Rural-Urban Linkages of Small Towns Transformation and Sustainability

Small towns play an important role in rural transformation through rural-urban linkages, including spatial flows of commodities, goods and services, people, information and funds. Rural areas send their agricultural products to the markets and agro-processing units often located in the nearby small towns. Smaller urban canters promote rural-regional development by being markets for agricultural products, providing non-farm employment opportunities, supplying manufactured goods to rural areas, and offering a range of educational, health, commercial, financial and transport services to the residents of the surrounding villages. These towns also act as intermediaries between the villages and larger cities for step-wise rural-urban migration as well as for sale of their agricultural products to distant markets, including exports. These towns also play a major role in rural-urban migration by holding some youthful populations who may not afford the large cities. This contributes to not only addressing housing crisis in urban areas but also reduce migrant pressure in urban areas. Industries located in urban areas, including small towns, have particularly significant impact on regional development through industrial linkages defined as: `Channels of development impulses’ transmission from an industrial center to the surrounding region.’ Backward and forward industrial linkages are also expected to stipulate a self-supporting process of regional growth. Moreover, the `Synergy between agricultural production and urban-based enterprises is often key to the development of more vibrant local economies and, on a wider level, to less unequal and more “pro-poor” regional economic growth.’ The objective of this Networking Event is to share some of the experiences from India and beyond on rural-urban linkages that support rural transformation in multiple ways and to explore how this `synergy’ can be strengthened for promote sustainable rural and urban development. This involves leveraging the strategic role of intermediary towns to drive sustainable urbanization. Furthermore, integrated policies and spatial plans must empower these urban centers to catalyze the economic potential of their surrounding rural hinterlands, while simultaneously acting as a buffer against unregulated urban sprawl.