Shrinking Agricultural Land and the Myth of Progress

A spectre is haunting Kashmir – the spectre of rapid conversion of agricultural fields into commercial and residential hubs. Concrete jungles are coming up at places which erstwhile used to be agricultural fields and represented an array of trees, crops, fruits and flowers. This is not just aesthetic damage, a mere loss of beauty or the conversion of the phenomenon of soothing beauty into scaring ugliness. But this issue concerns our economy, our food security, our survival & sustenance and the very future of our state. The statistical reports emerging are both shocking and alarming given the fact that the trend of regression suggested by this data raises severe issues on our food security, declining economy and vanishing self-sufficiency. “In 2012, Kashmir boasted approximately 1,62,309 hectares of land dedicated to paddy cultivation. Fast forward to 2023, and this area has shrunk dramatically by 33,309 hectares (6.5 lakh kanal), leaving a mere 1,29,000 hectares currently allocated for paddy cultivation” reads a report. In absence of any checks and regulatory authorities in place, the trend is expected to endanger the entire cultivation land in the UT and the short-term economic gains are sure to make people oblivious of the long term dangers accompanying the trend. The ration supplied by the government from its depots has witnessed a severe bottle-necking in the recent past and this has sharply spiked the demand for Kashmiri rice. But in the absence of sufficient output, in the wake of destruction of agricultural lands, is it any wonder that we may be standing at the cusp of food scarcity – a phenomenon which may make itself manifest sooner or later.

“If the conversion continues it would have serious repercussions in future. When there is no paddy land where will the future generation get food? It is a big question. The government needs to be more and more vigilant and put checks on the same,” Says Ghulam Qadir, an agriculturist from Pattan. When it comes to government vigilance, there has been a lot of hole-plugging and thorough investigation in matters seeking conversion of agricultural land into the commercial or residential one. But as residents of the same state, we are also witness, in our respective areas of observation, of the lapses and laxities performed by the authorities in allowing wholesale conversion of agricultural lands into the commercial and residential. Not only that, one is shocked to see houses and buildings cropping up on the Saffron yielding Karewa fields and fruit laden orchards and one is lost in the irony that these activities are carried under the impression of progress and development. Now this has explicit consequences not only in terms of poor agricultural produce, but has economic consequences too as Economic Survey Report  makes clear that unabated conversion of agricultural land in Jammu and Kashmir for non-agriculture purposes was making 60% of the State population poorer by the day. The number of families and individuals connected directly or indirectly with the agricultural sector is a whopping 60% of the population and the contribution of agriculture to the GSDP is pegged around 18% of the total GSDP. But in recent times, in the wake of shrinking agricultural lands, both the figures have ebbed, only aggravating the poverty and unemployment in the state.       

Now the problem can be approached from – Educational, Social and Legal perspectives. Unless people don’t properly understand the gruesome consequences of this unchecked urbanisation and the maddening conversion of agricultural lands into commercial and/or residential places, the process will go on unending, without any sense or fear of consequences. Media, in all its forms, can play a pivotal role in raising public awareness and press into the minds of people the consequences of their actions. On the social front, rapid proliferation of urbanisation and the growing menace of polluting green pastures needs to be plugged and people need to understand that behind the veneer of this so-called progress lie the roots of our decadence of economic depravity. The legal aspect which goes into the heart of the matter can’t be ignored and there is a dire and urgent need not only to reinforce the existing laws but to create new ones with a holistic vision so as not only to save this menace of encroachment of agricultural lands by buildings of one sort or the other, but to also save our agricultural resources for the future generations. In absence of these measures and the measure to check the destruction of agri-spaces, we are headed for doom and the day is not far.

• Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer

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