Abstract:
Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that, in many ways, eventually turns agricultural area into urban territory and may have an effect on the livelihood of nearby farming households. However, there is little information in Ethiopia about how urban sprawl affects farming households' ability to support themselves. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to judge urban sprawl and its consequences on Kombolcha town's outlying farming households.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used when applying the descriptive research method. With 117 sampled households chosen using systematic random sampling methods, a household survey was carried out. While the secondary data were gained from published and unpublished sources, the primary data were gathered through questionnaires, interviews, observation, and focus group discussions. Furthermore, narrative analysis was used to study qualitative data while descriptive statistics like frequency and percentage were used to analyze quantitative data. The study's findings showed that the horizontal growth of Kombolcha town had a major detrimental impact on the economic and cultural well-being of the local farming households. Moreover, the expansion program was not participatory, denying the expropriated households the chance to negotiate the type and quantity of compensations. The expropriated farmers in the town's peri-urban area were not able to function due to the compensation and benefit packages offered thus far. For expropriated peri-urban farmers, there was no post-expropriation follow-up and rehabilitation support. In general, future urban growth, expropriation, and compensation programs must include peripheral farming households, and compensation must be altered in both kind and amount to include rehabilitation support, skill development training, and post-expropriation follow-up.
