Food Security and Environmental Degradation in Northern Nigeria: Demographic Perspectives

Abstract

Matthew Lockwood¡OS Rs//rIfe, 1991. vol 22 so 3. teslitsle of Development Studies, Sussex demographic motivation and behaviour, it is necessary to examine these causes and effects at the level of individuals and households, rather than at district or state level. Two factors are important in this context: first, the proximate determinants of fertility, and potential sources of responsiveness to economic conditions; and, second, the consequences of demographic behaviour, especially for different economic strata.Existing studies suggest that fertility determinants are rather unresponsive to economic conditions, and that economic and kinship relations act to support the maintenance of high fertility, even where land is scarce for some.In a final section, the controversy over policy - In the intervening years, densely settled areas have spread, and towns mushroomed, giving rise to what is At this point a couple of disclaimers must be made. The aim is to provide an approach, not a set of research results. The analysis is based entirely on secondary sources. Secondly, the discussitim of the effects of fertility experience on food security and environmental management relies on sources dealing only with agriculturalists. The situation of Fulani agro-pastoralists in and around the densely settled zones may well be very different. 12

The poor peasant: One label, different lives. The dynamics of rural livelihood strategies in the Gia-Kajelo community, Northern Ghana

“…The endowments of people are thus affected greatly by the types of institutions operating in their environments and the extent to which people are able to bargain to their favour. The differentiated impact on different classes of farmers of factors associated with population pressure, such as intensication, land shortage and increased wage labour, is best explained by the access to resources that institutions grant each class of farmer (Lockwood 1991). Institutions operating at multiple levels, from the macro-to the micro-levels, determine who has access to and control over what resources and arbitrate contested resource claims (Leach et al 1997).…”