ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF URBAN SPRAWL ON AGRICULTURAL LAND USE AND FOOD PRODUCTION IN MOUNT BARKER, ADELAIDE’

ABSTRACT

Mount Barker, Adelaide is a town in Australia that situated next to Adelaide City and mostly is a region dominated with farming activities. Currently, it is undergoing the phenomenon of urban sprawl.  The lands for agricultural purposes that have been serving as the major source of livelihood many people in the area have suffered encroachment as a result of the urban sprawl process.  Hence, the main income as a result of the urban sprawl phenomenon is the increased sprawl within the fringes of its estates.

Thus, this study assesses the effects of urban sprawl on agricultural land use and food security in Mount Barker, Adelaide. Consequently, the primary and secondary data were acquired from the farmers of food crops in the estates belonging to Mount Barker such as Newnhzam, Summit, Spring Lake, Glenlea and the institutions or commissions in charge of the area.  Upon its collection, an analysis was done on the primary data was done by excel software which assisted in the generation of charts and graphs for interpreting the study.

A similar case was utilized in summarizing the information acquired which assisted in ascertaining the true findings from the selected area of study. Meanwhile, the study has its implications on the farmlands within the peripherals regarding their sustainability and the eventual effects concerning food security. Finally, the study suggests for integrating the agriculturally based lands into the urban-based land use for effective management and securing of the unstable space for farming.

CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.0. Introduction

Urban sprawl refers to the growth of areas of housing, roads and commercial development mostly in the urban sector. Similarly, it also defines the external physical expansion of cities in terms of densities, demarcated by uses of land and inter-dependent societies. According to Afifi, Elsemary & Wahab (2013), urban sprawl entails changing the open space, natural vegetation, wetland, and agricultural land into urban settings by planning or not.  Often urban sprawl happens following the consumption of the land-based resources for the sake of accommodating new urbanized environments.

Similarly, urban sprawl happens following the infrastructural and housing expansion. Meanwhile, Amato, Pontrandolfi & Murgante (2015) defined urban sprawl as an area that is urbanized, including another new area that has been subjected to urbanization. A new area entails at least one-mile grid-based cells that have at least six dwelling units in which thirty per cent of employees head to the urban setting. Another suggestion by Jiang, Deng & Seto (2013) is sprawl has effects on cities in the nations that are still developing plus the developed ones.

Also, in advanced nations with an effective spatial form of the organization concerning zoning, the effects out of sprawl with regards to the social form of environment expenses lead to various challenges linked with planning. For example, in a state such as the New Jersey situated in the USA, at most sixty per cent of the land classified as being prime was eventually lost as a result of urbanization between the years 1986 and 1995. On the other hand, the surfaces deemed as being impervious experienced some increment by close to ten per cent in the state.

One of the major challenging threats, according to Hennig et al. (2015), towards agriculture in the present world is the urban sprawl. Similarly, urban sprawl represents a typical category of development that often happens within the cylindrical based bands that enclose bigger urban centres across the globe. La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011) on the same note concurred that in some situations the urban sprawl growth has its origin as the non-connected developments and the single homesteads set external to the places beyond the coverage of the city though reachable to the city through commuting from the centre of the city.

Further to this, with time, the areas linking the non-connected populace and the urban centres start getting occupied with residential areas, big ware outlets, plus other business activities. Others include the parking lots as well as the manicured types of lawns up to the moment of the creation of the dense suburb. Afifi, Elsemary & Wahab, 2013) identified that there is a strong correlation between food security, urban sprawl, and agricultural land. The justification for this is that being that the supply of land is fixed, then cities or towns’ growth results in the reduction of the lands available that should be used for agricultural purposes.

If the land is used for agricultural purposes it will serve to offer food, clean water and fresh air to the cities hence reducing pollution. Poor quality of land, however, cannot hinder agricultural growth for various tests can be done on the soil to determine crops that can survive in those conditions. An important aspect of innovation in agriculture. Indoor vertical farming will potentially raise crop yields, do away with limited land and also reduce the impacts of farming on the environment.

Again, it will reduce the cost of labour and regulate humidity and light hence reliable harvest in the end. Also, it is worth noting that after the decline in the land meant for agriculture, the other basic for life, such as food in terms of production as well its distribution, also decreases. In Mount Barker, Adelaide’, Lambin & Meyfroidt (2011) acknowledged that the situation is equally the same. Australia is a nation that heavily invests in agriculture. A bigger part of its land and workforce is invested in agriculture consequently posting a major contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Production (GDP).

Concerning the income provisions, food security, export earnings, and employment, in Australia, agriculture leads among the sectors of the economy of the country. Agriculture has a contribution of 3% of the nation’s GDP and has absorbed 4% of the labour force directly. Though the contribution of the sector in the GDP of the country may be small, Haase & Fohrer (2012) pointed out that the yet to be processed agricultural products or the raw ones have a contribution of at least twenty-five per cent of the total earnings recorded from exportations annually in Australia.

Australia is exporting more agricultural content in comparison to its importations. In the year 1998, the agricultural exportations from the country were approximated at US$15.14 billion when compared to US$3.11 billion value of agricultural importations during the very year. The major agricultural commodities that Australia grows are coarse grains, rice, wheat, grain legumes, cotton, fruits, tobacco, and vegetables. On the same note, the major livestock being reared are sheep for wool, poultry, and dairy animals.

Lately, there have tendencies in the rise of the residential form of housing within the urban territory demarcated by the government plus the private entities for their respective employees or those developing properties for selling. Evidence by Kroll, Müller, Haase & Fohrer (2012) listed by Afifi, Elsemary & Wahab, 2013) confers that there is urban sprawl in various cities across Australia. A city in the south known as Mount Baker, 33km from Adelaide city is an example. Frenkel (2004) also believed that urban sprawl has indeed covered Mount Barker, Adelaide, because the sustainability of the populace living in the city, which relies on agriculture, has been under the threat of the urban sprawl.

Consequently, with the built-up regions rising, this result in the reduction of the lands meant for farming, developers digging out the surface-based soil as well as the farmers being pushed in using the marginal, based lands. Though the sparse population of Australia, which is 24 million, is major concentrated in capital cities or a few big towns, Kroll, Müller, Haase & Fohrer (2012) projected that the growth in the population in Mt. Baker and Adelaide are brought by increased effects of urban sprawl.

For instance, there is an estimation that between the years 2017 and 2046, the population of the country will rise by close to twelve million people. Also, on rough estimation, close to 75/% of the growth will happen in major cities such as Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and Brisbane. In this list, Mount Barker, Adelaide, will not be left out as well. Though growth in the population comes with the increased chance of boosting the prosperity of the economy, Lambin & Meyfroidt (2011) highlighted that it also has its challenges with regards to the affordability and the development of the urban centres.

The drastic rise in the prices for housing in various markers so far is becoming a threat to Australia in owning bigger detached houses on large plots of land. In Mount Barker, Adelaide, the average prices of the prices shot to 74% in the previous five years, as noted by Hennig et al. (2015).  The growth of the population is higher in the cities with an annual rise of 1.7% in the future. The rising demand for housing in bigger towns, including Mount Barker, Adelaide also enhances the chances of the urban sprawl.

Every state and the state-based territories in Australia have been assigned urban growth of administrative boundaries within their respective planning management to counter the expansion, as identified by Lambin & Meyfroidt (2011).  Normally, these boundaries have ended up being over-stretched on regular occasions. In every situation identified earlier, the peripheral and the urban form of agriculture are regarded as being major threats. The contribution of urban-based agriculture towards the Australian economy indeed is impossible to ignore.

As stated by Frenkel (2004), urban-based agriculture refers to that enterprise that is situated within either or through the fringe of an urban locality that is growing, processing, and distributing diverse food sources. In this regard, it entails the usage of mainly the human and material contents, as well as the services, got in and near the urban centres. Consequently, it aids in supplying in the form of human and even the material based contents and services mostly to the urban localities.

Lambin, Rounsevell & Geist (2000) pointed out that the urban-based agriculture engages in the production of a minimum of fifteen per cent of the supply of food in the globe and possibly may have a vital role in the attainment of the global-based food security. In Mount Barker, Adelaide, there have been considerations put for the possibility of improving food security, though, as the issue about urbanization continues, the issues linked with food security in cities such as Adelaide and the nearby environs will indeed rise.

Nearly three-quarters of the fresh foodstuffs consumed in major towns in Australia, according to Frenkel (2004), originates from Adelaide. Millar & Roots (2012) singled out the significance associated with the urban form of agriculture within the economy, a country including Australia, where Mount Barker, Adelaide, is situated. First, it engages in supplying a minimum of three-quarters of the horticultural commodities in the town. On a second note, close to 500,000 persons, as estimated by Foley et al. (2005), who are engaged in the patronization of the restaurants and the street-based food in Mount Barker, Adelaide reaps the benefit associated with the urban production daily.

On top of this, it serves as the source for the increasing herbal plants such as the Marsh Mallow, Pot Marigold, Aloe Vera, and many more, wherein this case aid in domesticating the shorter duration’s cycle based species like the mushroom and the cutter.

1.1. Statement of Research Problem

The major problem associated with the process of urban sprawl is the drastic conversion of larger quantities of the prime lands meant for agriculture to urban development within the urban periphery. The effects may end up being the loss of the primer lands meant for agriculture and lower productivity with regards to agriculture. Walker (2001) pointed out that this development may affect the crops that are reared in more significant quantities, such as those meant for exportation.

Besides the possibilities of danger on the farmers of food crops, also there may be suspicion for cases of insecurity in the coming future within the area of study. Skog & Steinnes (2016) related this with the drastic loss of the lands meant for farming to the government and those who intend to develop on a private basis as estates. Similarly, would insecurity would lead to low levels of living that arise as a result of the lower income levels among farmers. In such a situation, the affected farmers will be forced to undertake the adjustments of their styles of living through adopting varied ventures.

Hence, cases of such kind are eminent in Mount Barker, Adelaide. The present sporadic form of urban sprawling in Mount Barker, requires studies since, as posited by Wu (2008), there are chances of the local-based scale farmers being poor urban dwellers upon their farming activity being eliminated. The system of land tenure has been marked as one of the contributing aspects of drastic urban sprawling in the area of study. Families and individuals holding title deeds are resorting to selling their tracts of land to the individual based tenants, private developers of the city and agencies from the government.

These families and individuals do this to evade future litigations associated with the ownership of land and also the lack of money to develop their land.

1.2. Research Questions

The evidence linked with the urban sprawl in Mount Barker and its effects on agricultural production necessitates the questions that may be raised about the situation and the amount of land that can be potentially affected. Hence, this study will be after answering the below questions;

1. Which crops will be more affected by urban sprawl?
2. Will urban sprawl have an effect on farmers’ income and the amount of money made through intensification of land use?

• How is the relationship held between individuals and institutions impacting food production and its security in the selected area of study?

1. What are the roles served by the stakeholders in the provision of the livelihood form of security for crop farmers in the selected area of study?

1.3. Hypothesis

Ho: Urban sprawl has never had negative effects on farmlands

Ha: Urban sprawl has had negative effects on the farmlands

1.4. General Study Objectives

The primary objective carried by the study is the assessment of the effect of the urban sprawl on the agricultural land use and food security in Mount Barker, Adelaide

1.5. Specific Objectives

1. To find out which crops that are more affected by the urban sprawl
2. To investigate how the system of land tenure has had impacts food crop farmers regarding the accessibility of land

• To establish on the roles served by the stakeholders in the provision of security towards the livelihood of farmers with regards to the urban sprawling in the selected area of study

1.6. Justification of the Study

Whenever a city expands, it tends to have an influence on the nearby farmers that eventually results in deliberate displacements. Indeed, it is a fact that the urban fringe societies close to the city that is expanding enjoy the due advantage associated with the value of the land, accessibility of the urban-based services, and rural forms of development relationships or the trickle-down impact linked with development. Regardless of this particular opportunity, the urban-based fringe societies near the city encounter problems that range from economic, insecurity of the land tenure, socio-cultural issues, and the deterioration of the environment.

Accessibility in Mount Barker and the use of land sustainably within the urban-based periphery is currently emerging as a sensitive issue for people and institutions.

1.7. Scope of Research

The research focuses on the evaluation of urban sprawl, the use of agricultural-based land, including security within Mount Barker, in Australia. The study is centred on the main communities situated in the town. Thus, the evaluation of the underlying firms from the very community would be conducted and further complemented with the likely food cases of insecurity among the communities. The choice of Mount Barker, Adelaide, is dictated by the role it serves as farming city and its nearness to the major cities and markets.

Mount Barker, Adelaide, is situated nearly thirty-three kilometres near Adelaide city centre. The communities that live in the city were and up to date still practising farming though this has been affected by the drastic urbanization in the area. Hence, this study evaluates and assesses the characteristics associated with urban sprawl, agricultural production, food security and markets where food is sold. This would enable for effectively understanding the lifestyles and the farmers’ income.

1.8. Organization of the Study

The study will be conducted into a total of five chapters. The first chapter will be the introduction of the study. In this chapter, it will factor the introduction, statement of the problem, hypothesis, research questions, research objectives, the scope of the study, and the justification for it. The chapter presents the review of the literature on urban sprawl, agricultural land use, and food security in Mount Barker, Adelaide. Chapter three presents a discussion about the Methodology of research, while chapter four dwells on results and discussions about the study.

The final chapter, which is the fifth one, focuses on finding limitations linked with the study, conclusion, and recommendations.

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.0. Introduction

This chapter will focus on the ‘Review of literature about urban sprawl.’ Moreover, it will highlight the use of land for agricultural purposes and food security and its market. Also, the definition provided other scholars are also provided that would lead to an effective understanding of the evaluation of the urban sprawl, land use for agricultural purposes and food security in the selected area societies. Similarly, the chapter presents a discussion about the plans and policies that the city administrations have implemented towards managing the urban sprawl.

On top of this, this section presents the conceptual framework that detail on the structure of the studies.

2.1 The urban sprawl concept and peri-urban development

Earl Draper in the year 1937 invented the concept behind ‘urban’ in the United States of America (Barthel & Isendahl, 2013). The terminology has been applied by various planners of cities, towns and urban centres to denote the wasteful urban growth. Urban sprawl refers to the sequence of development revolving on the periphery about a city and is rising renowned feature centred on the environment within nations deemed as being industrialized.

The scenario leads to the reduction of the orderly physical form of development that facilitates economical and efficient usage of land as well as the management of the fringes of cities that are rapidly urbanizing.  Urban sprawl can also be defined as the spread of the city through its suburbs. Gyasi et al (2014) defined it as the construction of the commercial and residential structures in the adjacent rural localities or places underdeveloped within the outskirts of an urban centre.

Following the expansion of cities, the primary zone linked with direct effect according to Enaruvbe & Atedhor (2015) is the per-urban area. The people who are in the areas transitioning from rural to the urban area are known as peri-urban societies. From their perspective development is described as being scattered, spread and patchy with the sequence of being non-continuous. On the same noted, Barthel & Isendahl (2013) related the peri-urban form of development to the urban sprawl because the urban sprawl is indeed the up-coming of the low-density cases of the development normally above the limit of the city.

Gyasi et al (2014) also supported this statement by describing urban sprawl as the aspect identifiable by low-density slow-paced development most dominating the economic and population actions within the peri-urban centres as well as the segregated land applications. From a conceptual viewpoint, the main relationship linking the peri-urban development and the urban sprawl is indeed the demise of the ancient dependence in agriculture within those living in the peri-urban centres.

Eventually, this leads to the competition within the land available in the per-urban because of the drastic expansion within the city. The eventual impact of the phenomenon of the urban sprawl according to Enaruvbe & Atedhor (2015) is the involvement of the dwellers in the peri-urban in economic activities that are less profitable like the commercial, petty business activities and other associated livelihoods. Urban sprawl as observed by Dabie (2015) is seen from a varied perspective that is dictated by the expert’s background.

Hence, the idea seems to generate many controversies in various debates. Regarding the same, this conforms to the terminology about conceptual vagueness and the negative forms of connotation witnessed by Gyasi et al (2014).  With the desire of covering diverse amalgamations and contradictions, a section of the scholars including La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011) has made attempts in according it a natural and concise mode of meaning.

For instance, Jiang, Deng & Seto (2013) classified urban sprawl as the sequence of using land within an urbanized setting that shows low instances of some aspect of the unique dimensions, clustering, density, centrality, proximity, concentration and nuclearity.  Dadi et al. (2016) also identified four meanings about the same. The first case is classified as urban forms in opposition to the compact city. The second cases explain density gradients while the third case gives the analysis of urban sprawl with regards to land use and changes taking place on land cover.

The fourth case factors the negative effect views. Based on these very definitions, Enaruvbe & Atedhor (2015)  concurred that there indeed are certain dimensions about urban sprawl that require consideration, with specific reference to the negative effects because of the effect they have on the environment and the lives of the human beings. Mok et al. (2014) identified some of these effects in Adelaide where instances about consequence mode of planning were indeed never anticipated.

Thus, the justification by them was that urbanization plus the processes occurring in it are constituents of the process of modernization and proposed socio-economic as well as other deleterious environmental consequences that need to be suppressed.  For this research, it aligns to Dabie (2015) ’s classification of urban sprawl that evaluates the urban sprawl occurring on land. The only difference is that the study proceeds to present the discussion concerning the impact of the urban sprawl on food security.

2.2 Trends in peri-urban sprawl

Peri-urban is under the influence of varied social types of forces in Australia. Growth in the national population and rural to urban migration sequences are the two major debated aspects though they are not the only cases. Afifi, Elsemary & Wahab (2013) said that institutional forms of dimensions linked with the property rights and the laws governing the land tenure too have an impact on the chances of the peri-urban cases of the irregular settlements. Processes that are very costly in judicial operations, corruption and red tape tend to be discouraging the low-income settlers from accessing the normal system of land tenure via the judicial system.

Eventually, this results in the decrement in the chances of regulating land.  On top of this, the growth of settlement from a distant in less serviced peri-urban localities is under the strong influence from the market-based prices of the land. Al Tarawneh (2014) linked this with the central areas that appear to be very expensive and the low earning groups including the latest migrants that are facilitated or chased away from the city outskirts.

Majority of the policies within the urban centres according to Aliaâ, Kassou, Kacimi, Morarech & Omari (2017) are expected to be supporting environmental quality through the city like the definition of low-density localities and the strategies of zoning that lead to the production of more sprawl through raising the prices of land within the central urban regions. However, Amato, Pontrandolfi & Murgante (2015) opined that the policies touching on housing may serve a great role in the reduction of the non-regular forms of settlement within the peri-urban regions.

Besides the bigger private-owned firms and projects about public housing that are only eminent in Mexico and Chile, Angotti (2015) pointed out several nations introduced the land laws initiatives as cheaper ways of handling non-formal settlements. Despite late gaining value in its growth, the initiatives, in this case, have experienced setbacks within the area as a result of lack of legislation and slower process within the judiciary. Many nations as established by Barthel & Isendahl (2013) are yet to attain crucial mass than can prevent the growth of population in the peri-urban regions.

On top of this, the growth in the economy, distribution of income and the availability of credit also have an impact on the non-regular per-urban development.  The poor and the average low-income earners have the opportunity for accessing the formal markets for housing despite the availability of subsidies as much as this is also dictated by the economic form of stability, presence of formal employment and longer duration loans.  Chile so far is the country in South America to undertaken major reduction in the share of illegal forms of settlement and this has been depicted in the stable economic form of development in the country in the previous two decades.

Local institutions are facing critical institutional oriented constraints that in many cases lead to the limitation in offering the social forms of services as well as solving major problems facing the environment. Despite being cheap in comparison to the ancient projects about housing, Haroldo (2011) said that the implementation of the urban-based projects may prove to be very expensive.  For instance, the cost averagely of each household in Sao Paulo, Brazil ranged between $300 and $15000 in the year 2010.

However, this was dictated by the density of the population, topography and the past urban design which entail the supply of basic amenities such as water, electricity, sewage management and resettling of the population. Cecchini et al. (2019) believed that one of the possible ways of exploring future trends in the peri-urban sprawl is defining the variation between urbanization levels. Urbanized and more urbanized nations that include Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico and Brazil will for sure according to Haroldo (2011)  witness fall in the population share residing in peri-urban localities.

The trend will be identifiable with the bigger metropolitan regions despite the existence of the issue of urban sprawl. The trend, in this case, will happen following the slow growth in demographics, development of projects within the urban settings, enhanced stability in expansion economically and introducing new mechanisms which are institution based that are favouring the regulation of land. Countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala and Paraguay with average and low cases of urbanization may continue experiencing increment in the cases of urbanization and more shares in the population residing in the peri-urban illegal settlements in the coming fifteen years (Haroldo, 2011).

In these regions, the population within the urban settings is still experiencing major growth though the governments normally lack the resources for carrying major improvements in the urban places. The expansion happening on the agricultural-based frontier like the Brazilian savannas and near the Amazon in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil as stated by Haroldo (2011), also leads to the production of faster and non-stable dynamics in urbanization. The more speedy developing cities in the previous decade are situated in Mato Grosso state in the west of Brazil and some states in the Amazon regions such as Para.

Many of these regions are less prepared in handing notable cases of urban migration that can happen within a shorter duration as a result of exploration of timber, infrastructural developments and initial developments concerning agriculture. Millar & Roots (2012) identified that the speculation of land and drastic increment in offering the informal or formal employment opportunities tend to be the attraction point for major cases of migration and eventually piling pressure on the local-based public services.

At long last, they result in illegal growth and settlement in the urban localities. Enaruvbe & Atedhor (2015) classified this category of land occupation as that which leads to the production of ‘boom and bust phenomenon’ that is eminent in the southern region of Rondonia, Brazil. The area has witnessed major growth in the previous decades though it is currently losing population since many stable economic operations are yet to be put to place. This slows down urban sprawl for there is less manpower to support growth.

2.3 The peri-urban environment

Globally, urban sprawl has been linked with the fragmentation and damage occurring on the natural habitat, reduction in the species’ diversity and rise in the flood risks following more extensive surfaces that are impervious. Similarly, Martellozzo, Amato, Murgante & Clarke (2018) noted that urban sprawl has been associated with more times of commuting, pollution of the air, increment in the obese persons, higher consumption energies, loss of the land’s aesthetic value and the loss of the farmland too.

The scenarios are true in the Caribbean and Latin America through the peri-urban sprawl in the region entails limited cases of sanitation, poor conditions of housing, increment in risks associated with health, invasion of the reserved areas, instances of deforestation and pollution effects on water bodies. Situations linked with the risks towards the environment are also very familiar. Cases of the peri-urban settlement are identifiable in Quito and Mexico City. Dadi et al. (2016) stated that global warming is increasing crucial concerns about the rise in the occurrence of the harsh climatic patterns, infrastructural destruction and more risks from water and vector-borne forms of infections, where the peri-urban places are less prepared.

In the central region of America, Hurricane Mitch spurred the establishment of new forms of urban devastation records upon hitting the Tegucigalpa and the nearby areas thus leading to the destruction of nearly 80% of pipelines supply water including other effects. Cities within the coastal regions that include the Havan, Panama, Santo Domingo and Rio de Janeiro according to Dekolo, Oduwaye & Nwokoro (2016) are indeed not prepared in handling major cases about windstorms.

2.4 The peri-urban and urban sprawl agriculture

Agriculture that serves as the major source of life sustenance for those living in the peri-urban places faces serious threats from the drastic sprawling. Ramankutty et al. (2018) related this with the scarcity problem of land for the agricultural production that will continue arising. Hence, the assigning of the land meant for agriculture for the development of residential homes has led to a decrease in the land sizes. Hence, farmers find themselves being left with small-sized lands or none at all for cultivation and consequently leading to them becoming more vulnerable.

In general, agriculture, as well as the production of food for the population living in urban settings, has been happening in rural places only since the beginning. In a realistic sense, Barthel & Isendahl (2013) pointed out that this undertaking has registered failures in various countries because of the unavailable infrastructure and the missing power of purchasing from the urban poor. Despite the interests towards agriculture in the urban settings being very salient, Al Tarawneh (2014) said that it is still being carried for in smaller magnitudes.

For example, the interface of the peri-urban of many areas within the urban settings that exhibit the characteristics identifiable with the rural and urban lifestyle is in many situations the agricultural basket of the city dwellers and at last, also becomes the supply of the majority of the food needs. Angotti (2015) proposed the zoning of the fertile lands suitable for agricultural activities. Hence, the growth of cities due to the drastic urbanization must be directed towards the agricultural lands that are less fertile, unlike the fertile ones.

On top of this, Armar-Klemesu (2000) had the suggestion for green belts to be factored during the schemes of planning so that they could offer to the inordinate need for expansion. Effective planning entails the zoning and factors the agricultural selected zones as well as fostering the high –rise facilities instead of the single storey types and this regard would assist in the conservation of the peri-urban based lands as well as minimizing the cases of the landlessness.

2.5 Urban sprawl and it’s socio-economic and the physical manifestations

The social and physical manifestations regarding urban sprawl may be evaluated through various dimensions. The factors that lead to urban sprawl in certain regions within the US such as Washington may be linked to the low cost of commuting, increasing level of incomes, taxation from the government, policies of zooming and the readiness from the households in taking advantage of the peer forms of externalities. Others are the avoidance of traffic, crime, noise as well as the presence of homes with sufficient greenery and space (Millar & Roots, 2012).

In the US, urban sprawl is identifiable with the peri-urban form of development. Residents living in cities experiencing urban sprawl realizes hard in travelling even for short distances minus using vehicles because of the residential areas remoteness and the unavailability of the mode of transportation that includes the bike paths, transit and walkways. According to Mok et al. (2014), Canada and US, continue to lose close to 5,000 sq km of land believed to be prime for agricultural production for infrastructural development, reservoirs plus other uses not related to agriculture.

For instance, between 1980 and 1993, the Puerto Rico urban area experienced increment from 11.5 up to 27.2 per cent. The conclusion reached by them was where the sequence of the urban encroachment persists, the growth of urban centres in the place destined for agriculture; the potentiality of production by Puerto Rico will decline in the future. The negative impacts linked with the urban sprawl on towns in America are the inequalities in health, environmental pollution and consequently its degradation.

Similarly, the model of growth categorized as being smart type by Dabie (2015) has been tried in the US as the option for growth irrespective of the many criticisms has been levelled on it. Such criticisms are that it leads to the reduction of the values of properties, rise in the housing costs and the disruption of the present communities.  Likewise, the model of smart growth according to La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011) refers to the policy of framework that fosters the pattern of development identified by higher densities of population, bikeable and walkable neighbourhoods, conserved green environments and diversified developmental use.

Trends dating from the past reveal that from the period of 1950s, the land places within major cities in Europe have undergone expansion by close to 77% which is more than the predicted 32%. The main accelerating factor towards this trend as identified by La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011) is because the cities in Europe have ended being very less compact. Squatters living in the compacted urban centres have had their replacements with the free mode standing blocks, detached and semi-detached structures.

Further to this, Dadi et al. (2016) stated that places with renowned visible effects linked with the urban sprawl in countries in Europe include the regions with higher densities of population and economic-related activities like Belgium. Jiang, Deng & Seto (2013) has attributed the demise of the peripheral agriculturally based lands to the cases of sprawl within a section of countries in Europe like Norway and Netherlands that posted losses of 1.7% and 4.2% every year to sprawl.

Based on the reflection from Jiang, Deng & Seto (2013), this gives the loss of the comparative form of advantage by ca country within the diversified farm activities as the nation continue losing its lands believed to be fertile for urban sprawl. A similar trend has been identified through research conducted by Mok et al. (2014) in Sofia where the land usage was found to be undergoing the transition state. The peri-urban based villages within the southern region of Sofia so far cannot be classified as agricultural lands since the lands in such places have been overtaken by the housing developments.

Examples of cities that have emerged as a result such form of infrastructural developments are Mladost and Darvenitza that their lands were at first used for agricultural purposes.

2.6 Urban sprawl characteristics and determinants

Various factors dictate the rate of growth of urban sprawl and its continuity towards the desired direction. Certain scholars including La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011) have listed a section of factors as the features and the determinants of the urban sprawl. For instance, the urban sprawls are identifiable with higher growth rates of population because of the effects brought by the migration and the natural tendency of increment.

The availability of the infrastructural oriented services and the opportunities in employment within the urban environment often serve as the attraction point for persons who hail from varied settings such as the rural localities. Consequently, this results in spurring the development of the cities. As stated by Al Tarawneh (2014), urban sprawl leads to land use segregation through varied zones because of the self-form of sorting on a population where La Greca, La Rosa, Martinico & Privitera (2011)  classified as the racial form of segregation.

Consequently, this situation leads to the more dependence on the trickle-down or the filtering process that facilitates the provision of the housing units to lower-income earners with limited cases of consumer options concerning the place and means of living, segregated type of housing, stores and the workplace from one region plus the decrement in the civic and social form of interactions together with the support.

Systems of transportations that are efficient are believed to the more vital aspects regarding the cities’ spread, where Mok et al. (2014) acknowledged that it is continuing with growth as time elapses. The non-limited external extension of urban centres in combination with the low costs of transportation has resulted into the possibility of living further from the city’s central business district (CBD) but still reaping the advantages associated with the location of the city.

However, there is the continuation in the sprawling of cities including the suburbs that are identifiable with the non-productive congestion on top automobile pollution levels, roads, the demise of the once open places and the inequality in the offering to the public utility based commodities through the sprawling suburbs associated with the city. Dadi et al. (2016), on the other hand, linked the same with a weaker centralized mode of planning about the actions of the stakeholders who are affected.

In this regard, the scholar further stated that the affected stakeholders by the policies of urban planning have diversified interests that again are ever opposing and conflicting both on political and moral perspectives.

2.7 The value of loss of farmland and Urban fringe

Urban based agriculture according to Mok et al. (2014) may mean the growth, process and distribution of both food plant and the tree-based crops including keeping livestock in urban settings. On a simple note, the economical productive activity is carried majorly in the open-air settings within the realm of urban settings. For a long while, agriculture in urban areas has been carried for many years across the world and has had its integration within the many places in urban localities.

However urban fringe has become a great threat on the same. Al Tarawneh (2014) said that the practise continues in various areas that are crucial in the city such as the streets, park, schools and public gardens.  Other places are the edge within the cities and the community-based gardens including other regions that deemed very beneficial to live in the city. However, urban agriculture has been underrated when it comes to the formulation of the policies regarding the development of the urban settings by the planners despite being very sensitive with regards to ensuring the well-being and the health of the citizens.

Dadi et al. (2016) said that the potentiality linked with the urban agriculture within the cities is vital and the benefits it has towards the cities are quite diverse. Many municipalities are indeed depicting that urban agriculture is essential and also viable when it comes to land use. Urban agriculture and systems of food are diverse besides being crucial components of the economic, spiritual, physical and economic well-being of the areas where the planners have great concern with (Jiang, Deng & Seto, 2013).

First, it acts as a means of ensuring food security. The own production agriculturally in the urban settings according to Mok et al. (2014) for every household formed the vital source of food for may low income earning households, that has been categorized as the self-subsistence, with the surpluses being converted to cash for boosting the income of the family. The other rationale behind urban agriculture is the value economically and the capacity of generating local form of development.

In this regard, the major objective is to attain a productive city; that which is capable of production within its outskirts as a result of the locally grown farm produce. Al Tarawneh (2014) also listed the production, processing and marketing of food as other aspects that lead to the generation of income and employment to diverse urban-based households. Intensive peri-urban livestock and horticultural production are growing at a faster rate and consequently employing several employees that again lead to the production of the more value-added commodities.

In the end, such trends in production lead to viable incomes and the returns as well. Employment and income not only result from the generated form of production but again in the sector of processing, the supply of the agricultural inputs and marketing. Despite the levels of the production and even the turnover among the individual producers in the urban centres or vendors on several occasions projected of being small, their higher population within the city result into the overall contribution towards the economy of the urban centres is very significant.

On a third note, urban agriculture in some scenarios constitutes the integrated form of policy about the environment that its major benefit is the contribution in making the city green. Others are the increment in the accessibility of nature by citizens, leisure and recreation as well as enhancing awareness about the environment. Increment in the accessibility of the healthy form of environment or the reduction of the ecological form of footprint in every dimension as said by Al Tarawneh (2014) is very beneficial to the city environmental health-wise.

By incorporating proper planning and integration of the urban and the peripheral form of design, Angotti (2015) stated that urban agriculture may assist in improving the physical form of climate. For instance, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental production, as well as the food crops, may enhance the beautification of the city plus its surrounding environment that in this regard encompasses the cool climate, managing of the effects of soil erosion and the absorption of the pollution due from air and odours. On the same note, urban sprawl may foster biodiversity via the ecologically-based drivers and the related systems of production.

2.8 The use of urban land or changes on land cover

The surface of the earth from time and its existence as well has experienced changes as well as the modifications of different magnitudes and timelines. Part of the changes happens within a short period, some take longer while others may also temporary or permanent (Chen, 2007).  Barthel & Isendahl (2013) stated that the speed, spatial reach and magnitude of the immediate and non-immediate changes on the surface of the land perpetuated by the actions of human beings recently are indeed unprecedented.

On the same note, land use including the change on its cover is essential effectors plus the outcomes from the human accelerated actions leading to the alteration of the earth’s surface. For instance, Dabie (2015) believed that when the changes or use of the land situated in urban centres become universally aggregated, the changes become very insidious such that they may have a notable impact on major aspects constituting the function of the earthy system.

As opined by Dadi et al.  (2016), the patterns of land cover and its use from a given locality is more viewed to depict the outcome linked with the natural and socio-economic aspects as well as their respective use by human beings as time progresses. The changes direct effect on the biotic life globally and lead to the local and the global change in climate plus global warming effects as a result of the climate change.

Enaruvbe & Atedhor (2015) classified the changes also as the major constituents leading to the degradation of soil through the alteration of the services within the ecosystem and in turn affecting the capacity the biological-based systems into supporting the needs of the human beings. Such changes were categorized by Gardi et al. (2015) as those that affect the vulnerability of people and regions towards economic, socio-political and climatic disturbances or perturbations.

2.9 Gender relationships and land tenure

Women have been identified as the serving critical role in the maintenance and the strategic use of land and natural-based resources. Hence, any discussion involving land tenure and the livelihoods demands the special handling of gender and any combination of strategies leading to sustainable food security must tackle the accessibility of productive resources by women. Lin (2007) outlined that on a typical basis, gender affairs are dictated by the reigning socio-political setups and religion-based value-oriented systems.

Reformation of land and the forces behind the modernization have resulted in mixture impact on women status Africa according to Mok et al. (2014). Few cases involving the resettlement initiatives or agrarian reformation have notable female beneficiaries or dedicate to the issue of gender as the category for awarding benefits.  Some situations, on the other hand, have seen women gaining more accessibility of land via reformations, especially where the involvement of women in rural localities has been effectively outlined within the state-based policy.

Ramankutty et al. (2018) pointed out that in other nations too, the feudal based system in which women have been from the past been had subordinate duties in the family mode of production. Also, there exist various instances in which the women institutions have been waging wars towards gaining access to land that can eventually practice collective farming.

2.10 The conceptual framework

The section details the framework where the organization of the study was done. Figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework about urban sprawl, agricultural land use and food security. There is an interconnection between the components of the framework.  Drivers are in place responsible for propelling of the urban sprawl and they are the institutions involved in the surveying of land and its commissioning. Others include the market of urban land. A vital point worth noting is that increase in population is proportional to the demand for land for development in the urban centres.

The supply of land is fixed and thus many people keep on demanding it for the sake of building. By assuming that other aspects, the uses associated with land have to be forfeited. In many peripheral places in Mount Barker, Adelaide’, the demand associated with land is high when compared to the price. Hence, this justifies that demand dictates the price tag on land, especially in Mount Baker and its environs. Players in the urban market are the developers of real estate and persons who proceed with the acquisition of land for erecting homes, farming and business purposes. Hence, these drivers contribute to urban sprawling.

Figure 1: Conceptual framework about the urban sprawling, agricultural land use and food security

Source: Dabie (2015). 

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0. Introduction

The pressures to develop land and the issues of urban fringe were the basis of the research question. Concerning it the research methodology according to Mohajan (2018) offers comprehensive explanation concerning the process and steps deployed during the study. In this regard, the chapter covers the research design, data requirements and its collection methods, techniques of sampling and tools for acquiring information from the targeted community. On top of this, the chapter outlines the certain research stages including the detailed stages leading to the administration of questionnaire plus the interviews carried out during the fieldwork moments.

3.1. Source of data

Any research minus any doubt regarding the sourcing of data may be done on varied places despite Basias & Pollalis (2018) acknowledging that this is dependent on the relevancy of information in terms of quality of the information that the researcher needs. In this study, the researcher relied on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was given more attention. The sources of primary data identified by Cuervo‐Cazurra, Mudambi, Pedersen & Piscitello (2017) that were used in the study were the focus group discussion, questionnaires and observations.

Moreover, relevant board documents were used to support the same

3.2 Methods and strategy of the research

During the process involved in collecting data for research, many tools were utilized. Qualitative and quantitative data tools from Wiek & Lang (2016) were used in the research too. Structured questionnaires as advised by Fletcher (2017) assisted in the collection of the quantitative data. The questionnaires majored in the background of the respondents, characteristics of employment, main crops reared, level of income, food security, issues about