Most African countries are developing slowly and have not yet encountered the demographic transition. These countries are witnessing rapid population growth, and with increasingly more mouths to feed, African agriculture is expanding and intensifying. The changing agricultural processes are degrading the quality of African lands, and because population growth is not expected to slow in the near future, Africa’s food production and natural resource base are in jeopardy. This paper examines how population growth is affecting the land in Rwanda and Zaire. It first contrasts the demographic changes happening in these two countries and then compares the effects of these changes on agricultural processes. Finally this paper argues that these changes have negative affects on the land, and examines how government policies may or may not alleviate the symptoms of intensifying food production.
With less than 20,000 km2, Rwanda is almost 100 times smaller than Zaire. However, Rwanda is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most densely populated countries, and with 405 people per km2, it’s population density is almost 24 times greater than Zaire’s (May, 1995; Shapiro, 1995). While both countries’ populations are growing at about 3%, population growth in Rwanda is more geographically uniform. Population growth and density are fairly consistent across the country because most of the Rwandan labor force works in agriculture, and the country has very low levels of urbanization (May, 1995).
A much larger country in both size and population, Zaire has much higher levels of urbanization than Rwanda. Moreover, since independence in 1960, Zaire’s urban population has grown much faster than its rural population (Shapiro, 1995). Three-fifths of Zaire’s 30.7 million people live in the urban areas around Lake Kivu on the eastern border and in the urban areas of the "Southern Band." Recently, these urban areas are experiencing a population growth of 7%, while rural areas are growing at 1.6%. Moreover, this gap in population growth is continuing to widen (Shapiro, 1995).
Both countries’ population growth rates are near 3%, and despite the differences in the ways these two countries’ populations are growing geographically, the ways in which population growth is affecting their agricultural processes is very similar. Particularly in Rwanda, cropland is extremely limited, and the increasing populations of both countries are complemented by a dramatically increasing demand for agricultural food production. If farmers are to meet this increasing demand, they must expand into marginal land, pastures, and forests because almost all suitable land is already cultivated. This extensification process is occurring at an increasingly rapid rate and yields are declining (May, 1995; Shapiro, 1995). To cope with the declining yields, farmers have been intensifying their agricultural practices by shortening a cropland’s fallow period, increasing labor inputs, increasing crop density, or transitioning to monocropping (May, 1995; Shapiro, 1995).
Both the extensification and intensification processes, however, have negative impacts on the land. Marginal land, by definition, cannot handle the intense cultivation that an increasing demand for agriculture requires. The cropping of steep slopes and swampy areas induces soil erosion and nutrient loss, and when pastureland is converted into cropland, the loss of manure decreases the natural soil fertility (May, 1995). Forested land is the most attractive option for farmers because it is extremely fertile and is well protected against soil erosion. However, when cut and cultivated, soil fertility is drastically reduced. Since 1960, Rwanda has lost about one-quarter of its naturally forested land to cultivation (May, 1995). Moreover, Zaire lost 20 thousand hectares of forest in the 1980s alone—one of the highest rates of deforestation during that period worldwide (Shapiro, 1995). Deforestation due to demographic pressures has become a major problem in both countries.
Extensification also affects the labor input of production. In Rwanda, the farmer’s holdings have decreased in size and have also grown more fragmented because the rural population is growing rapidly. The increased production has caused a decrease in yields (May, 1995). As a farmer’s cropland expands in Zaire, workers must spend more time traveling to distant fields and less time maintaining cropland. By economizing on labor and intensifying the agricultural processes, less time is spent weeding, rotating crops, maintaining plant densities, and repairing terraces (Shapiro, 1995). Therefore, the intensification of labor has led to the degradation of the land.
Interestingly, because soil quality is declining, crop rotations are growing even less diverse. More and more farmers are monocropping cassava because it does better in poorer quality soils (Shapiro, 1995). Monocropping, however, only degrades the soil further, because without crop rotations, the soil is constantly being subjected to the same conditions.
Deforestation has also forced individuals to travel greater distances to gather fuelwood, and this detracts even more from the availability of labor for agriculture. Completely deforested areas surround many of Zaire’s cities because fuelwood has become incredibly scace (Shapiro, 1995). In Rwanda, however, communal woodlots have spread and alleviated the impact of the loss of natural forests (May, 1995).
Increasing demand for agricultural food production has also forced farmers to shorten the fallow periods for cropland (May 1995; Shapiro, 1995). When fallow periods are shortened, the ground vegetation that retains moisture and protects the soil is unable to fully recover, and there is not enough time for nutrients to return to the topsoil (Shapiro, 1995). The vegetation helps to maintain soil fertility by inhibiting weed growth and the spread of disease, and it also reduces soil erosion. Rwanda and Zaire generally practice shifting cultivation, which requires twenty years for the soil to recover. However, in Zaire, most croplands now only have fallow periods of ten years. Also, due to insufficient infrastructure, croplands closer to urban area may have fallow periods as short as three years (Shapiro, 1995). In the short run, these farmers can afford extremely short fallow periods because the costs of transporting their foods to the city are lower. But cropland with shortened experiences fallow periods decreasing yields, and these lands will suffer the most.
In order to feed the rapidly growing populations of Rwanda and Zaire, agriculture has been changing dramatically. The demographic pressure has necessitated the cultivation of marginal land, pastures, and forests, and agricultural processes have intensified overall. This agricultural extensification and intensification, however, has exerted unsustainable pressure on the land of these countries. Yields have been declining, and this only puts additional pressure on the farmers and the land to meet the increasing demand of the growing population, thereby completing the cycle. This paper now turns to the question of how these countries have dealt with these issues, and what they might do in the future.
In the past Rwanda has attacked the problems far more actively than Zaire, but nevertheless, little progress has been made. After independence in 1962, Rwanda questioned how it would feed its growing population and implemented policies to increase agricultural production. Initially, however, the policies did not attempt to curb population growth, and the availability of land may have actually contributed to higher levels of fertility (May, 1995). Not until 1981 and not without foreign pressure, did Rwanda try to reduce fertility levels. New policies focused on family planning and were somewhat successful by the end of the decade (May, 1995).
The extent of Zaire’s efforts to deal with the issues is unknown, but due to the similarities of the two countries’ problems, Zaire has most likely recognized the problems of population growth, food, and environmental degradation and taken somewhat similar measures as Rwanda. The core of the problems in each country is high population growth rates, particularly in Zaire’s urban area. Both countries would benefit from further family planning, but the education of their citizens (especially their women) may be the best hope of slowing population growth. Environmental degradation will undoubtedly continue until these countries can control the growth of their populations. However, because cultivable land is limited, these countries need to seek ways of increasing the productivity of the available land in an economically viable fashion.
Because the pressure of population growth on agriculture has significantly damaged the lands of these countries, a two-front attack on both population growth and agriculture will most likely be the best policy measures,. If Rwanda and Zaire are strong indicators of the entire African continent, than population growth has degraded the quality of African lands, and many other countries are facing similar issues.
John F. May, "Policies on Population, Land Use and Environment in Rwanda", Population and Environment, Vol. 16, No. 4, March 1995, pp. 321-334.
David Shapiro, "Population Growth, Changing Agricultural Practices and Environmental Degradation in Zaire, Population and Environment, Vol. 16, No. 3, January 1995, pp. 221-236.