Overpopul.

Definition:

Too many people, too little resources and too low level of technology. So much so that a reasonable standard of living is difficult to attain.

Characteristics: 

• BR high

• Life expectancy low

• lots of unemployment leading to social problems (rising crime rates, other undesirable social behaviour)

• Vicious cycle of poverty

  • outdated technology inefficient

  • over cultivation due to not enough arable land

  • poor harvests

  • frequent outbreaks of famines

  • poor diet

  • ill health

  • diet-deficiency diseases (rickets, beri-beri, kwashiorkor) & infectious diseases (tuberculosis)

  • agricultural productivity suffers

  • no surplus food, no money to improve and upgrade

Ways to solve such problems: 

• High birth rate:

  • family planning programmes to reduce birth rates

  • contraception methods and family planning services readily available and easily accessible

  • educate them on the need for family planning, goods and bad parts of diff methods of birth control

  • greater control of number of children

  • Example - neighbourhood family planning clinics for education

  • Gov policies, as usual

  • Healthcare

• Unemployment

  • gov create job opportunities

  • incentives to bring in investors

  • more training schools so people remain employable

  • rural development projects, create more work and help them break out of the vicious cycle of poverty

    • irrigation projects to provide water consistently, so people can practise double-cropping/triple-cropping

    • credit facilities so people can buy high-yielding seeds, fertilisers and insecticides

    • use money to improve

  • so that standard of living are higher, seek better lifestyles and smaller families