Rural-Urban Relations in Rural Regions: The Case of Coffee and Non-Coffee Growing Regions in the Central and south Western Ethiopia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the nature and magnitude of
rural - urban linkages in Robe and Limu Kossa weredas of the Oromiya region of
Ethiopia. It was motivated by the belief that sustainable development requires a
symbiotic development of both rural alld urban areas and was also grounded 011 the
assumptions of the virtuous circle model of rural-urban linkages. Individual data were
usedfromfa'71l and urban households and survey a/urban traders. It was/aund that the
farm sector in the study areas showed cOl/sump/ioll linkages in terms of expenditures for
urban goods and selected social services. The hinterlands also showed limited
marketing Ii~kages in the sales of rural products to small towns. Similarly, urban
households also showed some linkages in the form of purchase of rural products.
Most of ihe expected linkages such as input, financial and processing . linkages,
however, did not exist between hinterlands and small towns. The virtuous circle model
of rural-urban linkage received partial support while a truncated linkage fitted well
with the study sites. The subsistence nature of the rural economy, the administrative
roles of the towns, the activities of some state organizations and the lack of economic
infrastructure that attract further investment in the towns were some of the reasons for
the truncated pallel'lls of linkages observed in the stllflY areas. Policy implications that
may be related to the strengthening of rllral- urban linkages in the study sites call for
the provision of infrastructure such as electricity and water supply to support
processing activities and financial sector reform to increase rural peoples' access to
banking services. The study also envisages that encouraging private traders to
participate in input delivelY, increasing the labor absorption capacity of towns and
.' ii;zprovillg the production capacity of rural areas which may strengthen the linkages
"~between small towns alld rural areas .