ABSTRACT
The linkage between desertification and population is a justified concern for research lest the growth of human populations may prove to have been a major contributory factor in increasing desertification in sub-Saharan Africa. In an ecologically fragile environment, where population is already pressing upon resources, the continuance of rapid population growth–where other factors remain unchanged–must lead to deterioration of the habitat. The strongest evidence that less intensive agricultural practices are favored because they allow greater leisure to the farmer comes from those areas where intensive cultivators have reverted to more "primitive" practices. The expansion by the agriculturalists into previously uncultivated areas is positively encouraged by African governments–in which the nomadic groups have minimal representation. Provision for smooth transfer from rotational to permanent cultivation should begin in the vicinity of the towns where pressure upon land is greatest, market agriculture is the rule, and sufficient labor is available.
