Some misconceptions of agricultural production, population, and land resources in Africa
Obia, G.C.
Addressing misconceptions about Africa' s development seeing beyond the veil: 112-128
1998
Document Number: 516943
The paper evaluates the conditions of Africa's land resource base, population growth, and agricultural production, and challenges some misconceptions associated with these conditions. It focuses on the interplay of agricultural production, population pressure, and environmental degradation in order to elucidate new directions for future socioeconomic development. It challenges the concept that population growth and the quality of the resource base per se are responsible for the decline in agricultural production, and argues that human factors are at the centre of the misnomer in agricultural production and land degradation. Other issues discussed are: conditions of the land resource base; population and agricultural production; evaluating the interplay of factors; alternative considerations for improvements in agricultural production (re-establishing agricultural productivity security; population management; affordable low-input technology and capital; alternative energy to save the land and decrease poverty; and education for rural agricultural development).