The Impact Of Urban Sprawl On Agricultural Community In Peri-urban Area

In many ways urban Sprawl is a spontaneous phenomenon which ultimately converts the agricultural land into urban land and it may affect agricultural communities in peri-urban area.Therefore,the key objective of this study is to evaluate the impacts of urban sprawl on agricultural community in peri-urban area of Asella town.Founded on the descriptive research method,the study had applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches.A household survey was conducted on 109 households sampled through systematic random sampling and nonrandom sampling techniques.The main data were composed through questionnaire,interviews,observation and focus group discussion while the secondary one was from different written and documented sources.Furthermore,quantitative data are analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage;qualitative data are analyzed by using narrative analysis.The outcomes of the study indicated that the spawl of Asella town brought significant negative impacts on the agricultural community in peri-urban area by economically and culturally.On the additional hand,the expansion program was not participatory,and the dislocated households did not have opportunity to bargain in the determination of the amount and kinds of compensations.The compensation and benefit packages provided so far did not capacitate the expropriated farmers of the peri-urban area of the town.There was no post expropriation follow-up and convalescence support for expropriated peri-urban farmers.Generally,Urban Sprawl,expropriation and compensation program that may be proposed in the future needs to be adequately involve the peri-urban area agricultural community and compensation should be revised both in kind and amount involving rehabilitation support,skill development training and post expropriation follow-up.