More People, Less Erosion, is a groundbreaking book, first published in 1994, and is based on a series of studies by ODI and the University of Nairobi on land management in eastern Kenya. The challenges facing sustainable development in Africa are usually framed around the triad of rapid population growth, the intensification of agricultural production, and the maintenance of the natural resource base, including soil, water and forests.

This book, however, demonstraties just how dynamic agricultural change can be in Africa, and draws a very positive picture of the ways in which smallholder farmers adapt to changes in land availability, agricultural output and labour markets, technological options and institutional innovations, and their ability to invest in the agricultural resource base.

Still required reading for those working in, or interested in, this issue, More People, Less Erosion was originally published in the UK by John Wiley and Sons. This PDF version, first published in Kenya with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, is now being made available through the kind permission of its publishers, the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS).