ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the population figures that show the high population growth rates both in Kenya and Machakos. A long tradition in the study of sustainable rural and agricultural development has culminated in the book More People, Less Erosion, which tried to establish in a concrete situation whether this process of induced change can actually be proven to have happened. In the review contributions, various comments are made on the land-population relations as land-Labour relations. Technological changes were aimed at increased productivity per cultivated land and Labour unit. The role of farmers themselves in the application of changed technologies is pre-eminent. The state of soil conservation in the early 1990s shows clear improvements, quantitatively as well as qualitatively, in terracing and other soil conservation elements.
