Fig 1
Population
Carrying capacity
Starvation
Time
Esther Boserup was a Danish development theorist. Born in 1910, she studied at Copenhagen University. She married to Mogens Boserup in 1931. She worked for the Danish Government from 1936 to 1931. She was then attached to the Research Division of the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe in Geneva. She became a freelance author. She worked for long periods in Asian and African countries (India and Senegal where the two main. She published two books. One called “Conditions of Agricultural Growth” and the other one was “Women’s role in Economic Development” She challenged Malthus’ theory by saying that population growth is needed for the agricultural production and population to rise. She also said that food production will always stay ahead of population growth. She talks about domination of male over women in economy and labour. She mentions that if women started to work in this society, probably the carrying capacity would double itself because research and technology would improve twice as fast.
The main problem of population distribution and agricultural production is that in some areas of the world, there is ‘Population Pressure’. Very poor people are forced to live in areas of the planet where living conditions are harsh and where agricultural land is very low. Population Pressure is also caused by civil wars. In Africa for example, people are being forced out of countries where there is a civil war going on (i.e. Ivory Coast). Also in some countries, farming is mainly Subsistence farming where people can only grow enough food to feed themselves. There is usually a very low agricultural population and this means that the majority of the population of the country will starve to death. Carrying capacity also will affect population (see fig 1) because if a country has very low agricultural land, this will result in a low carrying capacity which will mean that only a small amount of people will be able to survive and not die of starvation.
In developed countries like in the European Community, this won’t happen because there is a lot of agricultural land and it is used very efficiently. This happens because research is being made which means the technology levels compared to undeveloped countries are much greater. Fertilizers and machinery are being researched every day and this helps farmers to use the land more efficiently. The agricultural population in these countries doesn’t have to be very high because nowadays, machines do all the jobs for humans.
Another factor that affects population and agricultural growth is natural disasters. Droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes and others can wipe out a whole farm in just a couple of days or even less. This only occurs in countries like African and Asian countries. It can happen in European countries (i.e. floods in France) but there will never be a shortage of food in the EU because food is grown in masses and agricultural production is way higher than the population.
The carrying capacity of a country or a specific region is how much the agricultural production can maintain a population (see fig 1). For example if the carrying capacity of a country can carry 1 million people, there will be enough food just to feed 1 million people and not more. If there are any more, this will cause starvation and death rates will increase. The world carrying capacity has probably been exceeded. The population growth rate of the world is presently at 1.7% per year. This would mean that every 40 years the population would double, so if now the population is at 6 billion, in 4 years it will be at 12 billion, and in 80 years it would have reached 24 billion and so on. Agriculture only grows in arithmetical ratio (i.e. If its 1 now, in 40 years it will be 2 and in 80 years it will be three and so on…)
Various things affect the carrying capacity of a certain country; the agricultural land, the agricultural population, natural disasters, civil wars, research and technology, climate and others. If there is no agricultural land, no food, or very little could be grown which would result in a drastic drop of the carrying capacity. If no one is wanting or cannot work as farmer or other jobs involved in agriculture, the agricultural population would drop which would mean that no one farms the land and that no food is produced. When natural disasters occur, farms are destroyed which means that all the food which had been grown during the year and that would have been used to feed the population. This results in a decrease of the carrying capacity. Civil wars can affect carrying capacity because during these, farms and food storages are destroyed for tactical reasons and most of the population has been evacuated so there is no one to work on the land. This will eventually result in a decrease of the carrying capacity. Technology and research affect it because if there is very little knowledge on farming and no products are being discovered. In Europe, Genetically modified products (see Green Revolution) raise the carrying capacity because more perfect crops and plants are being grown. These won’t be affected by diseases and other problems. Climate is also very important in this. Agriculture depends mostly on climate. The weather has to be perfect for a certain crop to grow. If the weather varies or the crop isn’t adapted to kind of weather , no food will be grown which will result in a drop of the carrying capacity.
The Green Revolution was something that probably affected everyone’s lives nowadays. It was first introduced after the end of the Second World War. Scientists tried to discover a new way of breeding perfect crops such as rice and maize. HYVs(high-yielding varieties) and MVs(modern varieties) were discovered then. This meant that crops were bread to from the perfect one. Genetic Modification also took part in some experiments. This was a miracle that would have hopefully solved the food problems. There have been many public demonstrations against this especially in France and the UK.
Population is mainly affected by ‘Birth Rate’ and ‘Death Rate’. These two factors play the most important role in the growth of the population. The Birth rate is now a bit more than double the death rate ( see table 1). This is because in these years contraception and education have been introduced to developed and developing countries.
In the Stage one of the Demographic transition model, we can see that birth rate and death rate are high because contraception, education and other factors like hygiene and health weren’t present. In stage 2, the death rates dropped because health and hygiene had been introduced. Simultaneously, population growth began.
In stage three, the birth rate began to drop because contraception such as the pill and condoms were discovered. The drop in birth rate caused the population level to start level again. In the final stage both birth and death rates are low and levelled which leaves the population to be stable again.
Population is also affected by agricultural production because if there is no production, then the population will drop and soon disappear; but if there was a lot of agricultural production, then population would begin to rise again.
Table 1
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Natural
Time unit Births Deaths increase
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Year 128,577,961 54,997,089 73,580,872
Month 10,714,830 4,583,091 6,131,739
Day 352,268 150,677 201,591
Hour 14,678 6,278 8,400
Minute 245 105 140
Second 4.1 1.7 2.3
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(http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Demotrans/demtran.htm)
