Abstract
As urban expands into peripheral areas, peri-urban indigenous farmers lose their land and highly vulnerable to negative externalities of urbanization. The aim of the study is to assess the economic linkage between urban development and the livelihood of peri-urban farming communities, focus on current practice and policies. From Ethiopia, Amara regional state was selected. Through multistage sampling, five municipalities (Debra Birhan, Shewa Robit, Kombolcha, Dessie, and Woldia) were taken as the sample from Amara regional state. Interviews were conducted with 30 municipalities’ officials of the selected town. Questionnaires collected from 200 respondents of peri-urban evicted farmers. As the findings of the study suggest, peri-urban farmers’ evictions from their indigenous land for land re-development are the continuous process that negatively affects the livelihood of farming communities. The factors that contribute for urban expansion in Amara regional state are economic policy reform, the creation of enabling the environment for private investors, the unsatisfied demand of urban dwellers for residential, and expansion of public sector projects. A collaborative effect of policy limitations, potential conflicts, unplanned livelihood, and poor saving habits of peri-urban farmers, lack of municipality intervention and lack of good governance negatively affect the livelihood of peri-urban farmers and jeopardize the image of government. The forwarded solutions are municipalities should have fully implemented urban policies, should have work on mutual benefits of concerned stakeholders, farmers’ background should be recorded and continuous follow up of evicted farmers livelihood should be practiced.
Highlights
Urbanization, rapid population increase, and changing socioeconomic pattern are deriving forces that influenced spatial change in peri-urban areas (Jongkroy 2009)
In order to make a closer investigation of the economic linkage of urban development with the local community’s livelihood situation, attitude, and perception, data were collected from the localities covered by the study through survey method
Factors that contribute to urban development An interview conducted with sampled municipalities’ officials in Amara regional state shows there are number of factors contributing to the horizontal expansion of urban to peripheral areas
Summary
Urbanization, rapid population increase, and changing socioeconomic pattern are deriving forces that influenced spatial change in peri-urban areas (Jongkroy 2009). In 2000, 38% of the African population lived in urban areas and the proportion is expected to increase to 47% by 2015 and to double by 2050 (Adeboyejo 2007) Such rapid urban expansion has a great impact on the urban periphery in terms of changing in land use, differential access to urban benefits (such as basic infrastructure and employment), and increased pressure on common natural resources (Marshall and Randhawa 2009). Most of the peri-urban dwellers of low-income groups who are originally resided in the area before the urban encroachment and have the rural background. Some of these groups depend to some degree on agricultural livelihood for the living. The interaction of rural-urban interface determines community in peri-urban areas to build or enhance in adapting various livelihood strategies and fulfill their needs
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