Changing Land Ownership Patterns and Agricultural Activities in the Context of Urban Expansion in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Agricultural lands encroached by urban settlements come out with extensive cost for social and economic life of local residents, particularly in urban fringes. This study compares the changes in agricultural activities, in context of urban expansion during last decade, with special attention to land ownership patterns. A face to face survey was conducted to collect related information from the farm households in three communities at rural-urban interface of Faisalabad city, Punjab, Pakistan. The results indicated a considerable change in the size of landholding during the period 2006-2015 as majority of the farmers (48.9%) owned up to 5 acres, previously while now majority of farmers (53.9%) own less than 2 acres of land. This change was found mainly due to sale of land for housing schemes (56.9%) and division of land due to inheritance (17.8%). During the past decade, the number of land owners shifted from 96.7% to 80.6% with a considerable rise in number of tenants, share croppers and landless farmers. Despite reduced landholding size, crop farming continues to be significant source of subsistence as (88.30%) respondents still adopted agricultural farming as their current source of income but they are pushed to adopt non-farm sources of income (67.70-%) as well. Patterns of crop selection remained almost same but the crop production is less mainly due to shortage of canal water (35.60-%) and reduction in landholding size (28.90%) and farmers are restricted to subsistence farming only (91.60%). An Integrated and holistic land use planning and management is required with land users placed at center in order to improve the livelihoods of the peri-urban dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]