ABSTRACT

Relationship of Urban Expansion with Agricultural Lands has now become more visible throughout major cities of the world. Urban Expansion generally occurs over agricultural lands or vacant spaces available in and around the existing cities. The rapid expansion of urban areas reduces the cultivable land in and around the urban areas, and thus leading to shortage of food supply to the urban areas. Cities of developing countries are more vulnerable to this problem than the developed ones because of their fastest growing nature. Tezpur City of Assam is one of the fastest growing urban areas in Assam with 55,084 urban population in 1991 to 1,02,505 population in 2011 with a decadal growth rate of about 35%. Similarly, the existing urban area of Tezpur is 7.10 sq.km. which is expected to cover 126 sq.km. with all its peri-urban areas. Urbanization in Tezpur is so rapid that it has already covered vast surrounding agricultural areas leading to shortage of food supply to the Tezpur urban areas. As a result, food items from other parts are being imported in order to meet the demands of the people of Tezpur urban areas. This led to high cost of the food items that affect mostly the middle and lower income group of people residing in and around the Tezpur urban areas. Thus, the question of Food Security arises, which is likely to be accompanied by other sustainability risks that threatens livelihoods. Governance of urban area expansion thus emerges as a key area for securing livelihoods in agrarian regions. Keywords: Urbanization, Agricultural Lands, Food Security, Livelihoods
Publication date: 01/10/2021

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2021/October/MS_IJBPAS_2021_OCT_SPCL_1015.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2021/10.10.1015