Towns and Small Cities in Developing Countries

The strategy if Industrial growth poles initiated during the 1960s now seems to be neither appropriate nor sufficient to generate widespread development in developing countries. This paper discusses the importance of towns and small cities for developing hinterlands transforming subsistence into commercial agriculture and integrating urban and rural economies. Although cities have a strong influence on the development of their regions their areas of influence are clearly limited. Towns and small cities provide essential links of distribution and exchange between agricultural areas and urban centers. The growth of massive metropolitan areas in 3rd World countries has created serious economic and social problems. The effects of cities on villages and rural populations decline with increased distance thereby creating an uneven distribution of growth economy and improved access for the rural population to town-based services and facilities such as medical services banks and agricultural exchange. The absence of these essential services and facilities in small cities helps to create underdeveloped low-order settlements in rural regions. The linkage between towns and rural areas are therefore the primary channels through which rural populations derive their income. In addition investment in farm-to-market roads waterways small scale agroprocessing establishments and health and social services will help establish rural industrialization an important element for the development of towns and small cities.