LAND USE/LAND COVER DYNAMICS AND URBAN AGRICULTURE IN TARKWA-NSUAEM MUNICIPALITY, GHANA
LAND USE/LAND COVER DYNAMICS AND URBAN AGRICULTURE IN TARKWA-NSUAEM MUNICIPALITY, GHANA

Summary/Abstract: Achieving food security is now a priority of both international and national development agendas. However, this can be realised depending on measures put in place to regulate land use/land cover (LULC) activities from hampering agricultural development in rural and urban areas. This paper sought to assess the LULC dynamics of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality (Ghana) and its implications for urban agriculture between 2002 and 2015. A descriptive research design was adopted with much emphasis given to the mixed-method approach. A remotely sensed satellite images were processed and analysed using ERDAS Imagine v.2013 and ArcMap 10.1. This was supplemented with qualitative data from key informants. The findings of the study revealed a loss of substantial cultivated and managed vegetation (agricultural lands) to artificial surfaces and associated areas (built-up) with the resultant consequences affecting urban agriculture in diverse ways. The immediate effects have been loss of over 100km2 of agricultural lands, farmers losing their jobs and for that matter diversifying into other economic activities which put the future food security of the area at risk. It is therefore recommended that the city authorities in collaboration with relevant stakeholders should reclaim the lost agricultural lands and undertake urban growth boundary strategies to protect agricultural lands.

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