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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Keywords
Farming Communities