Land Use Change Analysis in a Derived Savannah Zone of South Western Nigeria and Challenges for Agricultural land

Abstract

The land use pattern of a region is the outcome of the natural and socio –economic factors and their utilization by man in time and space. These changes in land use patterns have impact on the local and global environmental conditions as well as economic and social welfare. The aim of this study was to examine change in land use and its effect on the amount of land available for agricultural production as basis for decisions on land use planning for sustainable agriculture. The study was carried out in Ido local government area, LandSat images of Oyo State for the years 1984, 2000 and 2010 were used for the land use classification covering a period of 26 years. Supervised classification was done using the maximum likelihood algorithm to classify into different land use categories such as forested areas, bare lands, urban areas, water bodies and agricultural lands.From 1984 to 2010 the urban areas in Ido LGA increased by 8.29%, forested areas decreased by 4.38% and the agricultural lands also decreased by 3.86%.  Such losses are permanent since the urban lands cannot be converted again to farming; the consequence is increasing reduction in the agricultural production. This trend must be checked so as to enhance sustainable agricultural production and thereby avoid food insecurity in future.

Keywords: land use, land use pattern, agricultural land