Delineation of Rural Hinterland

Advantages / Limitations:

Areas of a district or province which are not well integrated into the network are usually characterised by a low level production, mostly subsistence agriculture, a low level of trade, low level of farm input supply and low social mobility. They suffer under transportation costs. The time budget of farmers is drastically effected by long distances they have to cover. Market opportunities are not easily realised and the isolated working and living conditions reduce mobility and innovation. Understanding where these areas are and how they can be helped ensures that a better integration of activities is undertaken in order to tap the existing potentials. Areas of the district which are well integrated into the interaction network by the physical road system are the locations of higher ordered services, facilities, small scale industries and market thresholds and locational advantages for the effective production and distribution. Once again knowing where these areas are and how they can be better served are further advantages of using the technique.

Main disadvantage of the tool is that it is quite a time consuming exercise the result of which merely provides an overview of what is available. Subjective impressions of the quality of data can be misleading at first sight. The need to update the rating scala with increasing knowledgeof the situation becomes all the more important.