Population pressure, intensification of agriculture, and rural-urban migration

Abstract

Low rates of labor absorption in rural areas with relatively low population density, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, are usually explained by poor natural conditions, mainly infertile tropical soil. I offer an explanation based on the extensive techniques of land use emplopyed in low density areas. I incorporate the intensity of land use as a parameter in a standard two-sector model to show that the rate of labor absorption (defined as the rate of natural population growth in the rural areas minus the rate of rural-urban migration) is positively correlated with the intensity of the technique of cultivation. An empirical section employs cross-section data from Iran to illustrate and confirm the relationships derived from the model.