ABSTRACT
Boserup’s agricultural intensification model of the late 1960s (Boserup 1965), on which much debate over agronomic change still rests, postulated that rising population pressure over a fixed land area results in progressive agricultural intensification and the adoption of new technologies as people attempt to raise agricultural production. The model maps a unilinear sequence of agricultural change, as people move from less to more intensive agricultural practices to achieve higher production, with population pressure the key stimulus driving agricultural change. In this process, labour use increases and efficiency falls as labour is substituted for land.
