Alarming loss of farmlands
AS per a study carried out recently by an economics professor of Dhaka University, the country is losing nearly 2,100 bighas (1 bigha = 33 decimals) of land per day. That translates into 700,000 bighas lost over the course of a decade since 2003. In a country with a massive population of over 160 million people, this is hardly good news. While we may have attained self-sufficiency in food production, the loss of precious farmland in the absence of a land use law opens up opportunities for misuse of this extremely precious resource. With no demarcation of land, i.e. zoning, farmlands are being lost at an alarming rate. According to the study, 80 percent has been gobbled up by housing projects with about 17 percent going to make up for infrastructure that is ancillary to residential areas by way of schooling, communication and so on.
Cropland is also being diverted to non-traditional farming such as growing of tobacco and shrimp farming. Shrimp cultivation alone has become a major headache for environment as it requires infusion of salt water that has taken a massive toll in the southern districts of Bangladesh where large tracts of land have lost productivity altogether. These are some of the problems that beset policymakers. With large corporate bodies vying for farmland for conversion into commercial projects, not only are we looking at long-term loss of food production, but also an increasing trend of landless among the marginalised farming communities. Time has surely arrived to formulate a law that will protect farmlands from being grabbed and utilised for other purposes.
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