Abstract
The “Boserup hypothesis” contends that land-intensive systems of agriculture will be adopted only when high population density precludes the use of land-extensive methods. In the Kerayan District of East Kalimantan (Indonesia) the Lun Dayeh practice permanent-field rice cultivation despite very low human densities. An examination of the relative labor efficiencies of shifting and permanent-field agriculture in the Kerayan, as well as of local environmental and historical variables, explains why this “anomalous” situation exists. It is argued that since relative success in production of rice by shifting- and permanent-field irrigated methods depends on many natural and social conditions other than levels of population density, the “environment-free” Boserup hypothesis cannot adequately explain or predict the occurrence of particular forms of rice agriculture.
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Padoch, C. Labor efficiency and intensity of land use in rice production: An example from Kalimantan. Hum Ecol 13, 271–289 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01558252
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01558252