This analysis of the market for farm products also helps to explain a seeming paradox of public policy: Certain farm programs try to help farmers by inducing not to plant crops on all of their land Why do these programs do this? purpose is to reduce the supply of farm products and thereby raise prices. With elastic demand for their products, farmers as a group receive greater total to if they supply a smaller crop to the market. No single farmer would choose leave his land fallow on his own because each takes the market price as given. But farmers do so together, each of them can be better off.