Question

Difficulty: HardInferential Comprehension and Deduction

Read the passage below carefully:

For generations, the women of Uburu in Ebonyi State processed brine from the local salt lake using earthenware pots over open fuelwood fires. While this traditional technique yielded a revered culinary salt, it demanded vast quantities of timber from surrounding woodland strips, accelerating local deforestation and exposing processing sheds to severe seasonal erosion. In response, a local women's cooperative introduced solar-evaporation polytunnels, which rely on ambient solar radiation to concentrate the brine before minimal thermal boiling is applied. Although initial yield volumes per cycle fell by fifteen percent compared to direct wood-firing, the cooperative observed a noticeable reduction in fuelwood expenditure and a dramatic drop in respiratory ailments among processors. Furthermore, the slower crystallization process within the polytunnels produced larger, purer salt crystals that commanded a forty percent premium in regional organic markets. Consequently, despite the smaller physical volume harvested, overall cooperative revenue rose, enabling the community to finance a community-led reforestation initiative along the degraded perimeter of the lake.

Based on the passage above, evaluate whether the following deduction is TRUE or FALSE:

"The Uburu salt cooperative achieved overall financial growth despite reduced harvest volumes because the improved purity of their product commanded a higher market value per unit."

Answer: Answer

Answer

The deduction is TRUE. The text establishes that physical production fell by fifteen percent, but the superior quality of the salt crystals allowed the cooperative to charge a forty percent market premium, resulting in higher overall revenue.
The correct evaluation is TRUE because the passage explicitly ties higher overall revenue to the forty percent price premium commanded by larger, purer crystals, despite a fifteen percent drop in physical output volume per cycle.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the claim regarding output volume and financial performance in the passage.
The passage confirms that initial yield volumes per cycle decreased by fifteen percent following the transition to solar-evaporation polytunnels.
Establishing the change in physical quantity produced is essential to test the premise of reduced harvest volumes.
2
Analyze how product quality and pricing changed after adopting the new technology.
The text notes that the slower crystallization produced larger, purer crystals commanding a forty percent premium in regional organic markets.
Determining market value per unit reveals why financial returns altered despite lower yields.
3
Synthesize volume and pricing data to verify the overall financial outcome.
Overall cooperative revenue rose because the price premium per unit outweighed the fifteen percent reduction in volume.
Combining volume reduction with unit price appreciation logically confirms that financial growth occurred due to product quality rather than quantity.

Key Concept

Inferential Comprehension and Deduction
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