Ester Böserup

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Ester Boserup was a Danish economist and writer born in 1910. She studied economical and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations and she wrote many books. One of her most important books is: The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. She proposed a very important theory about the relationship between population and food supply, and made an important influence on the role of women in workforce and human development, which then gave better opportunities of work and education for women.
She died in 1999.

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[edit] Her theories

Malthus’ theory says that the size and growth of the population depends on the food supply and agricultural methods. But on the other hand Boserup’s theory opposes this by saying that the agricultural methods depend on the size of the population. Malthus states that in times when food is not sufficient for everyone, the extra people will have to die, nevertheless, Böserup states that in those times of pressure people will find out ways to increase the productivity of food by increasing workforce, machinery, fertilizers, etc.

Graph outlining Boserup's theory

This graph shows how the rate of food supply may vary but never reaches its carrying capacity because every time it is getting near, there is an invention or development that causes the food supply to increase.
Both Malthus and Boserup can be right because Malthus refers to the environmental limits while Boserup refers to cultural and technological issues.

[edit] Some supporting quotes

One of the quotes that supported Böserup’s theories was that “necessity is the mother of invention”. This proves that people would not let themselves starve to death, but they will invent and find a way out of the problem. Böserup calls this development “agricultural intensification”

Another sentence quoted from one of her works says that “population growth causes agricultural growth”, this is an anti-Malthusian statement and is very opposed.

[edit] Case study: Mauritius

Mauritius is an island county of 1860 km2 in area, located off the East coast of Africa. Farming and fishing are its main ventures, with agriculture accounting for 10% of its GDP. This is comprehensible since it has fertile soils and a tropical climate. It exports are divided into four main categories: sugar (accounting for 32%), garments (accounting for 31%), plastics (accounting for 32%) and others (accounting for 5%.)

Its population in 1992 was of 1,094,000 people. For 2025, the estimated population was of 1,365,000. This would mean a growth rate of 1.45% with a doubling time of 47 years. Its fertility rate was of 2.17 children per woman. Mauritius’ population growth over time can be represented by the following graph:

It is possible to notice how uneven population growth has been in Mauritius. At first it was a maintained at a more or less constant level because there were almost equal values of birth and death rates. Around the 1950s the birth rate increased significantly (from 35 per thousand to more than 45 per thousand). The death rate declined from 30 to 15 per thousand shortly afterwards.

The rate of natural increase was very great and there was a great pressure on the country for resources because of this increasing population. It was then that the government had to intervene. It promoted family planning, restricted early marriage, provided improved health care and looked to improve the status of women. The government also worked on diversifying agriculture, invested in industry and improved trading links (because it had been a UK colony, it was democratic and quite ‘westernised’.)

With time there were changes in general attitude toward family size and people were getting married later on. As well, there was an improvement in educational and work opportunities for women (in 1975 employment of women was 22.3%, by 1990 had increased to 35.75%). Many trans national companies came to Mauritius because of tax incentives, the Freeport at Port Luis, the large number of educated residents, a considerable amount of cheap labour and the good transportation means present.
This would prove to us Boserup’s theory that “necessity is the mother of invention.” Because the population had risen, the government had to take measures to adapt to this growth. It had to improve and diversify agriculture, so proving agricultural intensification and that “population growth causes agricultural growth.” (This idea is presented in The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure; 1965.) It also proves that a country must improve its technology to be able to support the growing population and that many technologies will not be taken advantage of if the population is not large enough. (These ideas are presented in Population and Technological Change: A Study of Long-term Trends; 1981) Mauritius had to build a Freeport and improve transportation to be able to maintain its population.

[edit] External links