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Cited by 219Agriculture, Land Use, Rural DevelopmentAgricultural Economics and PracticesAgricultural Innovations and Practices

Induced intensification: Agricultural change in Bangladesh with implications for Malthus and Boserup

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Turner, B. L., Ali, A. M. Shajaat·1996·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.93.25.14984PMC PMC26249
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Abstract

Bangladesh is dominated by a small-holder agrarian economy under extreme stress. Production shortfalls, increasing economic polarization, and chronic malnutrition are persistent, but major famine has been diverted in part by significant growth in agriculture. This recent history is open to both Malthusian and Boserupian interpretations—a history we explore here through a test of the induced intensification thesis of agricultural change. This thesis, framed by variations in the behavior of small-holders, has grown from a simple demand-production relationship to a consideration of the mediating influences on that relationship. The induced intensification thesis is reviewed and tested for 265 households in 6 villages in Bangladesh from 1950–1986. A time-series analysis of an induced intensification model provides relatively high levels of explained variance in cropping intensity (frequency and land productivity) and also indicates the relative impacts of household class, environment, and cropping strategies. On average, the small-holders in question kept pace with the demands on production, although important class and village variations were evident and the proportion of landless households increased. These results, coupled with evidence that agricultural growth involved intensification thresholds, provide clues about Malthusian and Boserupian interpretations of Bangladesh, and suggest that small-holder agriculture there is likely to continue on a “muted” path of growth.

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  • The relationship between any given population and the productivity of its land-use systems is dynamic and responsive not only to demographic forcing but also to social and economic processes regulating resource demand, land availability, technology adoption and availability, environmental variation, and the potential for intensive use of land to degrade its potential productivity over time.

    “the relationship between any given population and the productivity of its land-use systems is dynamic and responsive not only to demographic forcing but also to the social and economic processes regulating resource demand, land availability, technology adoption and availability, environmental variation, and the potential for intensive use of land to degrade its potential productivity over time (14”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [39]

  • Boserup's theory inspired a wide array of intensification theories across archaeology, anthropology, geography, development studies, economics, environmental history, and other disciplines and has been extended to include land tenure, social institutions, market forces, and nonagricultural populations.

    “Boserup’s theory inspired a wide array of intensification theories across archaeology (14), anthropology (38), geography (39), development studies (40), economics, environmental history, and other disciplines and has been extended to include land tenure and other social institutions, market forces, and nonagricultural populations (39, 41, 42).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [39]

  • The early presence but limited application of more productive agricultural land-use technologies agrees with the classic theory of induced intensification, in which technology adoption is driven not by rates of technological innovation but by demographic pressures for increased agricultural yields as populations increase and land becomes scarce.

    “The early presence but limited application of more productive agricultural land-use technologies agrees with the classic theory of induced intensification, in which technology adoption is driven not by rates of technological innovation but by demographic pressures for increased agricultural yields as populations increase and land becomes scarce (24, 34, 39).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [39]

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Authors
Turner, B. L., & Ali, A. M. S.
Affiliations
Clark University (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
1996-12-10
Volume
93
Issue
25
Pages
14984-14991
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.93.25.14984
PMC
PMC26249
OpenAlex
W2082139838
Cited by
219
References
61
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 10
FWCI
11.05
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Economics and Practices
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Innovations and Practices
Keywords
agricultural change, smallholder farming, Malthusianism, Boserup, Bangladesh, cropping intensity, land productivity, landlessness, famine, economic polarization, malnutrition, agricultural growth
MeSH terms
Agriculture, Bangladesh, Population Dynamics

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