THE land minister’s directive for divisional commissioners to prevent any unauthorised use of arable land for housing, industrial or other commercial purposes is welcome. The minister at a divisional commissioners’ coordination meeting on April 18 also asked for strict action against any unauthorised dirt-filling and the cutting of the topsoil. In a decade, as the Agricultural Census 2019 says, the net cultivable land declined by 2 per cent, or 4.16 lakh acres, to 1.86 crore acres from 1.9 crore acres in 2008. In Sylhet, the agriculture office record shows that farmland is declining by 0.25 per cent, or 45 hectares, every year. Forty-five hectares of farmland are going to the non-agricultural sector every year. Because of unplanned industrialisation, lack of the enforcement of land use laws and the degradation of land productivity because of climate change or environmentally-insensitive development projects, farmland is rapidly shrinking and marginal and small farmers are the first to lose access to agricultural land. Since independence, about 82 per cent of the farmers have lost their land because of various reasons. The land minister’s assurance for a law to regulate land use and protect agricultural land is, therefore, welcome.

Unplanned industrialisation and unauthorised use of farmland for commercial purposes have been a public concern as the economy is still largely dependent on agricultural production. The ambiguities in the land use law and lack of enforcement are a reason for the shrinking agricultural land. A law is, therefore, a first step towards improved land governance. However, a law alone, as the Association for Land Reform and Development says, cannot prevent the destruction of arable land. There are many reported incidents in which influential quarters use agricultural land for commercial purposes, flouting laws and regulations and the authorities look the other way. The loss of topsoil to illegal brick kilns is a public knowledge. An earlier study suggests that an estimated 25 billion pieces of bricks are conventionally manufactured every year by damaging 100 million tonnes of topsoil and more than 17 per cent of the topsoil lost to brick kilns. Not only has the government failed to address the use of farmland for commercial purposes, but it has also often taken up development projects destroying arable land.

The government must, therefore, take the issue of rapidly declining agricultural land and associated risks of food insecurity seriously. It must also take early steps to amend laws and rework policies, but a law must be made in consultation with all the stakeholders concerned. More important, the government must take action against industrial establishments and brick kilns illegally built on agricultural land. It must review its own land use policy to stop its development projects that destroy farmland and damage the environment.