A Re-Examination of Some Theories on Food Production and Population Pressure

The issue of population pressure and food production has attracted the attention of researchers for centuries. This book is based on a long term study, over three decades, of communities in southeast Nigeria. The book validates the extant theory of positive relationship between population pressure and food production through a process of intensification, increased technology use and enhanced market orientation. However this process can be aborted through external factors including global macroeconomic framework, migration, urbanization and stagnant technologies, factors which were not considered by preceding theorist on this subject. These factors are shown to have halted, and may have reversed the predicted development path of farming systems having similar characteristics. This is a contribution to the theories in this field of study, and explains the subsisting food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in areas with similar conditions.