Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2003
There is a controversy about whether continued population growth is a cause of many of the problems of developing countries, including food scarcity. This research tests, in the context of Nepal, the general conclusion of Boserup that population growth leads to increased agriculture productivity per unit land. It compares Nepal's population growth to growth in cereal production to determine whether or not Nepal supplied, and can supply in the future, the cereal demands of the growing population with increased use of chemical fertilizer. The results indicate that in Nepal from 1961 to 2000 population growth was greater than cereal production growth so that per capita cereal production has declined. Furthermore I found that cereal production was not very responsive to chemical fertilizer additions, perhaps due to the importance of erosion. It is not clear that any policy can increase yields as rapidly as population is growing
