Rural-urban Linkages Research Articles

Agri-vector water: boosting rainfed agriculture with urban water allocation to support urban–rural linkages

ABSTRACT We propose the concept of ‘agri-vector water’ (AVW) to refer to water allocated to towns to maintain urban-based agricultural services that support rainfed farming in surrounding areas. AVW captures the idea that highly scarce ‘blue water’ can be productively used in this way to support rainfed ‘green water’ rather than be applied as consumptive irrigation, especially when the latter exacerbates water shortages during drought and dry seasons in arid and semi-arid regions. To illustrate, we present two case studies from Ethiopia.

Migrant Workers Role in Rural-Urban Linkage, Case Study: Industrial Growth in Semarang Regency, Indonesia

Rural-urban linkages are part of regional development concern, providing a regional network strategy to deal with the rural-urban divide issue. Industrial growth in the peri-urban area is an important activity that could bridge the linkage of rural and urban. The recent growth of the industrial sector in Semarang Regency, Indonesia, has fostered the surrounding region workers to migrate into the area that promoted the rural-urban linkage. This paper presents a research result of the industrial migrant workers role in rural-urban linkage of the peri-urban region. The research approach was carried out by descriptive analysis to understand the role of migrant workers in the rural-urban linkage. The research collected data from a sample of migrant workers in the regency. The study found that the rural migrant workers as people movement are the main component of rural-urban linkage, which fosters the other linkage components. The workers bring rural social capital from the origin area to support migration and working activity in the urban area. In general, the growth of migrant workers in the industrial sector in the Semarang Regency has a significant impact on promoting rural-urban linkage, especially regarding the contemporary flow of workers to the urban area and spreading remittance income and information surrounding rural areas. Despite the opportunities, the current rural-urban linkages were not yet effectively realized and utilized by the government to deal with the rural-urban divide issue.

Lockdown farmers markets in Bengaluru: Direct marketing activities and potentials for rural-urban linkages in the food system

Rural-urban linkages are vital elements in a sustain­able food system. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, supply chains were disrupted and fear of infection impacted food shopping decisions, push­ing consumers to seek local and safer options for procuring fresh produce. Direct marketing arose as a promising alternative for both consumers and producers. We undertook a study in Bengaluru, India, in order to understand what direct marketing activities have unfolded with the COVID-19 pan­demic. Media reports highlighted the plight of farmers struggling to market their harvest during lockdown as well as the farm to fork initiatives and lockdown farmers markets that have been created as a response. We see this moment as an opportu­nity to develop Bengaluru’s food system to be more sustainable, specifically through the City Region Food System framework. This study conducted online and telephone surveys with both consumers and producers in Bengaluru to explore the elements of supply and demand that have fos­tered and hindered direct marketing schemes. We found that consumers are interested in sourcing fruits and vegetables directly from farmers, but communi­cation and logistics between consumers and pro­ducers are major hindrances. Although producers are diversifying their marketing strate­gies, they need to be implemented at economically viable scales to ensure long-term success. We find that the role of technology, specifically messaging apps, can streamline direct marketing activities and remove the barriers that currently hamper rural-urban linkages. Further­more, existing community and farmer organiza­tions have the size and scale to make direct marketing schemes a worthy endeavor for both consumers and producers.

Role of Small and Medium Enterprise Clusters in Urban–Rural Linkage: A Study Based on Manufacturing SMEs of Khulna City, Bangladesh

This study explores the role of small and medium enterprise (SME) clusters in urban–rural linkages, an increasingly acceptable strategy in policy planning for regional development. As this approach to development has mostly been studied from a macro perspective, there is paucity of research from a micro perspective, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. This study, thus, aims to explore the contribution of manufacturing SME industry clusters in linking urban and rural regions. The data used in the study has been collected from 119 SME entrepreneurs using a structured questionnaire. Factor analysis and logistic regression have been applied to explore the contribution of industrial clusters in urban–rural linkages, focusing on the city of Khulna as the study area. The findings show that such SME clusters can positively contribute towards linking the two territories through two main forces, namely, funds and mobility. The findings provide useful insights for policymakers and urban planners to take initiatives for identifying and developing such SME industry clusters instead of focusing on the development of large industries, both in urban and rural areas to enhance balanced regional development. In highlighting the contribution of SME industry cluster as a micro level actor in the process of urban-rural integration, the study aims to make a meaningful contribution to literature in the field of development planning.

Study on Road Transportation and Their Status at Shadananda Municipality in Bhojpur

Road transport services assist in rising access with the rural-urban linkages. Road convenience can decrease remoteness, motivate collection, production and marketing activities, boost civic facilities and aid to technology transfer. Road construction has been seen to bring about distinguished enthusiasm and observable changes in rural life. Road structure is considered as “the infrastructure for infrastructure”. Though, in the absence of notable standards and coherent guidelines, road construction is carried out in opposing manner resulting in random use and wastage of scarce funds. Municipal Transport Master Plan is arranged for gauging and scheduling the existing road transport structures and accommodations inside the municipality and the surrounding rural municipalities. This study is focused on the interventions of road networks within the municipality.

Smallholder Commercialization and Urban-Rural Linkages: Effect of Interest-Free Agriculture Credit on Market Participation of Rice Growers in Pakistan

This study estimates the effect of interest-free agriculture credit on the market participation and urban-rural linkages of rice growers in Pakistan. A survey was conducted to collect primary data using purposive and simple random sampling techniques from Punjab, Pakistan. This study applied the Instrument Variable (IV) approach and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to evaluate the impact of interest-free credit on market participation and income. The results show a mixed influence of interest-free credit on rice growers’ market participation and urban-rural linkages. In general, the effect is negative when farmers obtained credit for six months. However, it shows a positive impact when farmers’ received credit for the next consecutive crop. Our findings suggest that the provision of interest-free credit for one year served a better purpose as it significantly attempted to alleviate budget constraints and endorsed farmers to increase land size under rice cultivation and improve productivity, market participation, and urban-rural linkages. The study provides three valid instruments and, therefore, a superior estimate of effect is achieved which can be leveraged to better support coherent agri-food policymaking.

Regional Patterns and Determinants of Commuting Between Rural and Urban India.

Despite an increase in the number of workers commuting between rural and urban areas, much of the literature on worker mobility continues to be migration centric. This paper establishes the importance of rural–urban commuting in India. As per estimates from Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018–2019, an estimated 18.8 million individuals living in rural are working in urban India and the share of earnings from urban in total non-farm rural earnings is 19.3%. Among all rural workers, 7.3% are rural–urban commuters while only 2.1% of urban workers are urban–rural commuters. We document large variations at the sub-national level. Our results from a multinomial model to understand the factors associated with commuting highlight the importance of lagged regional unemployment rate. A high rural unemployment rate acts as a push factor, and a low urban unemployment rate acts as a pull factor for rural–urban commuting. The urbanness of occupations in a region is also an important correlate of commuting. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to prioritize questions in India’s labour force survey that would help understand the nature of labour mobility and strength of rural–urban linkages.

Glocalization with paradigm shift from fordism to nichism and university social responsibility for sustainable agricultural development in globalizing economy

The major concern is to clarify how to cope with the globalizing economy for agriculture, which is strongly characterized by peculiarity as nature. The peculiarity is directly determined by natural and social environments and associated with differentiated development mechanisms of agriculture, which is almost dichotomized between land-productivity oriented and labor-productivity oriented development path. Peculiar agriculture has to face market competition with price in a globalizing economy and requires strong direct linkages with market to survive in the competition. This means the necessity to differentiate markets between Fordism type and Nichsm type of market: the former is a general quantity-oriented market achieving a larger scale of consumption with lower price: and the latter is differentiated quality-oriented market achieving stable scale of consumption with higher price. That market differentiation is directly related to the differentiation of agricultural development paths. Those differentiated producer-consumer linkages indicate comprehensive rural-urban linkages. This is a process of rebuilding the rural-urban relationship in society. In order to achieve the goal, it is heavily dependent on local universities. They have to commit their social responsibility to identify the nature of local agricultural development and the relationship between agricultural production and food markets. Without a direct commitment from universities, the local agriculture and rural community will have no possibility of sustainable development under the circumstances of globalizing economy. This is why the current society is identified as a knowledge-intensive society, and the university is expected as the quaternary industry.

A Water-Energy-Food Nexus based Conceptual Approach for Developing Smart Urban-Rural Linkages in Nagpur Metropolitan Area, India

Urban and rural areas are dynamic systems, functionally interlinked through their social, economic, and environmental settings. While urban population heavily depends on the natural resources sourced from surrounding rural areas, the rural population is increasingly reliant on urban areas for employment, healthcare etc. In the recent years, the notion of urban-rural linkage has gained high prominence in the global policy outcomes, including the Sustainable Development Goals and The New Urban Agenda, particularly in response to the rapid urbanization trends and climate change. However, it’s application at local level development planning is still not apparent. In case of Nagpur Metropolitan Area ‘NMA’ in India, Smart City and Smart Rural ‘Rurban’ Cluster are being developed adjacently under two different missions of Government of India which are totally disconnected. While urban-rural systems in NMA are already stressed with the situations of resource conflict (like water supply), their relationships are expected to get further constrained under changing climate scenarios. Addressing this need, we present a knowledge-based conceptual framework that presents an overall picture of the water resource flow (specifically from Water-Energy-Food nexus perspective) between urban and rural areas within NMA. Based on the developed framework, the study suggests feasible directions for smartly linking the upcoming developments in Nagpur Smart city and adjacent Rurban cluster.

Urban- Rural Marketing Linkage Practices and Challenges Evidences from Ambo Town West Shoa Zone, Orimia Regional State, Ethiopia

The objective of study was to assess the practices and challenges of rural-urban marketing linkages in Ambo Town. The study may be used to show the gaps between urban and rural on the marketing of agricultural products. The study was used descriptive research design. The populations of the study were some selected retailers and farmers those participate on the marketing of agricultural products. For sample size determination Yemane Taro formula was used and accordingly 187 sample size was employed. To identify this sample random sampling was used to select the research subjects from the population. As the source of information primary data was employed using structured questionnaire. For data analysis descriptive statistics was employed. Based on the data collected the findings of the study show that the production linkages were very weak which was reflected mainly in case of poor connection in the between urban and rural. However, a strong consumption linkage was observed as farmers tend to purchase goods and services from the Town. The insufficient crop production had made the existing marketing linkage to be expressed only in the form of exchange of products. Financial linkage was further strengthened even through all are not connected with rural farmers. Finally, the research recommended that urban and rural oriented linkage must be practiced which need further strengthen for the existing financial linkages and production linkage as it provides opportunity for existing traders in the Town.

How do rural-urban linkages change after an extreme flood event? Empirical evidence from rural communities in Pakistan

Extreme flood events can lead to dramatic changes in societal processes, disrupt rural-urban linkages and affect rural vulnerabilities. Changes in rural-urban linkages due to extreme flooding have been theoretically discussed with limited empirical evidence. Therefore, this study investigates the impacts of a flood event on linkages between rural and urban areas of Pakistan. This study also examines socioeconomic and spatial factors that can influence changes in rural-urban linkages. Three case studies were selected from the Punjab province of Pakistan, and a total of 325 samples were collected through household surveys. Descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression and correlation analysis were conducted to analyse the data. The findings show that flooding has severely affected rural communities directly and indirectly. This paper details the many different ways in which floods can change rural linkages with cities—i.e., the flow of people, information, finance, goods and services between rural and urban areas. The results also reveal that the age of household head, education, income and farming occupation are influential factors that affect how rural-urban linkages change. Most importantly, the research highlights that extreme flooding can both increase and decrease the dependence of rural communities on cities in different ways. This indicates that linkages between rural and urban areas need to be strengthened in order to reduce flood-related vulnerabilities. This study paves the way for regional planners and disaster managers to establish synergies for developing integrated flood risk management and development strategies.

Urban- Rural Marketing Linkage Practices and Challenges Evidences from Ambo Town West Shoa Zone, Orimia Regional State, Ethiopia

The objective of study was to assess the practices and challenges of rural-urban marketing linkages in Ambo Town. The study may be used to show the gaps between urban and rural on the marketing of agricultural products. The study was used descriptive research design. The populations of the study were some selected retailers and farmers those participate on the marketing of agricultural products. For sample size determination Yemane Taro formula was used and accordingly 187 sample size was employed. To identify this sample random sampling was used to select the research subjects from the population. As the source of information primary data was employed using structured questionnaire. For data analysis descriptive statistics was employed. Based on the data collected the findings of the study show that the production linkages were very weak which was reflected mainly in case of poor connection in the between urban and rural. However, a strong consumption linkage was observed as farmers tend to purchase goods and services from the Town. The insufficient crop production had made the existing marketing linkage to be expressed only in the form of exchange of products. Financial linkage was further strengthened even through all are not connected with rural farmers. Finally, the research recommended that urban and rural oriented linkage must be practiced which need further strengthen for the existing financial linkages and production linkage as it provides opportunity for existing traders in the Town. Key terms : Urban- Rural Linkage, Marketing, opportunities, challenges DOI: 10.7176/CER/12-8-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Infrastructure needs to support the flow of commodity (broiler eggs) in Blitar

Blitar Regency is known as a centre for livestock production, especially in the commodity of broiler eggs. In the context of urban-rural linkages, one of the cities that became the orientation of Blitar Regency was Blitar City. Blitar City’s egg production has not been able to meet the egg consumption target in Blitar City, therefore rural area role as a supplier of urban food ingredients is needed. However, based on the existing conditions in the field, it shows that there are problems in the provision of livestock production facilities, distribution and marketing of commodity broiler eggs in the Blitar region. The results showed the infrastructure requirements supporting the flow of commodity broiler eggs. In the context of urban-rural linkages, the provision of infrastructure to support the flow of superior commodities is needed to support the village’s role as a supplier of urban foodstuffs so that urban food availability is maintained

Local food systems and COVID-19: an insight from China

•Effective governance and efficient coordination across multi-levels and multi-sectors are pivotal factors to ensure food supply during COVID-19.•Digital tools and innovative models provided valuable solutions to cope with the crisis in China, which can be further developed and contribute to the "New Normal".•The pandemic implies the necessity to strengthen urban-rural linkages and foster local food production for more resilient local food systems.

Method for Quantifying Supply and Demand of Construction Minerals in Urban Regions—A Case Study of Hanoi and Its Hinterland

Urbanization is a global trend: Since 2007 more than 50% of the world’s population have been living in urban areas, and rates of urbanization are continuing to rise everywhere. This growth in urbanization has led to an increased demand for natural resources, in particular non-metallic minerals such as stones, sand and clay, which account for one third of the entire flow of materials. Generally, these materials are traded within regional markets. This close geographical link between the demand for building materials in urban areas and the material supply in the hinterland leads to massive interventions in the natural environment and landscape. These urban–rural linkages can be revealed by applying Material Flow Analysis (MFA) to the built environment in order to trace the flows of building materials. The objective of this paper is to present a method for quantifying regional material flows by considering the supply and demand of building materials. This will be applied to the Vietnamese case study area of Hanoi and its hinterland province Hoa Binh. The results indicate a consumption of almost 60% of the construction mineral reserves in total secured by planning in the hinterland province considering a period of 15 years. However, this does not allow for the general conclusion that raw materials are sufficiently available. The sand reservoirs are only sufficient for eight years and clay reserves are used up after four years. This increases the need to exploit further raw material reserves, which are becoming increasingly scarce and results in stronger interventions in nature In order to safeguard the hinterland from the negative impacts of urbanization, a new understanding of resource efficiency is needed—one that acknowledges both resource efficiency in the construction of urban structures and appropriate resource conservation in the provision of the raw materials from the hinterland. This will require the creation of new integrated planning approaches between urban and regional planning authorities. Regional MFA is one way of realising such an approach.

Integrating a Food Systems Lens into Discussions of Urban Resilience: A Policy Analysis

As discussions of urban resilience begin to include food systems thinking explicitly, researchers and practitioners must keep various considerations at the fore. This reflective essay begins by delineating three international agreements (the Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact) that provide a broad policy environment within which food systems governance might be situated. It then encourages consideration not only of megacities around the globe, but also of the approximately 2 billion people that live in towns and small- or midsized cities (encompassing about 27% of the world’s population) (Berdegue, Proctor, & Cazzuffi, 2014). It notes that integration of food systems thinking must enhance urban-rural linkages in mutually supportive ways, echoing recent calls from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2019) and UN-Habitat (2018). It reflects on ways policies and governance might better articulate across scale and argues that deep adaptation to climate change must frame all work moving forward. Finally, it examines how food systems thinking and social innovation are critical to urban resilience and must be prioritized in policymaking rather than included as an afterthought. We draw illustrative examples from our community-based research projects carried out through the Nourishing Communities: Sustainable Local Food Systems Research Group and the Food: Locally Embedded Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) Partnership.

Sustainable and Community-Centred Development of Smart Cities and Villages

The article highlights the need to rethink and reconceptualise the accepted concepts of smart cities and villages by shifting the attention from technology and technological solutions and moving it towards understanding the significance of communities and sustainability. The conceptual framework combines four essential features—community, village, city and sustainability—and analyses the links and relationships between them. A new community-centred approach to development is suggested in order to emphasise that sustainable living cannot be achieved only through technological solutions. Instead, we suggest that to ensure social sustainability, appropriation, and effectiveness of new solutions in the long term, the process has to start, be adapted and led by people and their needs. In this light, the article analyses three dimensions of smart living—energy, mobility, waste—through the prism of rural–urban linkages and the role of ICT. Core principles and recommendations (calm technology, community size, identification of community leaders, surveillance and control issues, community building) for designers of ICT solutions and developmental projects in smart cities and villages are presented. These principles take into account people and communities and combine findings of engineering and social sciences, especially anthropology, psychology, and sociology.

The relevance of city size to the vulnerability of surrounding rural areas: An empirical study of flooding in Pakistan

Research on the dynamics of vulnerability has to-date either focused on a regional or national scale or assessed the influence of city size on the vulnerability of the city itself. Little attention has been paid to how city size influences the vulnerability of surrounding rural areas—this has been investigated in this study. A conceptual framework—City Size and Rural Vulnerability (SCARV)—is proposed and operationalised in the context of Pakistan. A household survey was conducted to collect 325 samples from the flood-affected rural population surrounding three different sized cities in Punjab Province, Pakistan. Indicators of vulnerability were identified and an index-based approach was used to get the composite values of the three components of vulnerability—namely, exposure, susceptibility and capacity. The composite values were then classified to identify the level of vulnerability of each household. Statistical tests were performed to investigate the differences in vulnerability between the study areas. The results indicate that rural populations surrounding smaller cities are less exposed but more vulnerable compared to rural communities surrounding larger cities. This is largely because rural populations adjoining large cities have better capacities to deal with flood hazards. This points to a need to focus on increasing the coping capacity of small and medium-sized cities and their rural surroundings. Moreover, the research highlights the importance of rural-urban linkages in the hazard vulnerability discourse. These results can help disaster managers, regional and rural development planners, and practitioners to develop relevant flood risk reduction strategies which considers spatial and regional development aspects of hazard vulnerability.

A Conceptual Framework to Understand the Dynamics of Rural–Urban Linkages for Rural Flood Vulnerability

Rural areas are highly vulnerable to floods due to limited social, economic, and physical resources. Understanding rural vulnerability is vital for developing effective disaster risk reduction strategies. Even though rural areas and cities are intrinsically linked, rural vulnerability was assessed without considering its relation to cities. Numerous theoretical frameworks on systemizing and assessing vulnerability were developed with varying level of scope and depth in terms of scale, dimensions, and components. Nevertheless, these frameworks did not explicitly mention the impact of flood or other hazards on the linkages between spatial units i.e., rural and urban. This study aims to understand and conceptualize the rural vulnerability with respect to the dynamics of rural–urban linkages in the case of flood events. To do so, current literature on rural–urban linkages, vulnerability, as well as factors that influence them were critically reviewed. Taking into account the main elements of rural–urban linkages (flow of people, information, finances, goods and services), components of vulnerability (exposure, susceptibility, and capacity), and factors (social, economic, institutional, infrastructural, spatial, and environmental), a unified framework is proposed. The framework underscores that the role of rural–urban linkages is essential to fully understand rural flood vulnerability. Moreover, the framework highlights the role of spatial factors—city size and proximity to the city—as crucial to comprehend rural vulnerability. This framework can be used as a tool for understanding multifaceted rural vulnerability for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction considering spatial development perspective. In this context, empirical investigations can be made to validate the proposed framework and policies can be introduced accordingly. Overall, the proposed framework can help recognize concepts and links of vulnerability, rural–urban dependencies, and rural development dynamics.

Spatial Analysis of Non-Resident Agriculture Holders in Rural Areas of Iran

Purpose: The present study aims at describing the general status of non-resident agriculture holders in rural areas. Moreover, it tries to not only investigate the hotspots of non-resident agriculture holders but also analyze its spatial pattern across the county of Iran. Besides, the current study will analyze the most effective factors on forming each hotspot across the Country.Methods: The study is a kind of descriptive-analytic one. The data are adopted from agriculture census of Iran Statistic Center in 2003 and 2014. They have been analyzed by spatial statistic techniques in GIS environment.Results: The findings reveal that the spatial distribution of non-resident agriculture holders is heterogeneous across the Country. The findings from spatial statistics indicate the existence of two main hotspots of non-resident agriculture holders across the towns; the first hotspot has been formed in central Iran and the northern regions of the Country, while the other one has been formed in the west.Conclusion: The increase of non-resident agriculture holders in rural area which has been formed in the frame of rural-urban linkages, leads to increase smallholdings, decrease agriculture productivity, and weaken the balance between rural population and agriculture capacities for production and employment. Therefore, it acts like a barrier in the process of Sustainable rural development.