The Boserup thesis posits that population change in a particular area causes a change in the overall intensity of agricultural production. This is quite understandable, since an increase in population will bring with it the need for more food and as a consequence, a shift to more intensive land use to satisfy the growing population. According to Boserup, the change in land use among shifting cultivators starts with forest fallow, brush fallow, short fallow , followed by annual cropping, and finally multi-cropping.
