modified D to read as below , would it be a better choice than E (which is the actually the OA)

D is modified as below...
(D) which farmers use as collateral to get through the harvest season, are

I have a Question with respect to the Subject being plural or singular. I am confused that the subject is plural. I agree that "values" is plural but "declining values" can be singular if we interpret meaning as "A decline in values"
Refer to below example it is clear that the subject is singular. Can someone explain the difference which I am unable to see.

Removing images, instead of formatting the memory card is a way to create space in the memory card.

[Abdulla]

In addition, I think If there is a difference only in the meaning and we stuck with two choices, the original sentence will be the right meaning ? am I right?