Wasiu Ogunboye Alabi

In the history of Ibadan, it has been difficult to disentangle the rural from the urban. Urban-rural interface covers a multitude of flow of goods, services, capital, and people between the heartland and the hinterland. The development of cities in Third World countries has stressed these relationships. However, little has been documented historically on the urban-rural food supply system and marketing in Ibadan, the largest indigenous city in tropical Africa. Against this background, this study examines urban-rural interface in Ibadan in the context of social relations, urban food supply, and marketing systems between 1900-1999. In specific terms, it identifies and discusses the roles of key actors in entrenching cultural commodities, staple food production, and marketing. It also examines the impact of agricultural food policies, social class, gender, ethnicity, transport, and remittances on the urban food supply, rural income, employment, productivity, and urban consumption.