MDes Thesis | Re-Imagining the Urban-Rural Divide: Opportunities for More Equitable Development

This thesis aims to surface the urgent need to engage with rural to urban linkages by analyzing the complex interactions that link food and livelihood systems to consumption patterns and processes of land-use and environmental change. The aim of the thesis is to make policy and planning recommendations on how to include small scale farmers in economic growth through analyzing the systems at play within India.

Existing Development Cycle

Focus on Urban Development

Food Production suffers

- Risk of Food insecurity nationally occurs

Skewed amount of resources go to cities

Rural development suffers due to lack of investment

Improving the Rural-Urban Synergy is imperative for long-term sustainable growth of India’s economy. This thesis will propose the urgent need to engage with a deeper understanding of rural to urban migrations by analyzing the complex interactions that link food and livelihood systems to consumption patterns and processes of land-use and environmental change. The aim of the thesis is to make policy and planning recommendations on how to include small scale farmers in economic growth.

Proposed Development with Rural Industralization

Focus on Rural and Urban Development

More money directly to farmers, urban consumer pays less

Farming productivity

Increases and more equitable development for rural is created

Short ended transportation time, more economic and social opportunities between urban and rural access to machinery, seeds, and fertilizers to rural farmers

Rural areas receive inputs for storing, processing, and transporting raw materials to urban areas

Road networks improve between urban and rural sites of production more targeted production due to transparency from the consumers, less waste, more population reached

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