Reversing the Spiral: The Population, Agriculture, and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 1994
Type: article
Abstract: Recommendations are made to promote small family size and family planning according to cultural and agricultural/economic incentives and to create demand for sustainable agricultural technology and eliminate open-access land tenure. A market for fuelwood should be created and environmental degradation reduced through multiple policy changes agricultural intensification and land tenure reform. Environmental action plans should be generated and urban policies formulated based on spatial plans and the integration of population environment and agriculture. Community and individual management would be encouraged. Gender issues and risk perceptions of local people are important. Social organization is very complex and attention must be paid to the organization of production and consumption decision making and access to resources. Over 50% of African countries have instituted some form of macroeconomic and agricultural policy reforms. Kenya Uganda Tanzania Botswana and Mauritius have made progress toward fertility decline environmental protection and agricultural growth. In many countries major efforts are still needed. Forest cover is decreasing at a rate of about 2.9 million hectares/year. Market-based agriculture has not advanced very rapidly due to lack in agricultural research inappropriate agricultural marketing and pricing and poor transportation systems. Increasing crop area has been the solution to increased population. Women are at the center of agricultural production in Africa and have heavy pressures on their time from the multiple roles of childbearing and rearing family maintenance and income-producing activities. Political and economic elites have gained access and control over open-access land and nationalized ownership to favor private investors and public projects. Fuelwood had been considered everyones right and markets for fuelwood have suffered. The African traditional production methods land tenure systems fuelwood provision building materials and gender roles were well suited only to low population size and growth. Degradation of environmental resources has been the result of rapid population growth and other factors such as civil wars and poor rural infrastructure.
Author: Kevin M. Schreiber Cleaver
Language: English
Topic: Land Rights and Reforms
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2087067768