EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

EXPLORATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Background to the study

 Land is a natural gift to humanity that serves as a basic resource for economic production and human existence. Land usage by people and governments for diverse economic and social objectives is critical to societal progress. Land is an important economic attribute since it is rare and vulnerable to conflicting uses. According to Opatoyinbo,  Adepetu & Abdullahi (2015), land usage is the backbone of agricultural economies since it delivers significant economic and social advantages that are required for economic growth. Opatoyinbo et’al opined Land use refers to the conservation of land from one major use to another. "The word land use pertains to human activities related with specific pieces of land, characteristics found on the earth's surface," write Lillesand and Kiefer (1987). As a result, land use is commonly seen as the many actions undertaken by man in order to meet his requirements. Land use may also be defined as how humans use land for socioeconomic activities. Urban and agricultural land uses are two of the most frequent land use types, with property used for dwelling purposes classified as residential or urban, and land used for farming operations classified as agricultural. There may be various and alternate land uses for distinct purposes at any moment in time. The desire to expand food production, residential settlement, infrastructure development, and economic growth has resulted in a variety of shifting land use patterns as a result of human activity. Population increase and urban development are the primary causes of changes in an area's land use pattern. For example, as the population grows, so does the number of buildings built, resulting in the conversion of farmland and forest area to towns (Olaleye, Abiodun and Asonibare 2015). Rapidly growing human populations and expanding agricultural activities, according to Cunningham, Cunningham, and Siago (2005), have resulted in considerable land use changes across the world.

Urbanization is a phenomena that affects both developed and developing countries. It is related with economic advancement in industrialised nations, where urban areas are considered as engines of growth through supporting rural development by generating markets for agricultural products. However, urbanisation has both beneficial and harmful effects in emerging nations (Teketel, 2015). Land is becoming limited in Nigeria as the population grows. As the world's population grows, so does the need for more agricultural land, necessitating the clearing of vast swaths of forestland. Land becomes scarce compared to labour as the rate of land area expansion falls short of the rate of population increase. Because of the varied character of urban land uses and the resultant frequent land use/land cover changes, the urban environment is one of the most dynamic systems on the planet (Ajijola,  Saka, & Aduramigba-Modupe 2015).

Increased population puts pressure on demand for increased infrastructure development and residential settlements, which encroaches on agricultural land use. As a result, urban settlements cannot be economically, socially, or physically self-sufficient, but must rely on the local rural agricultural environment located on the metropolitan outskirts for food and services. According to Ndabula et al. (2013), urban land usage and its associated land degradation can raise development costs and have a direct impact on the urban poor, who rely on natural resources in metropolitan areas for subsistence. This encroachment on valuable land is what produces negative environmental impacts. Crop yields are reduced as a result of environmental deterioration, which may affect total factor productivity by necessitating the use of greater inputs to sustain yields. It may also result in the shift of land from agricultural to lower-value uses, as well as the temporary or permanent abandonment of plots.

Urbanization and shifting socioeconomic patterns are driving drivers in peri-urban land use change (Jongkroy, 2009). The major reason of urban growth, despite its many facets, is population pressure. Many cities are quickly expanding outward, absorbing previous villages and farmlands and converting them into urban settlements. However, rural-urban migration, geographical extension of urban regions through annexation, and transformation and re-classification of rural villages into minor urban settlements are the primary factors for urbanisation and city growth (Cohen, 2005).

Peri-urban areas are defined as neighbourhoods, suburbs, or towns that surround a city or are distinguished by a major urban agglomeration and active land market activities. It specifically refers to the space economy that exists between the city and its surrounding rural areas (Masanja, 2003). As a result of significant urban population expansion, more people live in established urban districts, but also on the outskirts of these metropolitan regions, which are known as peri-urban areas. According to Kessides (2006), urbanisation entails the change of rural villages on the outskirts of cities into more densely inhabited areas that are less reliant on agriculture. As a result of population pressure, rural regions of cities and towns are changing to peri-urban status, and their land uses shift from agricultural to non-agricultural activity. Interactions between urban regions and their periphery characterise the transition state, with the rural-urban split becoming increasingly thin. This implies that traditional (rural) farming operations fight for the same land to satisfy economic, residential, and recreational purposes while households "maintain footholds in both the country and urban economies" (Kessides, 2006).

In general, urban growth is one of the fundamental issues affecting people's living standards and food security in many rural countries. This invasion causes agricultural farmlands to be lost and crop/food output to be reduced. As a result, effective land usage and exploitation are critical for long-term agricultural output and economic growth in Nigeria. However, land resources are under strain for development, making growing food production challenging. At the same time, this produces environmental deterioration, which has a direct or indirect impact on the livelihoods of individuals living on the urban outskirts.

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