Question

A farmer cultivates a cornfield by fertilizing and increases the farm's yield to 50 bushels per acre. Additional cultivation increases the yield but at a decreasing rate. At some point, additional cultivation will not lead to any additional output per acre. This is an example of the law of ______.

Answer 1

The situation the student described is an example of the law of diminishing returns, which indicates that after a certain point, additional resources lead to smaller increases in output and eventually might not increase output at all.

Step-by-step explanation:

The phenomenon described in the student's question is an example of the law of diminishing returns. This law holds that as more resources are added to a fixed amount of another resource, such as adding more fertilizer or water to a fixed amount of land, the marginal increase in output will get smaller. Eventually, there comes a point when adding more resources does not increase output at all and might even reduce it. For instance, in the case of a farmer adding water to irrigate crops, initially, the output increases. However, after a certain point, adding more water yields progressively smaller increases in crop yield because the fixed amount of land can only absorb so much water efficiently.

Therefore, the law of diminishing returns explains why there is a decrease in the marginal gain from continued investment in cultivation, such as increasing the quantity of fertilizer beyond a certain point. It's an essential concept in economics that affects decisions on how to allocate resources effectively for agricultural production and other industries.