Both rural and urban settlements interact or cooperate with one another in many ways, I have previously written a post on the classification of settlements, today I am going to discuss and describe their interrelationships.
- The rural areas grow food which they supply to urban areas, while the latter act as collecting and marketing centres or agricultural produce from the surrounding villages. This is known as agricultural interaction or cooperation.
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- Urban centres have factories which process the raw materials obtained from the surrounding rural areas or buy goods in bulk from importers and sell them to rural dwellers. On the other hand, rural settlements offer the market for the products manufactured, produced or purchased in bulk by the urban centres. We call this industrial and trade interaction.
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There are also *social services and employment interaction. Urban centres supply to rural dwellers such specialized services as higher education, specialized medicare, professional services and employment opportunities, while rural areas reciprocate by offering farming services and the services of the lower income groups like nightwatchmen, labourers, domestic servants and in some cases, miners, to the urban areas.
Also workers living in the villages around commute daily to work in the urban areas. On the other hand, some urban dwellers travel to rural areas to work on their farms or in small agro-based industries.Recreational interrelationship also exists between rural and urban dwellers. Rural dwellers go to the town to enjoy the big football matches and other entertainment functions, recreational or cultural facilities. Similarly, urban dwellers travel to the nearby rural areas on holiday, or for recreation, sightseeing, weekend relaxation and social functions. An example here in my country is the movement of city dwellers to villages during Christmas, New Yam and other festivities.
Villages supply the population that makes the towns grow, while the towns, on their part, absorb the surplus and underemployed population from the villages.
An urban area, like a state capital or a local government headquarters, offer political and administrative services to the rural settlements in that political unit. The rural dwellers, in turn, pay their taxes which help to sustain facilities in the urban areas.
Conclusion
Rural settlements are just as important as urban settlements, for their continuous existence they need each other.
Reference
Avoudi, Simin & Stead Dominic. (2002). Urban-Rural Relationships: An Introduction and Brief History. Built Environment (1978-). 28. 268-277. 10.2307/23287748.