DRIVING FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVERSION AT RURAL-URBAN INTERFACE IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

A study was conducted during 2017-18 to assess the socio-economic and physical drivers shaping the farmer’s decision of agricultural land conversion (ALC) in two contrasting cities i.e. Faisalabad (a highly urbanized city) and Sahiwal (at initial stage of urbanization) of Punjab. For this purpose a mixed method approach was applied. Required information was obtained from 416 farming households in 6 communities at rural-urban interface of both cities. Further, six focus group discussions were arranged with the farmers who had sold their agricultural land to urban developers. The results showed that the most significant infrastructure on agriculture land was housing development i.e. 94.0% in Faisalabad and 99.0% in Sahiwal followed by roads/ motorways construction (30.8% & 8.7%), respectively. The results of binary logistic regression revealed that the agricultural land conversion is mostly driven by physical and economic factors in both cities. In Faisalabad, five socio economic variables namely; age, income from agriculture, cost of inputs, commodities prices and land value/price; whereas two physical/proximate variables i.e. distance to road and access to irrigation water were statistically significant in shaping the farmer’s decision. On the other hand, in Sahiwal four socio-economic variables education, family structure, income from agriculture, and size of landholdings) and two physical/ proximate variables i.e. access to water and agricultural land conversion in surroundings were found significant. The findings of focus group discussions also supported that majority of the respondents (76.0%) did not want to continue cultivation on their agri. land while they were interested in selling their agricultural land or converting it to different urban uses. The profit motive/high land price was the most powerful pull driver (96.0%) and less profitable agriculture was the most compelling push factor (92.7%) shaping the land use change decision of farmers. An effective land use policy and workable measures are required to preserve the agricultural land and improve the farmer’s livelihoods at rural-urban interface.