Rapid Urban Expansion and its Implica Nons on Livelihood of Farming Communities on Peri-Urban Area: The Case of Sebeta Town

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Date

2011-06

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Addis Abeba university

Abstract

Small towns of Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Addis Ababa are expanding tremendously in recent years. The main factors for expansion of these towns are their high potentia ls in attracting investments mainly due to their high proximi ty to the national market and accessibility to various types of infrastructures. An expansion of these towns has been made in expense of conversion of agricultural and green lands. This study was under taken at peri-urban area of Sebata town to analyze a rapid expansion of the town and its implication on farming communities. Hence, a sample of 60 households who has previously di splaced from their land due to the town expansion was taken. In addition, secondary data from various sources were complimented in order to understand the magnitude of the town's expansion. Primarily data collected from sampled households were processed and analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). The result from the findings showed that an expansion of the town during the last few years made significant impacts on li velihood of farming community on peri-urban area: shortage of agricultural land, land insecurity, and losses of assets. For instance, 50 percent of sample households possess and operated on agricultural land size less than I hectare and only 4.5 percent of them hold land size above 3 hectares. This indicates that the average land holding of sample household is the lowest to susta in their livelihood from agricu lture. Although, proximity to urban center benefits peri -urban farmers in terms of accessibility to infrastructures, markets finance and off farm employment opportunities, farmers in peri-urban areas of Sebeta town did not fu lly take opportunities that were come up with the town expansion and development. This is mainly due to shortage of land size and lack economic options that absorb them. In addition, rehabili tation mechanisms used by the town municipality mainly an arrangement of cash compensation for evicted people is found inadequate to replace the resource base, which is land. As a result, most of the fam il ies exposed to further economic, social and cultural impoveri shment. Therefore, to ensure sustainable city development, government should make sound planning prior to displacement without treating farmers' livelihood living on the edge of the urban area. These include pursuing appropriate compensation packages and implementing even those ava il able to rehabi litate the li velihood of evicted households.

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Farming Communities

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