Author Description

"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.