Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa

"By far the most extensive empirical and theoretical analysis of the debate [on the effects of population growth on development] in the African context. It promises . . . to become a central document for those interested in African and other Third World regions' agrarian transformation."--S. P. Reyna, University of New Hampshire The question that drives the ten case studies of highland East Africa and Nigeria commissioned for this volume is whether population growth in densely settled areas of rural Africa has led to the intensification of agriculture. Using a "natural experiments" methodology, the authors explore changes in agricultural inputs and outputs, analyze the role that external productive forces have played in these changes, note the consequences of the changes (especially for the environment and standard of living), and speculate on the changes' implications. The volume is framed by chapters on theory, one that presents the traditional thought on the relationship between population and agriculture and one that offers a synthesis that, while controversial, holds out real hope for African agriculture. Contents Theory, Evidence, Study Design, by Robert W. Kates, Goran Hyden, and B. L. Turner II Agricultural Transformation in the Robusta Coffee/Banana Zone of Bushenyi, Uganda, by Nelson Kasfir Increasing Variability in Agricultural Production: Meru District, Kenya, in the Twentieth Century, by F. E. Bernard Defending the Promise of Subsistence: Population Growth and Agriculture in the West Usambara Mountains, 1920-1980, by Steven Feierman Marginal Coping in Extreme Land Pressures: Ruhengeri, Rwanda, by Robert E. Ford Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Kisii District, Kenya: A Sustained Symbiosis? by H. W. O. Okoth-Ogendo and John O. Oucho Agricultural Expansion, Intensification, and Market Participation among the Kofyar, Jos Plateau, Nigeria, by Robert McC. Netting, Glenn Davis Stone, and M. Priscilla Stone Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Imo State, Southeastern Nigeria, by Abe Goldman From Agricultural Growth to Stagnation: The Case of the Ngwa, Nigeria, 1900-1980, by Susan Martin Agricultural Stagnation and Economic Diversification: Awka-Nnewi Region, Nigeria, 1930-1980, by Francis C. Okafor The Intensification of Peri-Urban Agriculture: The Kano Close-Settled Zone, 1964-1986, by Michael Mortimore Beyond Intensificaiton, by Goran Hyden, Robert W. Kates, and B. L. Turner II B. L. Turner II, a professor of geography and director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, is the editor or author of a number of publications on nature-society relationships. Goran Hyden is a professor of political science at the University of Florida. Robert Kates is Professor Emeritus at Brown University and former director of the A. S. Feinstein World Hunger Program at that university.