Effects of rising rural population density on smallholder agriculture in Kenya
By M. Muyanga, T. Jayne. 2014
187 citations recorded by the source corpus.
This study measures how Kenyan farmers and farming systems have responded to changes in population density and associated land pressures. Kenya is a relatively densely populated area, with 40% of its rural people residing on 5% of its rural land. We develop a structural model for estimating the impact of population density on input and output prices, farm size, and ultimately on smallholder behavior and agricultural intensification. Evidence is derived from a five-round panel survey between 1997 and 2010. We find a negative relationship between localized population density and farm size, and a positive relationship between population density and measures of land intensification up to roughly 500persons/km2. Beyond this threshold, rising population density is not associated with further increases in land intensification. Some measures of intensification actually show an alarming decline beyond this population density threshold. We also find a relatively weak relationship between population density and off-farm income. Overall, total household income per adult equivalent is found to decline significantly as population density rises. These findings raise serious policy questions about feasible pathways for rural poverty reduction in the context of increasingly land-constrained farming systems.
Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Soil Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/76e2150735f1b749fb6a551d2fd7aaf8563bbe53
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In General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
In Soil Science
Citations in the corpus
- The roles of land tenure reforms and land markets in the context of population growth and land use intensification in Africa (2014, background): “…however: (a) increasing population densities above the critical carrying capacity of the agro-ecological system in a growing number of areas (Muyanga and Jayne, 2014), and (b) a sharp increase in demand for land for commercial purposes in land-abundant areas where institutional structures…”
- Land Access, Land Rental and Food Security: Evidence from Kenya (2014, background): “This situation characterizes many areas of rural Kenya (Muyanga and Jayne, 2014).”
- The Effect of Land Access on Youth Employment and Migration Decisions: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia (2018, unknown): “1 However, population pressures—including a youth bulge in many developing countries—are reducing land availability (Jayne et al., 2010; Muyanga and Jayne, 2014) and potentially opportunities for youth to work in agriculture.”
- Small farms and development in sub-Saharan Africa: Farming for food, for income or for lack of better options? (2021, background): “…from other scholars questions this perspective drawing attention to the constraints of small farm sizes (e.g. Franke et al., 2014; Harris & Orr, 2013; Muyanga & Jayne, 2014) and the aspirations of rural people to focus on employment outside the farm (Dilley et al., 2021; Mausch et al., 2018).”
- The Role of Smallholder Farms in a Changing World (2020, background): “…rural population density and smallholder farming systems in Kenya shows that, in addition to declining farm size and incomes, increasing rural population density is associated with decreasing agricultural labour productivity after a certain population density threshold (Muyanga and Jayne 2014).”