Unplanned urbanisation and our endangered agriculture

Urbanization is a man-made manifestation as well as the outcome of modern science and technology based phenomenon. Precisely speaking, urbanization refers to a process in which an increasing proportion of population lives in the cities and their suburbs. In-depth researches and studies into the evolution of human civilization present us with some compelling proofs and evidences that manifestly delineate how the cave-based pre-historic men had gone through the stages of evolution to become civilized in the practical sense of the term over thousands of years. Though the very first phase or the early stage of civilization was founded on agriculture, the indomitable impulse of invention made humans no longer remain satisfied within the monotonous drudgery of agro-based rural life. The inventions and innovations of more and more appliances and tools coupled with instinctively innate inventive impulse drove primitive men to create newer amenities and comforts for a better life. Thus building urban facilities and infrastructures happen to become the primary demand as well as priority of the nascent civilized humans.
The foremost and core requirement of the urbanization process is obviously land. Unquestionably, land provides the base platform on which the urban facilities, infrastructures and superstructures are generally built. From the standpoint of utility and viability, land management or the planned use of land has to be given topmost priority in building a well-furnished, well-facilitated as well as people and eco-friendly modern city. At the beginning years of the urbanization process, land management was not that important because of miniature-size of the global population. With the gargantuan growth of the global population and the pressure of the sprawling industries across the globe, total urban management especially land management is increasingly becoming tougher and tougher day by day.
The challenges faced by the flourishing new big cities in new millennium especially the ones in the developing countries are too mounting to be met easily. In the backdrop of accommodating the gigantic-size of ever-increasing population and facilitating urbanization and industrialization in the developing countries, the total land mass especially the cropping land volume is being rampantly squeezing at a frustrating rate. So a thorough land use policy, in other words, a sustainable land management structure is, obviously, the most burning demand of the time. However, my point at issue is not all developing countries. Land use policy of Bangladesh is my specific case in point here. Before focusing on the picture of the latest land use situation, I would like to present a comparative study of the land use situation of the developed countries as well as developing ones.
To begin with, I would like to cite the land use statistics of the USA. In the last two centuries, the USA has been transformed from a predominantly rural agricultural country into an urbanized industrial one. This is largely due to the industrial revolution in the USA. In 1790, only one out of 20 Americans lived in the urban areas. But in 1870, one out of four lived in the cities dramatically. Again, one out of two Americans lived in the cities. Two out of three Americans lived in the cities in1960. Four out of five Americans lived in cities in 2000s. The western USA happens to become the most urbanized part of the USA. However, by far the highest impact on the American landscape comes not from urbanization. Surprisingly, only 5 percent land is used for urbanization. The enormous volume of land mass amounting to approximately 93% is used for farming/agriculture and building infrastructures as well as for other diversified uses. In Europe, 72 percent people now live in urban areas. 80 percent people of Europe will live in urban areas in 2020.
Some countries of Europe experience 90percent concentration of population in urban areas. Urban areas cover the bulk of the land mass. Farming in Europe is carried out on only a scanty volume of land. According to Ronan Uhel (head of spatial analysis-European Environment Agency), serious concern persists about Europe’s urban future. Indeed, the process of urbanization strikes at the root of the production bases - the land. But fortunately, population in almost all European countries is strictly limited. 89% people of Australia live in urban areas. However, a huge volume of land mass (approximately 55 percent land) is left open for agriculture. Moreover, the size of population of Australia is still far below the danger mark. The trend of urbanization in Asia is ever on the increase while the prospect of agriculture is quite bleak now. Although agriculture’s share in GDP is still the highest ones in most of the Asian countries, its importance and share are declining day by day.
Most of the Asian farming households are diversifying their agro-based incomes into industrial and business enterprises. For example, agriculture’s share in GDP in Thailand, a predominantly agro-based economy, has decreased from 36 percent in 1960 to only 10% in 2003. Similar are the cases with both India and Pakistan. To sum up, we see everywhere cropping hotbeds are under grave threats either because of rampant urbanization and industrialization or because of the diversified uses of agricultural lands. Only a few countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, etc. can be singled out as instances of optimism because these countries still hold out the assurances of food security. Canada and Australia along with the USA are still included in the list of highest wheat producing countries of the globe. However, a grim picture will overshadow our expectations if we view the whole gamut of the global agricultural scenario in the context of the global climate changes.     
Finally, let us switch to the main focus of my today’s write-up: the rushing trend of urbanization and industrialization as against the prevailing practices of land use in Bangladesh which threaten our already vulnerable agriculture. The risks and the hazards to our agriculture are to be viewed by placing together the proportional interactions between two cardinal determinants—the existing land use practices and the trend of urbanization in the perspective of population growth. Bangladesh traditionally occupies a position in the list of world’s most-densely populated countries and present population growth rate, though not alarming, is far from being satisfactory.
But population growth does not matter most here if we can redouble our agricultural production and that it is quite possible providing we curb the unbridled trend of unplanned urbanization. Bangladesh is proverbially blessed with a vast volume of alluvium-rich floodplains which undeniably holds out the assurance of food autarky if we can protect and conserve them for cultivation. But, in reality, the overall picture of our land use situation surely presents a very ghastly look. Let us have a quick look at the current land use scenario. 59 percent land volume is used for agriculture whereas shrimp and fisheries take13 percent land volume while wetlands and forest cover 13 percent and 11 percent land volume respectively. Urbanization and other uses consume 17 percent of the total land volume. Why can’t we limit our urbanization band wagon within 5 percent to 7 percent land volume? It is again quite possible provided we go ahead in all earnestness on the basis of a well-advised and well-thought-out city planning. The heart of any sensitive person will simply bleed seeing vast volumes of fertile croplands are being leased out or sold out to the private firms or companies either to develop or to use them for other non-agricultural uses. In fact, we can neither opt for import-based food policy nor can we embark upon an over-ambitious project of industrialization at the cost of infinitely fertile croplands. In the context of the adverse effects of global climate changes, many agricultural products exporting countries have already closed their export-schedule.
So, it will be far wiser to preserve and mobilize our alluvium-rich croplands for feeding our teeming millions. It is a matter of utmost concern that currently we lose 1 percent cultivable cropland every year. If an approximately 60 times larger country, the USA, can limit its hugely colossal urban activities within only 5 percent of its total land mass only through a concrete and long-term city planning, it is also possible in the case of Bangladesh. Those who think it impossible simply live under illusion. Undoubtedly, planned urbanization is a gigantic undertaking still it is possible if we are motivated by great patriotic zeal placing the interest of the country and our future generation above everything else. The sooner it is, the better it is for all concerned especially for the future generation.       

The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogra Cantonment Public School & College

 

Unplanned urbanisation and our endangered agriculture

Urbanization is a man-made manifestation as well as the outcome of modern science and technology based phenomenon. Precisely speaking, urbanization refers to a process in which an increasing proportion of population lives in the cities and their suburbs. In-depth researches and studies into the evolution of human civilization present us with some compelling proofs and evidences that manifestly delineate how the cave-based pre-historic men had gone through the stages of evolution to become civilized in the practical sense of the term over thousands of years. Though the very first phase or the early stage of civilization was founded on agriculture, the indomitable impulse of invention made humans no longer remain satisfied within the monotonous drudgery of agro-based rural life. The inventions and innovations of more and more appliances and tools coupled with instinctively innate inventive impulse drove primitive men to create newer amenities and comforts for a better life. Thus building urban facilities and infrastructures happen to become the primary demand as well as priority of the nascent civilized humans. The foremost and core requirement of the urbanization process is obviously land. Unquestionably, land provides the base platform on which the urban facilities, infrastructures and superstructures are generally built. From the standpoint of utility and viability, land management or the planned use of land has to be given topmost priority in building a well-furnished, well-facilitated as well as people and eco-friendly modern city. At the beginning years of the urbanization process, land management was not that important because of miniature-size of the global population. With the gargantuan growth of the global population and the pressure of the sprawling industries across the globe, total urban management especially land management is increasingly becoming tougher and tougher day by day. The challenges faced by the flourishing new big cities in new millennium especially the ones in the developing countries are too mounting to be met easily. In the backdrop of accommodating the gigantic-size of ever-increasing population and facilitating urbanization and industrialization in the developing countries, the total land mass especially the cropping land volume is being rampantly squeezing at a frustrating rate. So a thorough land use policy, in other words, a sustainable land management structure is, obviously, the most burning demand of the time. However, my point at issue is not all developing countries. Land use policy of Bangladesh is my specific case in point here. Before focusing on the picture of the latest land use situation, I would like to present a comparative study of the land use situation of the developed countries as well as developing ones. To begin with, I would like to cite the land use statistics of the USA. In the last two centuries, the USA has been transformed from a predominantly rural agricultural country into an urbanized industrial one. This is largely due to the industrial revolution in the USA. In 1790, only one out of 20 Americans lived in the urban areas. But in 1870, one out of four lived in the cities dramatically. Again, one out of two Americans lived in the cities. Two out of three Americans lived in the cities in1960. Four out of five Americans lived in cities in 2000s. The western USA happens to become the most urbanized part of the USA. However, by far the highest impact on the American landscape comes not from urbanization. Surprisingly, only 5 percent land is used for urbanization. The enormous volume of land mass amounting to approximately 93% is used for farming/agriculture and building infrastructures as well as for other diversified uses. In Europe, 72 percent people now live in urban areas. 80 percent people of Europe will live in urban areas in 2020. Some countries of Europe experience 90percent concentration of population in urban areas. Urban areas cover the bulk of the land mass. Farming in Europe is carried out on only a scanty volume of land. According to Ronan Uhel (head of spatial analysis-European Environment Agency), serious concern persists about Europes urban future. Indeed, the process of urbanization strikes at the root of the production bases - the land. But fortunately, population in almost all European countries is strictly limited. 89% people of Australia live in urban areas. However, a huge volume of land mass (approximately 55 percent land) is left open for agriculture. Moreover, the size of population of Australia is still far below the danger mark. The trend of urbanization in Asia is ever on the increase while the prospect of agriculture is quite bleak now. Although agricultures share in GDP is still the highest ones in most of the Asian countries, its importance and share are declining day by day. Most of the Asian farming households are diversifying their agro-based incomes into industrial and business enterprises. For example, agricultures share in GDP in Thailand, a predominantly agro-based economy, has decreased from 36 percent in 1960 to only 10% in 2003. Similar are the cases with both India and Pakistan. To sum up, we see everywhere cropping hotbeds are under grave threats either because of rampant urbanization and industrialization or because of the diversified uses of agricultural lands. Only a few countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, etc. can be singled out as instances of optimism because these countries still hold out the assurances of food security. Canada and Australia along with the USA are still included in the list of highest wheat producing countries of the globe. However, a grim picture will overshadow our expectations if we view the whole gamut of the global agricultural scenario in the context of the global climate changes. Finally, let us switch to the main focus of my todays write-up: the rushing trend of urbanization and industrialization as against the prevailing practices of land use in Bangladesh which threaten our already vulnerable agriculture. The risks and the hazards to our agriculture are to be viewed by placing together the proportional interactions between two cardinal determinantsthe existing land use practices and the trend of urbanization in the perspective of population growth. Bangladesh traditionally occupies a position in the list of worlds most-densely populated countries and present population growth rate, though not alarming, is far from being satisfactory. But population growth does not matter most here if we can redouble our agricultural production and that it is quite possible providing we curb the unbridled trend of unplanned urbanization. Bangladesh is proverbially blessed with a vast volume of alluvium-rich floodplains which undeniably holds out the assurance of food autarky if we can protect and conserve them for cultivation. But, in reality, the overall picture of our land use situation surely presents a very ghastly look. Let us have a quick look at the current land use scenario. 59 percent land volume is used for agriculture whereas shrimp and fisheries take13 percent land volume while wetlands and forest cover 13 percent and 11 percent land volume respectively. Urbanization and other uses consume 17 percent of the total land volume. Why cant we limit our urbanization band wagon within 5 percent to 7 percent land volume? It is again quite possible provided we go ahead in all earnestness on the basis of a well-advised and well-thought-out city planning. The heart of any sensitive person will simply bleed seeing vast volumes of fertile croplands are being leased out or sold out to the private firms or companies either to develop or to use them for other non-agricultural uses. In fact, we can neither opt for import-based food policy nor can we embark upon an over-ambitious project of industrialization at the cost of infinitely fertile croplands. In the context of the adverse effects of global climate changes, many agricultural products exporting countries have already closed their export-schedule. So, it will be far wiser to preserve and mobilize our alluvium-rich croplands for feeding our teeming millions. It is a matter of utmost concern that currently we lose 1 percent cultivable cropland every year. If an approximately 60 times larger country, the USA, can limit its hugely colossal urban activities within only 5 percent of its total land mass only through a concrete and long-term city planning, it is also possible in the case of Bangladesh. Those who think it impossible simply live under illusion. Undoubtedly, planned urbanization is a gigantic undertaking still it is possible if we are motivated by great patriotic zeal placing the interest of the country and our future generation above everything else. The sooner it is, the better it is for all concerned especially for the future generation. The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogra Cantonment Public School College