Assessing The Impact of Urban Sprawl ON Agricultural Land Use And Food Security IN Shai Osudoku District

ABSTRACT

Shai Osudoku, a District known as the cradle of Dangme land and Krobo culture, and a predominantly farming area, is experiencing the sprawl phenomenon. Agricultural lands, which serves as the main source of livelihood to majority of the inhabitants in the District, has been encroached by the process of urban sprawl. A major result of this phenomenon is a growing sprawl at the fringes of some of its major towns. This study focuses on assessing the impact of urban sprawl on agricultural land use and food security in the Shai Osudoku District Assembly (SODA) of Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Both primary and secondary data were collected from Food Crop Farmers of four (4) major sprawling communities (Dodowa, Asutsuare, Ayikuma and Doryumu) in the District and Decentralized Government Departments of the SODA. The primary data collected were analyzed using SPSS after it was entered into the Excel software. The SPSS was used to generate charts and graphs to interpret the survey. The same was used to summarize the information collected which helped to ascertain the exact findings from the study area. In addition, a multi-temporal set of Remote Sensing data of the study area was used to study and classify Shai Osudoku District. This dataset included mainly Landsat (Enhanced Thematic Mapper) images of (1991, 2002 and 2013). Digital image-processing software ENVI 5.1 was used to process, analyze and integrate the spatial data. Geographic Information Software ArcGIS was used to produce the map output. Contrary to the mainstream view that natural increase is the main source of increment in the population, and thus urban sprawling in the area, food crop farmers as well as stakeholders‘ perception was different as responses indicated that the rapid urban sprawling of SODA is as a result of migration, high price of land in the Accra Metropolis, proliferation of estate development, the District‘s closeness to the capital city of Ghana-Accra and the proposed International Airport site located within the District. The study also reveals that sprawling in the District is rapidly consuming farmlands in the fringe rural communities. This has resulted in some of the crop farmers diverting to non-farm businesses. Again, the study area has experienced an enviable change in the land cover for the past decades. Using Landsat satellite imagery from 1991 to 2013, the study areas has expanded by 25% of the total land over the period. Moreover, it reveals the prevalence of land litigations in the study area. Also, the v pressures of urban sprawl have negative implications on predominantly farming communities in the SODA, especially on their income. The study has implications for the sustainability of farmlands in peripheral lands and its aftermath food insecurity. The study recommends the integration of agricultural lands into urban land use planning for efficient management and protection of the dwindling farm space. Also, policy focus should be geared towards the protection of prime agricultural lands in the Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies (MMDAs) where farming is the mainstay of majority of the inhabitants, especially those at the peripheral areas of major cities in Ghana. Again, it is also critical to develop the capacity of government institutions responsible for public and private lands administration and development while harmonizing their functions under a single management authority to reduce institutional bottlenecks that promote duplication and overlapping roles in all land management institutions in the country. Urban sprawl is necessary but not to the extent of denying the rural and peripheral folks of their main livelihood asset.