Impact of land use an land cover change on agriculture in Rwanda Case of Ntarama Sector in Bugesera District (2013-2024)

Abstract

The peri-urban expansion processes put pressure on farmers, making agriculture activities harder through reduced agricultural land. The general objective of this study was to examine the impact

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of land use and land cover change on agriculture production in Rwanda. Case study: Ntarama sector in Bugesera distrct (2013 -2024). The specific objectives of this study were to identify the major factors driving land use land cover change and loss of agriculture production in Ntarama sector between 2013 and 2024, to assess the level to which agriculture production in Ntarama sector has been changed between 2013 and 2024 and to investigate the impact of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on agriculture production in Ntarama sector between 2013 and 2024. The results have shown that the driving factors of land use and land cover change on agriculture production in Ntarama sector were population growth, infrastructure facilities development, industrial Growth and employment. The results showed that in 2013, residential area covered 2,358.87 ha which is 30.3%, agriculture area covered 4,694.9 ha which is 60.3%; forest area covered 632.5 ha which is 8.3% while the bare land area covered 97.5 ha which is 1.1%. This implicates that agriculture land use was at high level with 4694.9 ha and 60.3% of the total area of Ntarama sector in 2013. The results showed that residential area covered 5,721.9 ha which is 73.5%, agriculture area covered 2004.5 ha which is 25.7%; forest area covered 36.1 ha which is 0.5% and bare land has 20.79 ha which is 0.3%. This implicates that agriculture land use covered 2004.5 ha with 25.7% of the total area of Ntarama sector in 2024 and it was reduced in 2024 compared to the ones of 2013. Due to different factors peri- urban expansion such as population growth, infrastructure facilities development, industrial Growth and employment in Ntarama sector, agriculture activities decreased at 34.6% from 2013 to 2024 due to different factors such as population growth, infrastructure facilities development, industrial Growth and employment. Residential land increased from 2013 to 2024 at 43.2%. Forest land decreased from 2013 to 2024 at 7.8%. Bare land area decreased from 2013 to 2024 at 0.8%. The results also showed that the impact of land use and land cover change on agriculture in Ntarama Sector was characterized by less area for agriculture land use, less agriculture land investments, less agriculture harvest and less agriculture based market. Governments should educate, train and organize special agriculture campaigns about the good use of land and its effects on agricultural production.