Niger and Mauritania

In countries like Niger and Mauritania, the cultivation of land has changed little in the past several centuries. Additionally, these countries’ mono-modal rainfall pattern brings precipitation for only three months during the year. As a result, food production doesn’t nearly meet demand.

Several agencies and organizations have intensified their efforts to increase the productivity of land in these countries. They have introduced new strains of seed, improved irrigation techniques, and introduced new methods of fertilization and soil management. With ample sunlight for photosynthesis and modern irrigation techniques, sustainable farming techniques should allow farmers to boost aggregate production in order to meet demand.

Still, crop revitalization faces an unexpected adversary: institutional incompetence. Where crop specialists have convinced individual farmers to abandon old farming techniques in place of new, they can’t readily obtain the governmental cooperation they need. The biggest hurdles are political corruption, incompetence, and the absence of a marketing infrastructure.

Which sentence best expresses the information on the passage?

a. Rainfall patterns are mono-modal in Niger and Mauritania

b. In countries like Niger and Mauritania, food production is not enough to satisfy the countries need X

c. The government is not cooperating with the farmers

d. Farmers should change to new farming techniques

In the last paragraph, the word they refers to

a. crop specialists X

b. farmers

c. farming techniques

d. adversaries

In the last paragraph, the word hurdles is closest in meaning to

a. help

b. obstacles

c. incompetence x

d. dangers

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