Saneela Aslam
Agriculture land acquisition for housing schemes has had a great impact on the agriculture of Pakistan during the last decades. It creates a worrisome situation in the coming year. Pakistan agriculture is a major income source of households. In rural areas, 39% population is directly, indirectly engaged in the agriculture sector. This sector is a crucial economic element of the country. However, agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan. The heavy dependence of a large section of the population on agriculture in general and food crops growing, in particular, makes land conversion an issue that is a serious cause for concern. Land conversion is influenced by forces of supply of, and demand for, land, where supply or availability of land is fixed or limited, while demand is unlimited. That’s why land conversion is a critical issue that needs serious concerns. The rising population has a great demand to get nutritious, balanced, and safe food. The growth of the population is a burning issue and a major concern for policymakers, economists, and politicians. There is rising pressure for agricultural land conversion into residential land /housing societies. No doubt agriculture’s contribution to the Gross domestic product (GDP) is 18.6. This sector directly, indirectly contributes 70% of employment generation in Pakistan. The agriculture sector is not only the driver of the economy but also a means of livelihood for the majority of the rural population. Lands for agriculture purpose is reduced with the passage of time create an alarming situation for food security in near future. Housing societies have not only implications in cultivatable areas, but also in reducing crop production. Due to the agricultural land conversion policy majority of the population is suffering from the effects of the significant decline of locally grown fruits, cash crops, and vegetables. If this land-use policy is not changed, then the remaining agricultural land will also be used for urbanization. In the near future, there are more chances urban population suffers from food insecurity and severe environmental degradation and deterioration, and the living space for accommodation. One of the negative effects of agricultural land conversion into housing societies is that to fulfill the demand of the rising population, we will import agricultural products from other countries rather than export to different countries. Reduction in agricultural land has many inherent and associated further negative effects which include food inflation reduced agricultural exports although a major decline in foreign exchange. These things also have negative implications for inclusive economic growth. The negative impact of urbanization outweighs the positive impacts. There is a need of the hour to regulate the agricultural laws by focusing on the positive impacts and diminishing the negative impacts to attain the goal of sustainable agriculture development and sustained food production. Land conversion is dimensioning agriculture land and development is becoming a trend. There should be debate policy debate among different stakeholders to focus on the issue of land conversion and come up with a concrete solution to resolve this issue. There is the dire need for proper planning and management of the agricultural land, proper zoning, implementation of value tax, sustainable land conversion policy, well-defined development policy, sustainable land use planning, and development of a planning system with efficient implementation measures which itself guarantee a sustainable land use development and proper utilization of prime agriculture land.
