Urban-rural Linkage

Migration is a common phenomenon that reflects the relationship between the regions, including rural and urban relationship. Urban migration phenomenon is a public response due to the expectations, that is improving the welfare of the people who migrate. In the other word, rural-urban migration will continue during the gap occurred between villages and towns. The gap between villages and towns will continue to widen in many developing countries and increase the flow of migration processes (speed up processes) from rural to urban.  Due to the concentration of growth are spatially confined to metropolitan cities, so that the capacity of the city to accommodate and provide employment, facilities, and various forms of services will be very limited. This situation causes major cities which is being the destination of migration will be over-urbanization, that is urbanization processes have rate exceeds that the capacity of the town. Consequently, many migration suffered illness occurred as a result of urban migration, for example congestion, severe pollution, increasing slums,  poor sanitation, declining health, crime, and much more. This condition will decrease the productivity of  people in urban area.  In the end, towns and villages trapped in weaken relationships, not strengthen relationships (reinforcing each other).

In a country that relatively mature, balanced development between urban regions and rural planning has become a necessity and needs. Rural area is a very important area for planned development. Many rural areas that experiencing population growth and economic growth, but its development leads to slums problem. Whereas, rural have relatively wider space but because it is not well planned, so the development will be unplanned. For example, the road network and infrastructure systems being not well planned.

Many people think that building a village is the way transforming the village into the city. On the other hand there is also a view that poverty and rural underdevelopment is a fairness, and believes that progress is only in cities. For people who want to get ahead, only city that could provide welfare. So the question is there any chance for a future prosperous rural society without having to move to the city? Is it possible all of the village will be turned into the city? View that all villages eventually became the city is a naive view. So that we must give hope that rural life can be promising prosperity and on the other word, village should be able to be a place that can offer prosperity to its people. It means welfare of rural communities should be achieved without having to migrate to the cities or to transform the village into the city.

There is a view that the rural only as a place for the primary sector of agriculture and natural resource management course. Whereas urban with all urbanism unsure and all elements related to non-agricultural activities. In fact, the productivity of the primary sectors of agriculture is relatively low and less likely to be able to create welfare society. Therefore, in view of the development of rural and urban most recently today, the relationship villages and towns are always placed in the linkage relationship is inseparable and mutually reinforcing one other.  Rural and the city are inseparable from the structure of the global economy.

Thus urban-rural linkages are a form of physical linkages, economic, social institutional, and technological. Of all urban-rural linkages, ease physical relationship in the transport sector will increase the intensity of the relationship between urban and rural areas. In solving the problem of rural urban linkages there are things to be done on a national level, as well as at regional and local level. Right policy can only be formulated to effectively and appropriately when followed with a good understanding on the structure of the relationship and the resource system of rural and urban. Thought to promote the village by opening the isolation of the village to the city through the development of infrastructure such as roads connecting villages and towns, can be a wrong thought. On the one hand, this policy can facilitate the villagers to access resources in the city, on the other hand can also improve access to the city to the village. The city access to the village can be more dominant than the villagers access to the city will lead to exploitative relationships. Thus access can increase the potential for exploitation of the village example ease of converted land functioned as an investment target for example the construction of the villa. If the road was built mainly to transport agricultural products and facilitate access of the villagers are not very high frequency, it is not necessarily the best option is to build wide roads. This is appropriate when applied in agropolitan village.

Development of the village into the agropolitan should have agriculture remained dominant until the agroprosessing level. Settlement arrangements should not converge, but spread on a minimal scale that can be served by infrastructure services such as electricity, drinking water, or telecommunications. The infrastructure available to serve the needs of the community to develop their farm to the processing activity. Good accessibility by road construction arrangement in accordance with the grade required, eg inter-village roads and rural roads to the main road.

Agropolitan development is an attempt to shorten the distance between rural communities in the agricultural center with urban industrial areas. Thus agropolitan service-oriented needs of people in rural areas that are expected to improve the welfare of farmers in rural communities. Agropolitan could usher in achieving the ultimate goal of creating an independent and autonomous regions so it expected to minimize the dependence on urban areas. Agropolitan development aimed at increasing agricultural production and sales of agricultural products, support the growth of agro-processing industries small scale to medium and encourage diversity of economic activity in the market.

Agropolitan is the appropriate approach to regional potential. each village has a different potential. The village is not necessarily synonymous with agriculture on farm. Village protected areas with low fertility that is not suitable for agropolitan type, can be highlighted as eco-tourism.