Implications of Urbanization on Agricultural Land: A Case Study of Khairpur District, Pakistan

Abstract

Sindh is the 2nd most populated province in the country, half of the population is settled in urban centers; this ratio is increasing day by day owing to privation of facilities and rural poverty. Khairpur district is the 5th largest urban area in Sindh, and growing rapidly, it has eight talukas 76 Union councils, 11 towns, and 6800 villages with 2.4 million population in 2017, a low percentage of the population is settled in urban areas which is 32.3%. But a rapid increase in urbanization has been observed in the last 10 years. A huge number of flood effectiveness shifted from villages to cities during the super flood 2010. Agriculture is the primary economic activity of this region, Date palm, cotton, sugarcane, banana and strawberry are the main crops. Due to unexpected population growth, the housing societies are developed around the main cities of District Khairpur. All those housing societies are developed over the agricultural land, which causes socio-economic deprivation in the research area. The study shows, the rapid urbanization and its impacts on agriculture land in the district.