CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVERSION IN DISTRICT HYDERABAD, SINDH, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This research was conducted to find out causes and consequences of agricultural land conversion in district Hyderabad, Sindh. For the purpose, two types of data were used, i.e., primary and secondary. Primary data were collected from hundred dwellers and hundred affected people, using interviewing method. Results show that most of the respondents were literate (70 percent), employed (59 percent), and lived in nuclear family system. Low agricultural returns with high land prices, daily wages earnings, availability of fully equipped hospital, low job opportunity in rural areas, extension of urban centers, housing demand, better education, family problems regarding land distribution, more business opportunities and low growing population size were dominant causes of agricultural land conversion in study area. Further, the affected community has responded that majority of those have sold out their lands because they either did not fetch the expected returns from their lands, or high prices for their lands have induced them. While dwellers have confirmed that their decisions to migrate in the urban areas have positive impacts in terms of the quality education and health facilities. On the other hand, agricultural land conversion has also negative impacts of agricultural land losses, which ultimately affect the food and fiber supply as well as degradation of natural habitats along with urbanization. Results also show that there were land use conflicts, like entitlement issues, land encroachment, and land grabbing, which may be due to policy breaches in the prevailing land use act. Therefore, there is need to regulate agricultural land conversion, especially for urban extensions, in order to prevent from future food insecurity.

Keywords

• agricultural land conversion
• causes
• impacts and conflicts
• economic analysis