Sources of Demo Data

The issue of population and development has increasingly evolved into the ‘population, environment, and development nexus. In the face of this mandate for research on population and environment dynamics, different theoretical frameworks are brought on board. Ester Boserup was one of the scholars who have contributed to these theoretical frameworks hence this essay will attempt to expound Ester her theory of population growth and demonstrate how applicable the theory is to Africa. Later on, the weaknesses of the theory will be brought in with reference to the African context. Lastly a conclusion will summarize the whole essay.
A theory is defined as a set of facts, propositions, or principles analyzed in their relation to one another to explain phenomena. (Chambers dictionary, 2005)
Population growth is defined as the total number of people who inhabit an area, region, or country, or the number of people in a particular group who inhabit an area.
Ester Boserup (May 18, 910 - September 24, 1999) was a Danish economist, writer. She studied economical and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and she wrote several books. Her most notable book is The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. (Aldine, 1965) This book presents a "dynamic analysis embracing all types of primitive agriculture. The work undoes the assumption dating back to Malthus’s time (and still held in many quarters) that agricultural methods determine population (via food supply). Instead, Boserup argued that population determines agricultural methods. A major point of her book is that "necessity is the mother of invention". It was her great belief that humanity would always find a way and was quoted in saying "The power of ingenuity would always outmatch that of demand" in a letter to Northern Irish philosopher T S Hueston. She also influenced debate on the role of women in workforce

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