Population Growth, Cultivated Land and Food Production: Arguments from the Literature and Evidences from Ethiopia

The relationship between rapid population growth and food production capacity of our earth has been a matter of controversies with varied interpretations in development thinking for a long time and would continue so in the future. Increasing population trends have fueled the debate that was began 200 years earlier when Malthus expressed his concern about the ability of the finite resources of the earth to feed an exponentially growing population. The debate has become warm when Boserupians took a different position. The research findings have been mixed regarding the respective positions. This book is crucial in providing theoretical discourses given by both the proponents of Multhusians and Boserupians and empirical evidences supporting each position. Most importantly, the book tries to show whether the current population growth and agricultural production coincides with either Malthusians' pessimistic predictions or Boserupians' optimist aspirations by taking empirical evidences from Ethiopia.