Understanding the Implications of the Loss of Peri-Urban Arable Land—A Case of Pune Metropolitan Region

Abstract

AbstractLand, one of the non-renewable resources, is primarily used as a commodity to cater to food, shelter, and other infrastructure demands. Urbanization has resulted in unmonitored conversions of agricultural lands to non-agricultural (NA) activities in the peri-urban and rural areas, which were once fertile lands. These arable parcels of land have now been exposed to the haphazard urban sprawling. The study aims to map non-agricultural conversions temporally and understand the implications on the local food security and livelihood. A ground-level data extracted from 7/12 forms have been used to estimate the loss of land and the resulting impacts. The Pune Metropolitan Region in India has been considered as a case for investigation. It has recorded a total of 320 NA conversion cases for 140 villages between 2015 to 2019. The results show a cumulative loss of 4739 ha arable land, of which 1146 ha, 716 ha, and 403 ha under cereals, legumes, and vegetables, respectively. It is also observed that 80% of the land lost was under rainfed and 13% under irrigated agriculture. In just four years, it has been estimated that around 22,716, 74,627, and 319,952 people have lost their local source of land for cereals, legumes, and vegetable production, respectively. The potential local livelihood loss is estimated at around 411 agricultural labourers per year. The research concludes that every hectare of land converted to non-agricultural use has direct and much severe implications at the grassroots level, especially on the local or regional food security and agricultural livelihood.KeywordsLand-use conversionsPeri-urbanLoss of arable landFood securityLocal livelihoodMetropolitan regions