ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that population increase and pressure on the land have led to a process of soil depletion. It presents a space-time profile, has had to cope with the impact of two major policy decisions. First, after Chikoti refused to move to an adjacent territory selected for development its location became fixed because of the national ban on moving village sites for purposes other than infrastructural development. Secondly, because of the closure of the urban/industrial labour market, Chikoti, like other Mambwe villages, has for some time experienced perceptible population swell. The chapter focuses on how space-time shortages have developed in Chikoti and on how the substitution of a root crop is best understood as a solution to such shortages. The implications for village-level agriculture come under the heading of space-time shortages. Population growth has long been recognized as a major force in the transition towards intensified agriculture.
