"Population, food and rural development.

Will population pressure in rural areas of developing countries lead to inadequate per capita output of food, as many argue, or will population growth and higher density induce positive responses which may more than offset the decrease in land per head? This volume addresses these and other issues and concerns.

It begins with an assessment of forecasts of food adequacy at the start of the twenty-first century, with particular attention to their methodological underpinnings. It then considers in more detail some of the processes which are explicitly or implicitly included in the forecasts, and many others which are not. For example, how does population density and growth affect agricultural technology, market institutions, and investment? How does population pressure affect access to the land and the growth of a rural proletariat? To what extent is the real problem one of access to the complementary inputs-capital and technology needed to make the land productive? To what extent does an open frontier alleviate the problems of rapid growth? These issues are discussed both in general terms and in the context of specific developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The book will be of interest to demographers, development economists, and other social scientists concerned with development issues.