Passage:
In the early twentieth century, Costa Rica's agrarian economy faced severe soil degradation in the Central Valley due to continuous monoculture coffee farming. To mitigate declining yields, smallholder farmers formed agricultural syndicates that introduced shade-grown coffee practices using nitrogen-fixing legume trees such as *Inga edulis*. Initial reports from government agronomists suggested that shade trees significantly enhanced topsoil moisture retention and replenished nitrogen levels, leading to a temporary recovery in bean size and crop uniformity between 1915 and 1922.
However, historical records reveal that despite these localized agronomic improvements, overall export profits for syndicate members declined during the subsequent decade (1923–1933). Historian Elena Vargas attributes this unexpected economic downturn primarily to structural changes in international freight logistics rather than agricultural failure. During this period, transatlantic shipping consortiums raised freight tariffs specifically on shaded, higher-moisture coffee shipments, which required specialized ventilated cargo holds to prevent mold during transit. Consequently, non-syndicate planters who maintained traditional sun-grown operations, despite harvesting lower-quality beans from degraded soils, managed to preserve higher net margins by utilizing standard, cheaper shipping containers. Furthermore, because syndicate cooperatives had pledged collective assets to finance the initial planting of shade trees, they were unable to reallocate capital toward constructing on-site drying facilities that could have reduced bean moisture prior to export.
Based on the passage, which of the following inferences regarding the syndicate farmers' coffee operations between 1923 and 1933 is most strongly supported?
- The physical characteristics of the coffee beans enhanced by shade-grown techniques directly contributed to the freight cost disadvantages encountered by syndicate members.Cevap
- BNon-syndicate planters achieved higher overall crop yields per acre than syndicate members throughout the decade following 1922.
- CGovernment agronomists concluded that the economic downturn experienced by syndicate members stemmed primarily from widespread mold contamination during transit.
- DThe introduction of nitrogen-fixing legume trees failed to produce any measurable agronomic improvements on smallholder coffee farms in the Central Valley.
- EIf transatlantic shipping consortiums had maintained uniform freight tariffs, syndicate cooperatives would have financed on-site drying facilities.