Burundi is running out of space https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2026/01/04/burundi-is-running-out-of-space From The Economist “…Not far from Mr Nduwumwami lives Ezechiel Niyibizi, in abject conditions. His father and uncles fought over the family’s meagre land; after his father died, he was left with nothing. The local government helped him get a tiny house, with an earth floor, and a plot of land ten metres long and wide. When he cannot find waged work, his children sleep hungry….” That sentence made me stop. I took a deep breath and read it again. It still landed like a punch to the stomach. Is Thomas Malthus’s prediction — that “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence” — becoming a reality in Burundi? With 14 million people living in an area not much larger than Wales, even the advances that allow farmers to adopt more intensive and innovative agricultural practices may not be enough. This is something we, in our cozy and comfortable lives, rarely think about. But it is something we should be aware of — and something we should not look away from. (text revised by a llm)
- Pedro
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