Abstract: The incessant migration of rural populace to urban areas has imposed a serious concern globally, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, due to its accompanying food security threat. Therefore, there is a need to map and evaluate Urban Agricultural land use in relation to food security challenges periodically in order to aid well-informed policy statements in tackling food security. This paper evaluates Urban Agricultural land use and food security in Jos North, Nigeria, between 1986 and 2005, with a view of analyzing the effects of urbanization on the sustainability of Urban Agriculture. Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing techniques were used in the mapping and evaluation processes in conjunction with remotely sensed data and topographic maps. Data validation was carried out using ground truthing data. Markov Chain Analysis prediction model and Cellular Automata were used for change detection analysis and to project the status of Urban Agriculture in 2020. The result shows Urban Agricultural land has reduced from 19.2% of the total area to 11.26% between 1986 and 2005. The projection shows rural-urban migration will increase more by 2020, with agricultural land reducing to 8.59% of the total area of study. Furthermore, the paper reveals Urban Agricultural practices in Jos North especially Fadama which contributes significantly to the socio-economic growth of the city through the production of vegetables and other food crops. The research work suggests some measures to enhance Urban Agriculture.
Keywords: Urban Agriculture, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban Agricultural Land and Food Security.
Title: Application of GIS and Remote Sensing in Mapping and Evaluation of Urban Agricultural Lands in Relation to Food Security: A Case Study of Jos North in Plateau State, Nigeria
Author: Williams Okey Okorukwu, Maisamari Yusuf Danladi, Altine Jojo Elhassan
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3164 (online), ISSN 2348-3156 (Print)
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