Agrarian change and diversity in the light of Brookfield, Boserup and Malthus: Historical illustrations from Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper uses historical sources to examine the relationship between demography, econ- omy and ecology in three parts of the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia) over a long time period. Broadly speaking, these case studies suggest both the density of population and the intensity of agricultural activity at any given time and place were controlled by two factors. The first was the agricultural po- tential of the natural environment in terms of soil, climate and topography: populations were denser, and farming more area-intensive, in naturally fertile areas. The second was the extent to which the local economy was commercialised rather than subsistence-oriented: when commerce grew, so did both the population and the intensity of its farming systems. In terms of ecological sustainability and resilience, densely populated enclaves of intensive, commercialised agriculture tended to perform better than did sparsely populated and economically isolated areas of subsistence production, where progressive deforestation and land degradation sometimes occurred. Although one reason for this was simply that the former were located on better soils than the latter, other reasons included the greater use of tree crops, and the greater availability of labour for investment in what Brookfield called 'landesque capital', which characterised the more populous and commercialised areas.