Read the following passage carefully:
"To combat childhood malnutrition and support smallholder agriculture, several state governments have recently integrated locally sourced bio-fortified millets into public school meal programs. Traditional supply chains, however, heavily favor water-intensive staple cereals like wheat and rice due to established minimum support price (MSP) frameworks and centralized procurement hubs. Policymakers argue that shifting state procurement targets toward indigenous climate-resilient grains will automatically incentivize local farming communities to diversify their crops away from water-depleting staples. Consequently, this policy shift is expected to improve regional groundwater tables while simultaneously enhancing dietary diversity among rural school children. However, agricultural economists point out that unless storage infrastructure at the village panchayat level is modernized to prevent post-harvest infestation, smallholders will remain hesitant to cultivate millets at a commercial scale, regardless of government procurement mandates."
Based on the passage above, which one of the following expresses the most crucial assumption on which the policymakers' argument relies?
- Farmers in the targeted regions possess the land suitability and operational capability to reallocate acreage from traditional staples to millet cultivation.Answer
- BSubstituting wheat and rice with millets in school meal programs will significantly reduce total state expenditure on childhood healthcare initiatives.
- CIndigenous millet varieties require significantly fewer chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides than high-yielding staple wheat varieties.
- DExisting minimum support price frameworks for staple cereals have completely destroyed traditional rural agrarian economies.