CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The impact of population growth on agriculture and natural resource management has been
debated at least from the time of Reverend Thomas Malthus . Although the dismal predictions
of Malthus regarding the inability of agricultural production to keep pace with population
growth have not come to pass. The consequences of population growth on economic
development nave attracted the attention of economists ever since Adam Smith wrote his
Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith wrote, “the annual labour of every nation is the fund which
originally supply it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life”. In addition, there are
serious and growing concerns about the impacts of rapid population growth on environment and
natural resources including forests, land, water, biodiversity, and other resources. (M.L Jhingan
2007).
Consequently, the effect of population changes on agricultural development has attracted more
attention recently, partly because of aspirations, plans and programmes for expanding national
production and the increasingly pervasive pattern of rapid decline in death rates. It has been a
point of debate for long time as to whether the relationship is positive or negative; whether the
population growth deters or promotes development or vice-versa and whether the two can
ultimately settle down at point of equilibrium.
1.1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria lies on the west coast of Africa between 4 and 14 degrees north latitude and between 2
and 15 degrees east stretching from the gulf of 423768 square kilometers coast in the south to the
finger of the Sahara desert in the north. Nigeria is topographically characterized by 5 major
2
