District fast losing its agricultural land

ALLAHABAD: Increasing population coupled with rapid urbanisation has spelt havoc as far as availability of cultivable land in the district is concerned. If official figures are to be believed there has been a decline of over 40 per cent in the area of agricultural land in the past decade.
Expressing concern over the district fast acquiring the shape of a concrete jungle, environmentalists have warned that if remedial measures are not initiated forthwith, there would be a steep decline in agricultural production in the district which would manifest itself in hoarding, black marketing and rise in prices of foodgrains as well as vegetables.
Attributing the lack of cultivable land to unchecked use of chemical fertilisers and insecticides, director of Bioved Research Institute, Dr BK Dwivedi felt that chemical fertilisers are a bane for healthy cultivation. Apart from yielding crops harmful for human consumption, these fertilisers add to the area of barren land annually which presently stands around two lakh hectare.
He pointed out that several projects undertaken by the World Bank for reclamation of barren land have proved highly insufficient as the use of chemical fertilisers was far more rampant in the district in comparison to efforts for soil conservation by government agencies as well as the World Bank.
Dwivedi advocated a blanket ban on sale of chemical fertilisers as he informed that indirect consumption of fertiliser residue was the primary reason behind increasing stomach ailments, not to mention renal failures, liver and heart diseases.
Meanwhile, official records indicate that cultivable land in the district which stood around 5.5 lakh hectares in the mid 90s had been reduced to merely 2.75 lakh hectares presently.
Deputy director (land conservation department) had several reasons to offer for the decline in the area of cultivable land. He maintained that uncertain monsoons with floods ravaging one part of the district while the other end suffering from drought adversely affected the interest of farming community in agriculture. Instead, farmers have taken to alternative measures of gardening or leasing out their agricultural land for commercial purposes while the land owners themselves engaged in other activities for earning, he added.
In addition, with the concept of nuclear family gaining popularity in the rural areas as well, large areas of agricultural land are being divided and sub-divided with the family head opting for engaging in commercial activity instead of going in for agricultural use of the piece of land.