Land use and first birth timing in an agricultural setting

Abstract

The dramatic changes in the earth's landscape have prompted increased interest in the links between population, land use, and land cover. Previous research emphasized the notion of population pressure (population pressure increases demands on natural resources causing changes in land use), overlooking the potentially important effects of changes in land use on humans. Using multiple data sets from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, we test competing hypotheses about the impact of land use on first birth timing. We argue that while agricultural land should encourage early childbearing, land area devoted to public infrastructure should discourage it. The results show that individuals from neighborhoods with larger proportions of land under agriculture experienced first birth at rates higher than those from neighborhoods with smaller proportions. On the other hand, individuals from neighborhoods with larger proportions of land under public infrastructure experienced first birth at rates lower than those from neighborhoods with smaller proportions. However, the effects of public infrastructure are not as strong as the land area devoted to agriculture.

The role of intergenerational transfers, land, and education in fertility transition in rural Kenya: the case of Nyeri district

“…A range of studies has found a positive relationship between amount of land owned and fertility in nineteenth century societies, in the United States (Easterlin 1976), Thailand (VanLandingham andHirschman 2001), and more recently in Rwanda (Clay and Johnson 1992), the Philippines (Hawley 1955), Lower Egypt (Schutjer et al 1983), and Brazil (Merrick 1978). Even at the community level, settings with more land devoted to agriculture have higher fertility rates (Ghimire and Hoelter 2007). On the other hand, studies have also found negative relationships between landholdings and fertility.…”

Leaving the classroom: a didactic framework for education in environmental sciences

“…Didactic tools for learning at all educational levels usually emphasize cognitive aspects (Maarschalk 2006) and focus students' attention on examples of human activities that are aggressive or harmful for the environment, for example anthropogenic factors involved in loss of biodiversity, and linkages between population, land use and land cover (Ghimire and Hoelter 2007). Outdoor activities are generally integrated with visits to protected natural areas, or spaces near the classroom, for identifying autochthonous species.…”

Natural resource collection and desired family size: a longitudinal test of environment-population theories

“…To the extent then that these community changes result in a decrease in access to natural resources we would expect to observe a positive relationship between natural resource availability and fertility, though because of other mechanisms, not through the mechanism of declining access to natural resources. In fact, empirical research combining measures of land use with measures of local social organization found that a greater proportion of land in a neighborhood devoted to agriculture was associated with higher fertility, but that that effect was not independent of the non-family services available (Ghimire and Axinn 2010; Ghimire and Hoelter 2007). Furthermore, changes in local community context in terms of social services have independent effects on both fertility behavior and land use, conditioning the observed associations between fertility and land use (Axinn and Ghimire 2011).…”