POPULATION PRESSURE ON LAND AND ITS IMPACT ON AGRICULTURAL LAND IN IGABILOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KADUNA STATE
Keywords:
Population Growth, Agricultural land, Land Sat imagery, Land Sat imageryAbstract
The paper examines the impact of population pressure on land as it affects agricultural land in Igabi local
government, Kaduna state. The study employed the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) imagery of
1995, 2005 and 2015 to generate data. Data were analyzed using frequency tables, percentages and multiple
regression. LandSat result shows that built-up areas increased from 16.46% to 19.43% and 20.99% in 1995,
2005 and 2015 respectively while agricultural land use increased from 9.34% to 18.27% and 27.72% in 1995,
2005 and 2015. High forest area decreased by 55.0% between 1995 and 2005 and 27.9% between 2005 and
2015. Then water body decreased from 2.30% in 1995 to 1.21% in 2005 but rose by 2% in 2015. Degraded
forest increased from 32.55% in 1995 to 43.39% in 2005 and then declined to 36.52 in 2015. Result from the
regression analysis shows that build-up areas, degraded forest and water bodies were significant factors
affecting agricultural land in the study area at 5% significance level. The study therefore recommends policy
intervention to serve as a check on excessive clearing of forest area for agricultural use and unregulated
exploitation of forest which is the major cause of forest degradation and environmental pollution.
