Thomas Malthus,Ester Boserup,and Agricultural Development Models in the Age of Limits

Two competing models have served as the basis for agricultural development policies. One is based on observations and assumptions of The Reverend Thomas Malthus in late eighteenth century Britain, and the other from the Danish economist Ester Boserup in the mid-twentieth century. However, rational agricultural development decisions can only be made using a model that incorporates assumptions based on a technically appropriate model that takes into account the currently status of global systems. A new development model may incorporate elements of both Neo-Malthusian and Boserupian economic-demographic models, but because the world has changed substantially, it can be neither of them alone, nor a hybrid of the two models without significant expansion and refinement. The principles espoused by Malthus and Boserup can thus be used as the starting points in a dialectic argument to arrive at a new agricultural development paradigm.