Von Thunen's Theory Of Agricultural Land Use

Introduction

The von Thunen's model explains agricultural land use at a particular given location. It is also putting the spatial attention or importance of the economic factors rather than treating physical factors as the main forces. The distance from the market is the main factor that determines the economic rent, as it decreases with increasing distance from the market. On the other side Sinclair's model is explaining the agricultural pattern near modern urban areas. According to Sinclair's theory the intensity of production increases with increasing distance from the market. Urban fringe is referred to as a zone of transition in a particular land use, social and demographic characteristics which lies between the continuously built-up

His model is the reverse of the Von Thunen's model as he opposes some of his theories or assumptions. He suggested a ring which contains a vacant land around the city surrounded by areas that have an increasing rent and intensity with the distance from the market. He argued that in modern cities the uncertainty and speculations involved in the urban fringe developments are the major contributors in the rent gradient of agricultural land, which results in rent decreasing with distance from the market. In Sinclair's model when a farm is taken away from the urban development pressures there is a higher agricultural rent which yields capacity and intensity of production. In his theory the land uses that are more intensive are normally found on high-rent close to the city, in order to minimize the costs of transporting bulky perishable goods to the market. Farmers are normally nervous to invest capital and labor in the close to the market due to the urban uses that will outbid those of agriculture. Therefore, the sequence of agricultural use becomes less intensive close to the city and more intensive as you move away from the city. The rent curve is rising with the distance from the city as the influence of the city decreases. At the corners of the areas that are concentrated of buildings or built-up areas the land is either

The challenge that is normally encountered is increasing population growth, this means that there should be an increase of infrastructure to accommodate people. Most of the cities are expanding outwards while other are slightly considering an upward expansion. The new population which is mainly the working class immigrants have occupied places that are developed in the long ago and the people who use to stay in those places have migrated to urban areas. When people in the inner city are migrating to other areas, the buildings which they previously occupied are then neglected.

The South African cities should grow upwards because the land value is rapidly increasing. And as buildings are constructed upwards they occupy a small land area with a high population density. These buildings may contain grocery stores and other economic activities, where it will also decrease the transport costs to travel to stores for buying goods and seeking services. This can also minimize the effect of pollution as there will be less emissions of gases in the atmosphere. As cities grow in density, they will also grow vertically this is because the