Socio-Economic Impact of Urban Sprawl on Agricultural Land in Lapai Local Government Area, Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Urban expansion constitute of the key agent s of land use change with the impact felt at local, regional and global level. This study assesses urban encroachment in agricultural land in Lapai Local government area of Niger State, Nigeria using remote sensing and geographic information techniques. Four imageries of land sat ETM 1988, Land Sat ETM 1998 Land Sat 7 2008 Land Sat 8 2018 were processed classified using supervised classification using Arc GIS 10.4 to assess the total spatial loss of agricultural land to expansion. The findings revealed that the study area witnessed a significant reduction and increase in agricultural land and built-up respectively. The socio-economic impacts of urban expansion into agricultural land was derived through the administration of questionnaires to people within the study area, the results gotten showed that the area has experienced an unprecedented rate of urbanization and urban encroachment into agricultural lands which has subjected the area to some genitive environmental and socio-economic impacts such as decrease in the average crop yield, though the impacts are not so severe due to the persistence and emergence of agriculture land in some areas. It is recommended that spreading to agriculture land should be controlled as this will have serious repercussions on food security. Urban expansion cannot be stopped, but with proper management and planning it can be directed in a desirable and sustainable way.