At least one percent of agricultural land is being wasted in Bangladesh every year because of unplanned urbanisation and development works. This is posing a serious threat to the country’s food security. Besides, huge lands are being used in rural areas for making homesteads and laws are needed to regulate such construction of houses, which would help protect cultivable lands. We need to develop our economy but the preservation of ecology and protection of the environment from degradation during the implementation of development projects is equally important.
Experts said that the loss of agricultural land would not help boost production and the department concerned must find a proper solution to resolve the problems. The government should introduce the community living system in certain rural areas like European countries. Before it, a law is needed and the law should be applied strictly. Hence, we can save our arable lands and production will increase. Our land is very limited — if the loss rate is crossed two percent per annum, it would create a major impact on the country’s food security.
The government took up many projects for the country’s economic progress, but many of them created adverse impacts on the country’s environment too. Roads and rail lines are being constructed on some fertile arable lands in the country. No doubt, we need such developments –but it should be kept in mind that there will be no ecological problems following the projects. If arable lands are destroyed in the name of development projects — it would create a serious threat to food security in the future.
There will be no cultivable land left in Bangladesh in 50 years if the process of taking away farmland for non-farm purposes at the current annual rate continues. If the trend is not reversed now, the country would permanently lose its food security, making its poor population more vulnerable to volatile international commodity prices. The worrisome decline of arable lands will further increase the current volatility of the prices of commodities. We must be calculative and strategic in using our arable lands and urbanisation.
