Nhận biết (M1)

Some farms are expanding their mix of crop species in an effort to reduce nonagricultural biodiversity loss caused by increasing agricultural specialization, in which farmers focus on a limited range of crops or livestock species to improve yields and, thus, their revenues. To study the joint environmental and economic effects of diversification practices (which can encompass improved soil and water management as well as increased variety in crops and livestock), Laura Vang Rasmussen and team analyzed data from 2,655 farms in eleven countries. They found that using multiple diversification practices concurrently had greater potential for improving both nonagricultural biodiversity and yields than using a single strategy did. Their finding suggests that __________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A.

  farmers who are reluctant to switch from specializing in a single crop to cultivating a variety of crops incorrectly assume that any improvements in yields will be insufficient to offset the costs associated with making that transition.

• B.

  farmers who focus primarily on increasing crop variety without engaging in other diversification practices will likely help reverse nonagricultural biodiversity loss, but their farms will produce smaller yields than if they had continued to focus on developing a single crop.

• C.

  agricultural diversification doesn’t inherently involve a trade-off between environmental and economic considerations, but farmers’ chances of avoiding that outcome may be diminished if they focus on crop variety to the exclusion of other diversification practices.

• D.

  it is more expensive to increase crop variety while simultaneously implementing other diversification practices than it is to increase crop variety and then subsequently implement other diversification practices.