Question

Agricultural output is affected by the weather. Excessively high temperatures and a lack of rainfall are detrimental too crop yields. Of course, all farmers want the best growing conditions possible, and they work with whatever the weather is, in order to maximize their crop yield. Suppose, however, for a particular crop, this is a bad year and there is a decrease in crop yield, and therefore less of the good is produced. Is there any way this could be beneficial for the framersrevenue? a) Without the use of a diagram, in your own words, layout the conditions) under which this could happen b) Suppose you have a bright but sceptical friend who doubts your answer in part (a). Without relying on technical jargonexplain (again, in your own words) how such a surprising result is possible

Answer 1

Answer: The answer is provided below

Explanation:

a. When the quantity supplied of a particular crop reduces, it will affect the farmer's revenue but this can still be beneficial to the farmer provided these conditions prevails:

• If demand for the crop rises more than its fall in supply, this will lead to a rise in the and price of the crop. Hence, there will also be an increase in the revenue of the farmer and the farmer will try to adjust output and sell at higher prices. Therefore, the excess demand can off set a fall in the supply.

b. We know that the supply of a crop is limited. For example, let's assume that the crop is rice. Now the situation is that people are demanding more beans maybe as a result of festive season. Therefore, everyone will want to purchase rice which will lead to an increase in the price of rice due to excess demand.

The farmer will try as much as possible to maximise profit and will therefore sell the rice at higher price to those that wants to buy. Therefore, it's clear that the farmer can still benefit, even if his supply is limited, but the demand must be greater than its decline in supply.