The main objective of the paper is to examine the effects of urban sprawl on peripheral agricultural
lands in Calabar, Nigeria. The study assessed the influence of sprawl on farm sizes and densities in
peripheral lands. Five sprawl areas were purposively chosen for the study. The areas were classified
into agricultural lands within sprawl and agricultural lands outside sprawl. Thus, the research
compared the sizes and proximity of 10 farmlands within sprawl and 10 farmlands outside sprawl and
the diversity of crops between the farms. The mean numbers of the variables, the Shannon Weiner
diversity index was used to determine the sprawl diversity of the sprawl formations and the paired
samples student t-test was employed for the data analysis. Significant variation in the sizes and
densities of farms between agricultural lands within sprawl and agricultural lands outside sprawl were
observed. Maximum farm densities of 2.6m were obtained in agricultural lands outside sprawl and International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2012), 68-76 69
agricultural lands within sprawl had maximum densities of 0.1m. The study has implication for the
sustainability of farmlands in peripheral land and recommends the integration of agricultural lands
into urban land use planning for efficient management and protection of the dwindling farm space.