Adaptation to land constraints: Is Africa different?

By Derek Headey, T. Jayne. 2014

197 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Since the seminal works of Malthus and Boserup, scientists have long debated the impact of population growth and land constraints on the wellbeing of rural people. Today these concerns are particularly relevant to Africa, with its rapid population growth, very small farms, and chronic food insecurity. In this paper we examine adaptation to falling land-labor ratios using a comprehensive theoretical framework in which households faced with binding land constraints can respond in three ways: intensifying agricultural production, diversifying out of agriculture, and reducing fertility rates. Using cross-country data and drawing upon the existing literature, we reach three conclusions. First, population density is associated with reduced fallows and more intensive use of land but not fertilizer use or irrigation, indicating major challenges in achieving sustainable intensification or agricultural productivity growth. Second, there is little evidence of successful non-farm diversification in response to land pressures in Africa from domestic or international income sources. Third, rural Africans in land constrained countries desire smaller families, but have thus far benefited little from family planning policies. These findings underscore the need for a coordinated multi-sectoral approach to sustainably reduce poverty in the region.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f09253cdf9655285abdd45e051741eba080bbf78

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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): “While large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can be characterized as land abundant, scarcity of farmland is becoming an issue in a larger proportion of the continent as populations grow (Headey and Jayne, 2014).”
Effects of rising rural population density on smallholder agriculture in Kenya (2014, background): “Evidence from most African countries shows limited land productivity growth in response to rising population density (Headey and Jayne, 2014).”
Determinant factors of livelihood diversification: Evidence from Ethiopia (2017, background): “…shrinking farm sizes and growing landlessness in sub Saharan Africa could have potentially negative impact on rural welfare and food security and by default pushing unskilled farm labour into mainly low-return nonfarm sectors (Haggblade et al., 2007; Headey & Jayne, 2014; Muyanga & Jayne, 2014).”
The future of farming: Who will produce our food? (2021, background): “A widely described problem of slow agricultural development (e.g. Headey & Jayne, 2014) is linked to low capital investment and limited use of agricultural inputs.”
Measurement Error Mechanisms Matter: Agricultural Intensification with Farmer Misperceptions and Misreporting (2019, unknown): “Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda are densely populated and land constrained (Headey and Jayne 2014, Jayne, Chamberlin and Headey, 2014).”
Mechanization in Ghana: Emerging demand, and the search for alternative supply models (2014, methodology): “To provide a cross-country context, we also include the four African countries with data available in GGDC and are classified as part of the high population density group in Headey and Jayne (2014). We also include South Africa as a reference, a country with highly mechanized agriculture and much mo”