(C), (D)

This is a very difficult sentence to crack open. A good approach is to plug in answer choices and see which ones result in a coherent and logical meaning. While this may not sound very time-efficient, on a difficult sentence like this one, you are likely to waste more time trying to figure out the sentence (but probably to no avail).

When plugging in those answer choices, of course we want to keep in mind a couple of keywords from text. First, we see the colon and the word "indeed," which means there is some elaboration in this sentence. The first half and the second half convey the same message.

Besides that, take note of the parallel between "minor governmental bungling" and "gross negligence." These are similar, but there's a key difference between "minor" and "gross." This connection makes the first blank look a bit easier to work with, so we'll start there. But if we try to make a prediction, it's a bit tricky--either "explain" or "can't explain," for example, COULD make sense, depending on the intended message. That's why we start plugging in answer choices, here; it's too hard to make a reasonable guess beforehand.

Only (C) hardly account for makes sense. Bungling can neither "mitigate" nor "misrepresent" negligence. Once the first blank is clear, take a quick step back and check if the sentence makes a bit more sense.

From the meaning of that first part of the sentence, we can possibly make a prediction for the second half or just continue plugging in. Keep in mind that plugging in like this is second-tier strategy! It's much better to predict the answer before looking at choices whenever possible.

For the second blank, we need (D) cannot solely be attributed to create a logical and coherent meaning. Some small errors on the government's part (the "minor bungling" from the beginning) cannot be entirely blamed for the fact that entire areas of land have gone barren (the "gross negligence"). The relationship of these two problems, "flaws" and barren land, is the same as the relationship between the two problems in the first half of the sentence. Again, that's because this is an elaboration sentence, as shown by "indeed."