1 URBAN PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AS A THREAT TO URBAN AGRICULTURE IN METROPOLITAN KANO BY Ibrahim M. Dankani (Ph.D.) Department of Geography Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (email. imdankani@hotmail.com 08035051925-08098681925) & Murtala M. Badamasi Department of Geography Bayero University, Kano Abstract: This paper examines the threat of physical growth of town and cities on urban agriculture. Towns expand outward at the expense of any vacant or agricultural land. There exist vast fertile land within urban areas that are being utilized for urban food production but these areas are prone to change in land-use (from agricultural to any form of higher order urban land use) due to demand for land for constructional purposes. A total of 138 urban farmers were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed using tables showing frequencies and percentage, following each table was the descriptive analysis of findings. The major findings of the study shows that urban farmers faces series of pressure from different actors in urban development which ultimately resulted in loss of farmlands, employment, decline in farming activities and increase in the level of urban poverty. Furthermore, the study discovers that planning regulation is the major factor militating against effective urban agriculture in metropolitan Kano. The study concludes by recommending ways to enhance urban agriculture in the study area. 1.0: Introduction: The physical expansion of town and cities is a common phenomenon in urban areas. This development brings about redistribution of activities and land uses. As town or cities expands, they do that at the expense of agricultural land use, pushing land for agricultural uses continuously to the periphery or urban fringes. It is important to stress here that; there exist fertile agricultural land within urban areas that the urban poor use to keep them in gainful employment and to produce food to feed the ever increasing urban populace. This activity is referred to as Urban Agriculture. Urban agriculture is an industry located within (intra-urban) or on the fringe (peri-urban) of a town, a city or a metropolis, which grows and raises, processes and distributes a diversity of food and non-food products, using largely human and natural resources, products and services found in and around that urban area, and in turn supplying human and material resources, products and services largely to that urban area. Urban agriculture is not a new phenomenon in Kano (Olofin et , al. , 1997). It began long before the 1960s in some parts of the city, and became widespread after the general economic downturn in the late 1980s, when the urban poor