Self-study
For many types of crops, hybrid strains have been developed that have been found in test plantings to produce significantly higher yields than were produced by traditional nonhybrid strains of those crops planted alongside them. ████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why have farmers in many parts of the world who transitioned from traditional nonhybrid crops to hybrid crops not seen an increase in crop yields after transitioning?
Objective
The correct answer must identify why transitioning to hybrid crop strains has not increased crop yields for farmers in many areas of the world when hybrid crops produced significantly higher crop yields than traditional nonhybrid crops planted alongside them in test plantings.
7.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████████
a
Most farmers who █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████
The size of the farms that hybrid strains are planted on relative to the size of the farms their nonhybrid alternatives are planted on tells us nothing about why transitioning to hybrid strains has not increased crop yields for farmers in many parts of the world.
b
Hybrid strains of █████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████
Knowing that hybrid strains have produced higher yields than nonhybrid strains in some areas doesn’t help explain why the farmers discussed in the stimulus have seen no increase in their crop yields.
c
The hybrid strains ████ ██████ █████ █████████████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████
If this is true, the production levels of hybrid crops during the test plantings could’ve been unrepresentative of how much hybrid crops typically produce in the areas where farmers grow those hybrid crops.
d
Many traditional nonhybrid ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████
The taste and salability of nonhybrid strains of plants tell us nothing about the size of yields produced by those plants or hybrid strains of those plants.
e
Many governments subsidize ███████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████
Government subsidies given to farmers of hybrid crops have nothing to do with the yield size of those crops.