If agricultural intensification causes a gain in overall prosperity, then it will also enhance food security. Boserup suggested that a gain in overall prosperity is a direct corollary to her hypothesis of population-density-driven agricultural intensific ation, “in sharp contrast to the causation from prosperity to population growth and poverty, which was suggested by Malthus.” However, as almost an afterthought at the end of her monograph, she mentions that “[t]his condition may not be fulfilled in dens ely peopled communities if rates of population growth are high.” The dilemma is in finding the balance between population growth that is ecologically beneficial (encouraging agricultural intensification and a reduction in cropping area) and popu lation growth that is excessive and ecologically harmful. Netting (1993) adopts the term Malthusian equilibrium node to define this balance: “[T]he point of environmental limit at which the diminishing return to fixed resources and the growing c ost of technology and labor outweigh the stimulus to intensification. At this stable point of higher technology, Malthusian checks of limited resources and high population demands prevail over the Boserupian growth dynamic.”
In virtually all rural Sub-Saharan Africa, fluctuating food security is, for most people, a fact of life. Cultures have adapted to the uncertainty by adopting a suite of coping options (coping strategies). Pastoralists hedge against catastrophi c animal losses during drought by building up their herds during wet years. Farmers experiment with intensification, polycropping, agroforestry, and new plant varietals. When disaster strikes, most households are able to survive by gradually selling ass ets. When assets are exhausted, however, people have no alternative but to migrate. The initial objective of coping options, then, is to conserve household resources; the ultimate objective may be the preservation of life (Hutchinson, 1992).
The figure below shows the coping options curve – the temporal sequence and organization of household responses to food shortages and food security emergencies. The curve uses data collected by Watts (1983) and augmented by studies undertaken by The Office of Arid Lands Studies.
There are still two factors missing in understanding the full set of consequences inherent in food insecurity. First, this simple model of household response to food insecurity is mitigated by community-level responses in many cultures, such as India. Indeed, this was also often the case in pre-Colonial Africa, but these mechanisms were largely destroyed by the Europeans. Those that survived intact were unable to contend with the massive scale of the dislocations resulting from the mid-1970s and mid-1980s long-term Sahelian droughts. Second, as households descend the copi ng option curve, they exact an increasing toll on local natural resources, one that reduces local and often regional environmental security.
Boserup, E., 1965. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth. Chicago: Aldine Press, 124 pp.
Cleveland, D.A., 1993. Is variety more than the spice of life? Diversity, stability and sustainable agriculture. Culture and Agriculture 45-46 (winter/spring), pp. 2 - 7.
Durham, D. F., 1991. Notes on “carrying capacity.” Population and Environment 13:2, 119 - 120.
Ehrlich. P.R., A.H. Ehrlich, and G.C. Daily, 1993. Food security, population, and environment. Population and Development Review 19:1, 1 - 32.
Feierman, S., 1993. Defending the promise of subsistence: population growth and agriculture in the West Usambara mountains, 1920 - 1980. In: B.L. Turner, G. Hyden, and R.W. Kates, eds., Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa. Gain esville: University Press of Florida, 114 - 144.
Foster, P., 1992. The World Food Problem. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 367 pp.
Frankenberger, T.R., 1992. Indicators and data collection: methods for assessing household food security. In: S. Maxwell and T.R. Frankenberger, Household Food Security: Concepts, Indicators, Measurements. UNICEF and IFAD, New York, 73 - 135.< p> Goldman, A., 1993. Population growth and agricultural change in Imo State, southeastern Nigeria. In: B.L. Turner, G. Hyden, and R.W. Kates, eds., Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 25 0 - 301.
Hutchinson, C.F., 1992. Early Warning and Vulnerability Assessment for Famine Mitigation. Famine Mitigation Strategy Paper AFR-1526-P-AG-1129-00, U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Washington, D.C. 28 pp.
Keyfitz, N., 1993. Population and sustainable development: distinguishing fact and preference concerning the future human population and environment. Population and Environment 14:5, 441 - 461.
Martin, S., 1993. From agricultural growth to stagnation: the case of Ngwa, Nigeria, 1900 - 1980. In: B. L. Turner, G. Hyden, and R. W. Kates, eds., Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 302 - 323.
Mortimore, M., 1993. The Kano close-settled zone, 1964 - 1986. In: B.L. Turner, G. Hyden, and R.W. Kates, eds., Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 358 - 400.
Mortimore, M. and M. Tiffen, 1994. Population growth and a sustainable environment: the Machakos story. Environment 36:8, 10 - 20, 28 - 32.
Netting, R.M., 1993. Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 389 pp.
Netting, R.M., G.D. Stone, and M.P. Stone, 1993. Agricultural expansion, intensification, and market participation among the Kofyar, Jos Plateau, Nigeria. In: B.L. Turner, G. Hyden, and R.W. Kates, eds., Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 206 - 249.
Norse, D., 1992. A new strategy for feeding a crowded planet. Environment 34:5, 6-11, 32-39.
Watts, M., 1983. Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. Berkeley: University of California Press, 687 pp.
World Bank, 1986. Poverty and Hunger: Issues and Options for Food Security in Developing Countries. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (The World Bank), Washington, D.C. 69 pp.
The Table of Contents of my work on Sahelian food security is available.
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This site last updated July 17, 1997.