Which term describes a cycle of poverty that can be improved by investing in seeds and irrigation?

• A. Food Shortages
• B. Improving Subsistance Farming
• C. Marasmus
• D. Kwashiorkor

Answer: (B)

The concept being tested is how boosting agricultural inputs can help a household escape a poverty trap by improving subsistence farming. When smallholder farmers invest in better seeds and reliable irrigation, their crops become more productive and less risky. This leads to higher or steadier food production, more income from sales, and the capacity to reinvest in further improvements. Over time, this creates a positive cycle: better harvests reduce hunger, raise living standards, and enable ongoing investment in farming, lifting families out of poverty.

Food shortages describe a problem, not the process of improving farming to escape poverty. Marasmus and Kwashiorkor are forms of severe malnutrition, which can result from poverty and poor diets but are not the term for the cycle being addressed.