RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGRICULTURE AND MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION
Agriculture, defines as the growing of crops and the tending of livestock, whether for the subsistence of the procedures or for sale or exchange. In addition to agriculture, as primary economic activities include fishing, forestry and mining. (ARTHER et 2008)
Agricultural location refers to site selection where farming takes place. Is the first step in starting a farm when the crop to be grown has already been decided.
MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION.
Thomas Robert Malthus was the first economist to propose a systematic theory of population. He articulated his views regarding population in his famous book, Essay on the principle of population (1798) for which he collected empirical of population Malthus proposes the principles that human populations grow exponentially (ie doubling with each cycle) while food production grows at arithmetic rate. Thus while food output was likely to increase in a series of twenty five years intervals in the arithmetic progression 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and so on, population was capable of increasing in the geometric progression 1,2,4,8,16,32 and so forth. He concludes that because of these more and more peasants and subsistence farmers would live poorer and poorer lives until some checks came into place. He proposed that there will be “positive checks” which raise the death rate and “preventive one” which lower the birth rate. (Thomas 1826)
BOSERUPIAN THEORY OF POPULATION.
Boserup was a Danish agricultural economist, is distinguished by two intellectual achievements: a seminar theory of population to rival Malthus in importance and pioneering work on the role women in human development. Boserup developed her ideas in connection with traditional farming system in South East Asia, but her ideas have been applied to global agricultural patterns.
Boserup published books like the conditions of Agricultural growth, the economics of Agrarian change under population pressure. She argued that population growth is the cause of agricultural change and not the result. For Boserup the principle change is the intensification of land use. She argued that when the population density is low enough to allow it, land tends to be used intermittently with heavy reliance on fire to clear the fields and fallowing the restore fertility. The process of using production at the cost of more work at lower efficiently is what Boserup describes as “agricultural intensification” (Esther 1965)
The following are relevance of Ester Boserup theory and Malthusian theory in agricultural location based on differences.
i) Malthus in his theory predicted that food supply would grow at an arithmetic progression rate 1, 2, 3 and so on while the rate of population would take a geometric progression 2,4,8 and so on. This would make population surpass food production and lead to conflict that can only be resolved by occurrences of natural disasters to significances reduce population while Boserup gave a different opinion when she observed in 1965 that population increases would estimate technological advancement to keep food production at check. Boserup observed that population growth would therefore be seen as an incentives for technology development from Agrarian to modern cutting edge technology.
ii) Also Boserup said necessity is the mother of invention, people only made advances when they realized they needed to, describe how increased food supply came after the huge population growth, increased food supply came with increased technological advances, but Thomas Malthus in his case suggested that there should be population checks so as to maintain food surplus. Where negative checks are like the use of contraceptives or birth control methods.
iii) Malthus wrote “the poor are themselves cause of their poverty. This is very true because it is the poor people who are responsible for the rapid population growth in developing countries today, contrarily, Esther Boserup stated that the increase of population lead to technological invention, as a result food production increased.
iv) Boserup published books like the conditions of agricultural growth. The economics of Agrarian change under population pressure. She argued that population growth is the cause agricultural change and not the results. For Boserup the principle change is the intensification of land uses, her argument was that when the population density is low enough to allow it, land could tend to be used intermittently with heavy reliance on fire to clear the fields and fallowing to restore fertility. The process of rising production at the cost of more work at lower efficiency is what Boserup describes as agricultural intensification while Malthus did not urge on agricultural intensification as a result of population growth.
The following are relevance of Ester Boserup theory and Malthusian theory in agricultural location based on similarities.
i) Malthus and Boserup theories are opposing, they all do share common ideas. They both assume a closed economy. In addition they share the opinion that population is on the rise, but differ on the cost of production rise. Malthus sees population growth as the cause of reduced food production where as Boserup observes that population growth would to invention hence improved food production.
ii) Both Boserup and Malthus were economists, they had common intention on how to balance level of population growth and food surplus to meet the needs of the growing population, although they differed in their thoughts the way to reach in accomplishment.
iii) Both Boserup and Malthus focused on advancement/development of the society, but to attain their goal they suggest different strategies, where by Boserup argued by introducing method of advancement of technology while Malthus suggested about methods of population control.
Conclusion it would be prudent that the principle of population was an 18th century essay by Malthus. Boserup’s ideals were published in the 20th century. Today we live in the 21stcentury whose future potential growth lies in information and communication technology. Malthusian theory was relevant in the agrarian technology for a less developed economy and it is irrelevant at some instances in the world today.
REFERENCES
Boserup, E (1965). The Conditions of Agricultural Growth, 124 pp. Aldine, Chicago.
Crops Review.com and Ben G. Bareja (2010-2015)
Malthus, T. (1826). An Essay on the Principles of Population, Cambridge University Press, edited by Patricia James (1989)
