The vanishing arable lands

A  Sheikh of a Gulf country had once spent over Tk 20 million to grow only two mango trees in the compound of his palace in Abu Dhabi. He took two saplings from Bangladesh and engaged one gardener from Noakhali district to tend the saplings. The gardener used to get Tk 100,000 a month as wage. His only job in the UAE was to look after those two mango trees! This story was conveyed to this writer by a senior Bangladeshi journalist who had worked for the Emirates News.
Bangladesh's soil produces miracles. Just throw a seed into it and see a green tree or a paddy plant growing on its own naturally without any further care. It is indeed the nature's precious gift to Bangladeshis that they have one of the most fertile lands on earth. Trees grow luxuriantly and grass covers the whole of a homestead if not cut regularly.   
But sadly, none now bothers about the gift of nature as hundreds of acres of fertile lands are being damaged and destroyed every year with no governmental authority in place to oversee their protection and preservation.
Today, fertile lands are being bought by expatriate workers earning foreign currency to fill those up and build houses despite the fact that there is enough space on their homesteads to construct those. They want to scale newer heights in so-called social status by going for concrete buildings on independent farm lands that once produced bumper harvests of paddy or which were used to cultivate vegetables fetching good returns for them.
The expatriate workers are not alone in the pillage of fertile farmlands. Unplanned small factories are being set up on filled-up farm lands while unimaginative leaders of local bodies build, on fertile lands, roads that could be relocated to other suitable areas without destroying the lands that lay 'golden eggs'.
A recent study found Bangladesh losing 0.3 per cent of cultivable land each year due to massive urbanisation, industrialisation and new roads. The country had 9.2 million hectares of farm lands, according to an agriculture census conducted in 1983-84. It came down to 8.2 million hectares in the census of 1996, providing ground for the claim that the country loses 1 per cent of cultivable land annually.
Well-known agro-economist Dr Mahabub Hossain says between 1983-84 and 2008, cultivable land decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 per cent.
"It is an important piece of information, as various issues such as food security hinge on the availability of land," he said. He quite rightly urged the government to conduct a detailed research to find out the quantity of land available in the country for agriculture.
He made the demand at a workshop. Dr Hossain said farmers must be given fair prices and some incentives, otherwise they would not feel encouraged to grow enough rice for the consumers in the cities.
The Bangladesh economy in fact has made respectable progress in rice, tripping production from 11 million tonnes in 1971 to 33 million in 2012. Low prices of food in global markets should not make the country's policy-makers complacent as there might be a repeat of 2007 crisis when even neighbouring India had refused to export cereals to Bangladesh. Rapid climate changes are likely to affect the world food production.
Experts have recommended setting up of a national commission to supply credible data for farm sector. "How can we plan if we do not have effective census data?" Dr Hossain asked. "There should be a framework so that we can get credible information."
The food ministry and the agriculture ministry are always at odds over statistics over rice production in the country.
The food ministry tries to say that there is a shortage in staple food. So it wants to import to narrow the demand and the supply. On the other hand, the agriculture ministry tries to prove that there is enough rice production to meet the national demand.
That the government is aware of huge loss of fertile lands due to unplanned housing and other unnecessary establishments is evident from Finance Minister AMA Muhith's 2015-16 budget speech.
Mr Muhith highlighted the personal initiative of the Prime Minister in taking up a project to build low-cost rural township with modern urban facilities on 3.75 acres of land each in 7 areas of 7 divisions. Each township with 4-storied residential buildings having 272 flats in four categories will accommodate 272 families.
"These projects will pioneer the development of rural housing in future. Instead of building new towns, we have taken up plans to increase civic amenities in rural areas. There is no alternative to this policy in a country so densely populated," he said.
With such housing projects on the cards, it is now the pressing need of the hour for the government to stop further destruction of fertile lands through the elected Upazila Parishads and Union Parishads which can instead be assigned to monitor misuse of farmlands in their respective areas.
A tough law should also be enacted for awarding punishment to those who buy fertile agricultural lands only to fill those up for unproductive uses. Concerted efforts of all are needed to remove such threats to future food security of the country. City state Singapore having no agricultural lands can never be cited as the model for Bangladesh to follow.  
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