SUSTAINABLE USE OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN THE SCOPE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE: THE SAMPLE OF MALATYA, TURKEY

Abstract

Agriculture is a strategically very important sector for every country since it supplies all vital food elements people need, meets the raw material demands of national industries, offers job opportunities to people from every levels of society and inputs foreign currency to national economy by exporting crops. However, it is one of the most affected sectors by the increasing urbanisation impacts due to rapid human population increase, improving socio-economic conditions and advancing technology. The province of Malatya located in Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey meets nearly 80% of world dried apricot need. Urban agriculture lands taking place in urban tissue of Malatya city and composed mainly of apricot orchards (AO) have been lost at an important rate for the last 15 years. From this point of view, in the scope of the present study, land cover (LC) and land use (LU) types were determined first to determine the rate of lands lost to the use types other than agriculture. The rate of the areas gained and lost was determined by investigating the changes in these LC/LU types between 1984 and 2014. Protective and improving strategies were developed by determining socioeconomic and legal and administrative reasons for the lost agricultural lands (AL) and AO.