LAND is a scarce as well as valuable resource in Bangladesh, one of the world's most densely populated countries. Meeting multi-dimentional needs -- constructing houses, developing roads, building embankments and other infrastructural facilities, setting up of industries and, above all, producing food and other crops -- creates the demand on a growing scale for land. As food security has, of late, emerged as a major concern, the issue of land use has come to the fore. The latest statistics on land use pattern do provide reasons for worries among the policymakers. Studies have found that nearly one per cent of the country's total agricultural land is lost annually to other activities. If this trend persists, there, as the experts have feared, would be no arable land 50 years after.

Under the circumstances, one might feel tempted to ask one pertinent question: How can all those claims on a scarce resource like land be met? It is a million dollar question to which there is no ready answer. With the country's population continuing to grow at about 1.5 per cent a year, there is also an increasing need for building more houses, roads and other facilities. It is hard to find any easy solution to the problem relating to proper and efficient use of land. However, the policymakers, unfortunately, have so far bothered the least about the land use that continues to be an important issue for the country's sustainable development. Thus, it took 30 years for the government to draft a land use policy that recognises the constraints concerning land use, taking the primordial need for promotion of its better use in the agricultural sector into consideration. Many factors, including declining land productivity due to unplanned and improper use of land, were highlighted in that policy, formulated as far back as in 2002. But the policy failed to draw a long-term vision about the land use and suggest ways of how to strike a balance, particularly between the needs for promoting industrial growth and for ensuring sustained agricultural development.

There is no denying that the country needs to produce enough food to feed its ever-increasing population. But, at the same time for economic sustainability and growth, it has to put increased emphasis on accelerating the pace of industrialisation. But the setting up of industries, big and small, haphazardly across the country only reflects an indifference to proper land management. Industries and other infrastructures need to be strategically located with a view to stopping misuse of land. This could be done through area-specific zoning for industries of all types. The new industrial units would need infrastructural supports, power plants, water management, gas supply, roads, residential facilities etc. A substantial area of land would be required for such purposes. However, this will be a very difficult task. For every inch of land in Bangladesh is occupied in one form or another.

The participants at the recent 'BBC Sanglap (dialogue)', organised in the city, highlighted the need for formulating an appropriate and balanced land management policy that would make room for industries to grow without affecting food production. To be honest, it be would hard to stop encroachment on arable land in a country where the land-man ratio is one of the lowest in the world. It is not that only future industries would make a claim on arable land. Acres after acres of agricultural lands would go on disappearing to accommodate the needs for housing and infrastructural facilities. The Food and Disaster Management Minister, who was present at the BBC Sanglap, said the government was aware of the need for putting in place a suitable land management policy. All concerned would expect that the government would formulate such a policy sooner than later. However, the proposed policy should put effective restrictions on setting up of industries beyond a specific area in every district. The use of agricultural land by the real estate developers does also need to be properly controlled. More importantly, all attention should be focused on increasing per-acre yield of food crops through the use of the latest technology and inputs.