Maasai people turning to cultivation and trade is evidence of what?

Pastoral society was adapting to changing conditions

The Maasai turning partly to cultivation and trade shows that pastoral communities were capable of adapting their livelihood strategies. Pastoralism remained important, but changing conditions could make it harder to depend only on herding. Colonial policies, loss of grazing land, restrictions on movement, drought, disease, market changes, and poverty could all create pressure. Cultivation or trade could provide additional food or income and reduce risk. A change in work therefore does not mean that the earlier livelihood had never mattered.

The correct choice is A because it describes adaptation to changing economic, environmental, and political conditions. The other choices deny well-known links between the Maasai and livestock or ignore the pressures that affected pastoral life. Choosing another activity may have been a practical response to crisis, not proof that pastoralism was unimportant. It is best understood as a flexible livelihood strategy in which people adjusted their work while trying to protect family survival and security.

This is a Class 9 History question. Chapter: Pastoralists in the Modern World. Topic: Pastoralism in Africa.