Urbanisation and its effects on agricultural lands, economic and social impact: a case study of Juaben Municipality
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Date
2021-06-29
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Abstract
Farming lands are most pretentious by the fast growth and its occupations of a plea.
Land use for housing, manufacturing, and culture have the tendency to control
farmlands in the proposition for space in the city place. To understand the trend of
urbanization and the socio-economic effects on farmers in the Juaben Municipality
necessitated this study. The aim of the study was to identify means of improving the
planning and management of land-use changes in Juaben municipality. Similarly, the
study focused on finding out effects of land uses changes in the agricultural land use,
the socio-economic impacts those changes have on farmers and the planning and
management strategies deployed to mitigate the problem. The study adopted
questionnaire and semi-structured interview as the research instrument to gather data
from 90 respondents which comprises of registered farmers, Town, and Country
Planning in the Juaben Municipality through a survey and interview secessions. Results
from the study identified effects of land-use changes on agricultural land use. These
include farm lost and small farm sizes, increase in the cost of land, cultivation of nonperennial crops, decrease in livestock farming, job loses, food insecurity and as well as
decrease in productivity of agrarian activities. Also, the economic and social effect of
land-use changes on farmers identified included reduction in the income of farmers,
high prices of foodstuffs, high cost in farming, high fees for accommodation, lost of
interest in farming, purchasing food from commercial suppliers, societal rejection of
the farming business, difficulties in adapting to the new social life imposed on them
and declined in deteriorating living conditions. It was evident in the results obtained
from the study that, the authorities in the Municipality were pulling down structures
built on unauthorized land, issuing of building permit to check development and
rezoning areas to suite the current land-use changes. But the Authorities were lacking
the legal power to restrict lands demarcated for agricultural activities to be used for
human settlement unless it poses danger to live and properties. In conclusion, a
substantial amount of land changes has occurred in the Juaben Municipality which has
led to farm lost and the socio-economic life of the farmers in the Municipality is not
encouraging as well as less effective mitigation responses from management to curtail
the rapid land-use changes. It is recommended that the government and the other
stakeholders should come together to develop the legal framework that will prevent
landowners to sell lands which are not properly surveyed and planned by the Municipal
Assembly and also impose more severe sanctions to help check rapid land uses changes
in the Juaben Municipality.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Construction Technology and Management,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the Award Degree of
Master of Science in Project Management.
Keywords
Land Use Change, Urbanization, Spatial Planning, Socio-Economic Effects