Final answer:
Farmers were able to afford to buy land through various means, including government legislation like the Homestead Act in the U.S., land reforms in Japan, sharecropping arrangements, or purchasing land on installment plans.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question 'How were farmers able to afford to buy land?' pertains to various historical contexts and the answer would depend on the specific time and place in history we are looking at. For instance, in the history of the United States, after the Civil War, several land grant acts, such as the Homestead Act of 1862, allowed settlers to acquire land at little to no cost, often requiring the settlers to live on and improve the land for a minimum period of time. Alternatively, in the early 20th century, during the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the Japanese government implemented land reforms that redistributed land to tenant farmers, which made the purchase or lease of land more feasible for them. In other scenarios, such as with sharecropping or tenant farming, farmers worked the land and paid the landowner a portion of the harvest, while in some cases, they might have had the option to buy land through long-term payments, also known as installments.