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People in settlements need food, raw materials, and relaxation, the gaining of all of which involves exploiting the natural resources of the vicinity. The supply chains of modern cities are extensive and complex. Equally, urban demands affect land cover beyond their immediate vicinity, settlement expansion thus involves both a compact direct change in land cover and a widespread force affecting land cover and land use in other areas. Agriculture occupies a curiously paradoxical situation with respect to the natural environment. Despite the declining role of land in farm input structure in many regions, the increasing importance of capital for inputs in non-farm origins and the emergence of highly specialized ´factory´ farms, agriculture continues to retain a strong link with the biophysical environment. The present study tries to study the agricultural activity in the surrounding Census Divisions of Montreal Metropolitan Region.

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Shahab Fazal is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Aligarh Muslim University, India. He has published ten books and forty research articles in various national and international journals of repute. He was also recipient of prestigious post doctoral fellowships sponsored by German, Canadian and British Governments.

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