of the family members is connected with agriculture and they have no arable land now. This is the case with all cultivable lands across the country. The agricultural lands are declining rapidly. In absence of the necessary government steps, the agricultural lands are being used for housing and industrial purposes by changing the class. The researchers and experts said the way the agricultural lands are decreasing, the country will face acute shortage of arable land and food within 10 years. The country’s dependence on imported food will rise resulting in rush of farmers towards the cities. The lanes and by-lanes of cities will be infested with slums. The officials concerned said there is no law in the country to protect the agricultural land. Similarly, there is no provision in the land management laws to take steps against changing the class of land from agricultural to residential and industrial one. It has been learnt the lands are used in the planned ways in the European countries. Only farmers can buy lands in Karnataka, Maharastra, Gujrat and Himachal states. Besides, in Hariana, the government’s permission is needed to use agricultural land for other purposes. In Bangladesh, in 2010, the parliamentary standing committee on planning ministry placed a 10-point recommendation including formulating law to protect the cultivation land. But the recommendations are yet to be implemented. A report of the committee said the country is losing 3,000 hectares of agricultural lands every year. If the situation continues, the country will lose all agricultural lands within 10 years. A report of Bangladesh Development Study said the country has been losing 225 hectares of lands per day. Meanwhile, a research paper of Centre for Policy Dialogue shows that 2 lakh acres of cultivable lands are declining every year. The way agricultural lands are vanishing Unplanned urbanisation, indiscriminate industrialisation and housing projects are responsible for shrinkage of agricultural lands. Some other researches said erosion of river and construction of brick fields and roads are aggravating the situation. On the other hand, prwan cultivation in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and other areas in the southern region are responsible for fall in cultivable land. According to a report of 2001, the highway was 3,086 kilometer which has become double now. Agricultural lands are fading away in Savar, Keraniganj, Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Gazipur and Manikganj for construction of mills and industries. Landowners sold their lands on coercion Imanuddin Mandal, a resident of textile industry’s centre Baburhat under Narsingdi, said they have no land except the homestead right now. He claimed that his ancestors had 60 bighas of land. “We did not buy rice, dal and vegetable from market in 100 years. But, we had to sell our lands due to pressure by the industry owners.” An on- the-spot visit shows that some textile industries have been set up on agricultural lands at Shilmondi village of Narsingdi. Similarly, Chandan Roy, a resident of Sonmandi village under Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj, said they had huge chunk of land in the past. But they are surviving by working in the factory, after selling cultivation lands. A report of Department of Environment said brick factories have been constructed on 50,000 acres of lands across the country. A huge quantity of 13 crore tons of mud is being used for making bricks in those fields. As a result, 11,000 hectares of lands lay uncultivated. A report of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) one thousand hectares of land is devoured by river erosion every year. If this process continues, about 3,575 square kilometres of land will go to river bed by 2015, of which 50 percent is arable land. According to information of Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), 2,766 hectares in 2007, 2,178 hectares in 2008 and 1,655 hectares in 2010 of land were devoured by the rivers. Sources of the Agriculture Extension Department said 17,968 hectares in Chittagong division, 15,945 hectares in Rajshahi division, 15,131 hectares in Dhaka division, 11,096 hectares in Khulna division, 8,781 hectares in Rangpur division and 6,661 hectares in Barisal division turned into un-arable land. There are no effective laws in the country to protect agricultural land. Most of the laws are paper-based. Government had taken an initiative to formulate National Land Use and Development Act in 2010 but it was not implemented yet. When asked State Minister for Agriculture Saifuzzaman Javed told Kaler Kontho, “A national policy will be finalized in current fiscal for ensuring coordinated use of land. Work has been going on to separate agriculture, industry, fish, development and housing sector under the policy.” On the other hand, Assistant Commissioner (Land) said actually Land Management Law is used only to collect land development tax. Classification of land is mentioned in the toll receipt of owner. Md Shamsul Arif, AC Land of Aminbazar Revenue Circle of Savar told Kaler Kontho, “Nobody can change the category of river, canal, khal, beel and roads according to the Land Management Law. Concerned Deputy Commissioner (DC) will take measure if the category of land changes naturally. There is no direct law against category change of agriculture land so the Deputy Commissioners can give permission to change the category of land.” CPD Executive Director Mostafizur Rahman told Kaler Kontho, “It is very much alarming that agricultural lands are shrinking. It is very tough to protect such land because population of the country has been increasing rapidly. For protecting agricultural land zoning system should be implemented.” Prof Dr Sarwar Zahan, DURP, BUET said, “The main cause of declining of agriculture land in large scale is unplanned use of land. Effective policy should be formulated for using the agricultural land. Otherwise we cannot protect our agricultural land.” Dr Sarwar Zahan said, “Some 80 lakh Bangladeshi citizens have been working in different countries across the globe. They remitted about 15000 crore dollars to Bangladesh. Most of the money has been used to purchase land which was used to construct buildings causing shrinkage of agricultural land of the country.”
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Arable lands shrinking rapidly for lack of steps:Daily Sun
of the family members is connected with agriculture and they have no arable land now. This is the case with all cultivable lands across the country. The agricultural lands are declining rapidly. In absence of the necessary government steps, the agricultural lands are being used for housing and industrial purposes by changing the class. The researchers and experts said the way the agricultural lands are decreasing, the country will face acute shortage of arable land and food within 10 years. The country’s dependence on imported food will rise resulting in rush of farmers towards the cities. The lanes and by-lanes of cities will be infested with slums. The officials concerned said there is no law in the country to protect the agricultural land. Similarly, there is no provision in the land management laws to take steps against changing the class of land from agricultural to residential and industrial one. It has been learnt the lands are used in the planned ways in the European countries. Only farmers can buy lands in Karnataka, Maharastra, Gujrat and Himachal states. Besides, in Hariana, the government’s permission is needed to use agricultural land for other purposes. In Bangladesh, in 2010, the parliamentary standing committee on planning ministry placed a 10-point recommendation including formulating law to protect the cultivation land. But the recommendations are yet to be implemented. A report of the committee said the country is losing 3,000 hectares of agricultural lands every year. If the situation continues, the country will lose all agricultural lands within 10 years. A report of Bangladesh Development Study said the country has been losing 225 hectares of lands per day. Meanwhile, a research paper of Centre for Policy Dialogue shows that 2 lakh acres of cultivable lands are declining every year. The way agricultural lands are vanishing Unplanned urbanisation, indiscriminate industrialisation and housing projects are responsible for shrinkage of agricultural lands. Some other researches said erosion of river and construction of brick fields and roads are aggravating the situation. On the other hand, prwan cultivation in Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and other areas in the southern region are responsible for fall in cultivable land. According to a report of 2001, the highway was 3,086 kilometer which has become double now. Agricultural lands are fading away in Savar, Keraniganj, Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Gazipur and Manikganj for construction of mills and industries. Landowners sold their lands on coercion Imanuddin Mandal, a resident of textile industry’s centre Baburhat under Narsingdi, said they have no land except the homestead right now. He claimed that his ancestors had 60 bighas of land. “We did not buy rice, dal and vegetable from market in 100 years. But, we had to sell our lands due to pressure by the industry owners.” An on- the-spot visit shows that some textile industries have been set up on agricultural lands at Shilmondi village of Narsingdi. Similarly, Chandan Roy, a resident of Sonmandi village under Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj, said they had huge chunk of land in the past. But they are surviving by working in the factory, after selling cultivation lands. A report of Department of Environment said brick factories have been constructed on 50,000 acres of lands across the country. A huge quantity of 13 crore tons of mud is being used for making bricks in those fields. As a result, 11,000 hectares of lands lay uncultivated. A report of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) one thousand hectares of land is devoured by river erosion every year. If this process continues, about 3,575 square kilometres of land will go to river bed by 2015, of which 50 percent is arable land. According to information of Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), 2,766 hectares in 2007, 2,178 hectares in 2008 and 1,655 hectares in 2010 of land were devoured by the rivers. Sources of the Agriculture Extension Department said 17,968 hectares in Chittagong division, 15,945 hectares in Rajshahi division, 15,131 hectares in Dhaka division, 11,096 hectares in Khulna division, 8,781 hectares in Rangpur division and 6,661 hectares in Barisal division turned into un-arable land. There are no effective laws in the country to protect agricultural land. Most of the laws are paper-based. Government had taken an initiative to formulate National Land Use and Development Act in 2010 but it was not implemented yet. When asked State Minister for Agriculture Saifuzzaman Javed told Kaler Kontho, “A national policy will be finalized in current fiscal for ensuring coordinated use of land. Work has been going on to separate agriculture, industry, fish, development and housing sector under the policy.” On the other hand, Assistant Commissioner (Land) said actually Land Management Law is used only to collect land development tax. Classification of land is mentioned in the toll receipt of owner. Md Shamsul Arif, AC Land of Aminbazar Revenue Circle of Savar told Kaler Kontho, “Nobody can change the category of river, canal, khal, beel and roads according to the Land Management Law. Concerned Deputy Commissioner (DC) will take measure if the category of land changes naturally. There is no direct law against category change of agriculture land so the Deputy Commissioners can give permission to change the category of land.” CPD Executive Director Mostafizur Rahman told Kaler Kontho, “It is very much alarming that agricultural lands are shrinking. It is very tough to protect such land because population of the country has been increasing rapidly. For protecting agricultural land zoning system should be implemented.” Prof Dr Sarwar Zahan, DURP, BUET said, “The main cause of declining of agriculture land in large scale is unplanned use of land. Effective policy should be formulated for using the agricultural land. Otherwise we cannot protect our agricultural land.” Dr Sarwar Zahan said, “Some 80 lakh Bangladeshi citizens have been working in different countries across the globe. They remitted about 15000 crore dollars to Bangladesh. Most of the money has been used to purchase land which was used to construct buildings causing shrinkage of agricultural land of the country.”
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