In the question given below there are 2 statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Choose the correct alternative from the following options.

Assertion (A)- Even after reforms in 1988, Pakistan witnessed a slow-down of growth and re-emergence of poverty.

Reason (R)- Pakistan agricultural growth and food supply situation were based not on an institutionalised process of technical change but on good harvest.

Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation.

The correct answer is Option 1: Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation.

Assertion (A)- Even after reforms in 1988, Pakistan witnessed a slow-down of growth and re-emergence of poverty. This is correct.

Reason (R)- Pakistan agricultural growth and food supply situation were based not on an institutionalised process of technical change but on good harvest. This is also correct. When there was a good harvest in Pakistan, the economy was in good condition, when it was not, the economic indicators showed stagnation or negative trends.

Thus, the reasoning correctly explains the Assertion.

"Though the data on international poverty line for Pakistan is quite healthy, scholars using the official data of Pakistan indicate rising poverty there. The proportion of poor in 1960s was more than 40 per cent which declined to 25 per cent in 1980s and started rising again in the recent decades. The reasons for the slow down of growth and re-emergence of poverty in Pakistan’s economy, as scholars put it, are agricultural growth and food supply situation were based not on an institutionalised process of technical change but on good harvest. When there was a good harvest, the economy was in good condition, when it was not, the economic indicators showed stagnation or negative trends. India had to borrow from the IMF and World Bank to set right its balance of payments crisis; foreign exchange is an essential component for any country and it is important to know how it can be earned. If a country is able to build up its foreign exchange earnings by sustainable export of manufactured goods, it need not worry. In Pakistan most foreign exchange earnings came from remittances from Pakistani workers in the Middle-east and the exports of highly volatile agricultural products; there was also growing dependence on foreign loans on the one hand and increasing difficulty in paying back the loans on the other."