Alternative uses of resources
Also called: competing uses · Topic: Scarcity, Choice and Economic Systems · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 8 "Building Blocks in Economics: The Problem of Choice"; Class 11, Ch 1 "Introduction (Statistics for Economics)"
Meaning
Most resources can be used to produce more than one thing. This is called their alternative uses (or competing uses). Land, labour, water and fertiliser can grow food crops or non-food crops such as rubber, cotton and jute. Because resources are limited and have alternative uses, using them for one purpose means not using them for another. This creates the problem of choice.
Example
A tonne of steel can be used for medical equipment, aircraft or refrigerators. It cannot be used for all three at once. A farmer's one acre can grow either sugarcane or millets in a season, not both.
Don't confuse with
- Scarcity: scarcity only means resources are limited compared with wants. Alternative uses are what turn scarcity into a real choice. Robbins's definition (1932) needs both: "scarce means which have alternative uses".