The main aim of this paper is to highlight the current landuse for Agriculture in the
area and the specific objectives were to identify different category of landuses. The
geo-referenced Google earth image of the area was digitized (on-screen) using
ArcGIS 9.3 version. GPS (Germin 76csx model) was used for the data collection in
the field the during the ground truthing. The GIS analysis shows that the total area
(sub-urban Lafia) covering 234.43km2
within the 15Km radius. The analysis for the
categories of landuse shows that uncultivated area 14.98km2
Built-up area 14.12km2
,
Natural Vegetation 64.64km2
and Agricultural/Cultivated area 140.69km2
. 95 copies
of questionnaires were administered to the respondents in the area. The result
revealed that about 40% for Agriculture, commercial with 32.63%, manufacturing
with 13.68% and 10.53% respectively, while mining with 3.16%. The distribution of
different landuses along the selected roads shows that Jos road’s main activity is
mining due to the availability of raw material and quarry sites located in the area.
Makurdi road’s main activities include Agriculture 26.7% and Commercial 33%.
Doma road also partakes in manufacturing and artisanal with 7.1% and 50% of
respondents engaged respectively. The respondents’ age by their landuse activities
shows that 66.7%, 0%, 26.7%, 6.7%, and 0% for agricultural, commercial, mining,
manufacturing, artisanal and services respectively. The age between 18-35years are
having more Agricultural lands than the ages between 51-65%.While males having
more lands than the females with 42 and 36% for Agriculture while the females
engaged in Commercials with about 45.5 and 25.8% respectively. It also shows that
income earn base on landuse activities, Agriculture having 50% while mining having
least paid. The paper concludes that Agriculture occupying more land followed by
Undisturbed land/Vegetation and there is need for proper database collection of the
lands for feature planning.