| Issue 20 Vol I, July 31, 2006 | Archive |
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Policy needs on Land Resources of Punjab As more land comes under non agriculture use in Punjab, the need for a wholesome policy on limited land resources becomes the need of the hour. Sadly there is none. Whatever was there earlier had been given goodbye. Something like Canada’s land use boards which are independent judicial bodies and are out of the reach of the politicians and greedy real estate sharks is needed. Former professor of economics, Dr Joginder Singh stresses the urgency for a good law and proper implementation to save some land for farming in Punjab as the state does not have mineral resources. What is Punjab without its agriculture and sturdy farmers? The magnitude of agricultural activities largely depends upon the quantity and quality of land resource and the manner in which it is utilized. Land use has important ecological implications as well. For better economic utilization of land resources, the change from one land use to another is often made. However, many of such changes have detrimental effect on the environmental balance, i.e., conversion of pastures into agricultural land, industrial citing in prime agricultural area, increase in urbanization, unplanned infrastructures etc. It is, therefore, imperative that while formulating land use plans, the potential environmental conflicts between adjacent land use should be given due consideration. Punjab lacks in terms of minerals but having locational advantage of water availability, leveled land and hard working nature of farmers, virtually the entire land is made fit for agricultural purposes. Of the total geographical area of 5033 thousand hectares, about 84 per cent is the net area sown. The uncultivable and barren land, which was 208 thousand hectares in 1970-71 and only 96 thousand hectares in 1980-81, further declined to only 25 thousand hectares in 2004-05. Similarly, more and more of fallow land have been brought under cultivation. Since the area under plough has already touched the maximum level, very little scope is left for increasing agricultural production through horizontal expansion in area. The cultivable land excluding fallow land was 255 thousand hectare in 1960-61 but declined significantly to only 17 thousand hectare in 2004-05. Consequently, the fallow land has declined substantially over time. The land put to non-agricultural uses remained almost constant at little over 4 lakh hectares till 1980-81 but declined to 3.43 lakh hectares in 1990-91 due to fast increase in crop productivity of land and hence land rents. Recent fast urbanization has put pressure on agricultural land and thus 4.10 lakh hectares in 2000-01 and 4.58 lakh hectares was brought under non-agricultural uses in 2004-05. This has lead to spiral inflationary prices of real estate. The housing and infrastructure requirements are increasing due to population growth and economic development. The unplanned expansion of towns, especially due to immigration of population from other states of the country is likely to lead to further reduction in the cultivated area and create more urban slums. This calls for suitable well-planned urbanization with a housing policy so as to avoid the wastage of this natural resource and diversion of the most fertile land to non-agricultural uses. Cropping Intensity The fallow, uncultivated and barren land has gone down considerably. The other possible alternative of expansion was to increase the cropping intensity. The cropping intensity, which was merely 126 per cent in 1960-61, has gradually gone up to 189 per cent in 2004-05. The increase in cropping intensity and decline in uncultivable and barren land provides land with vegetative cover for most part of the year and is thus ecologically desirable as it helps to check the wind and water erosions. The scope of further expansion of area horizontally is extremely limited. On the other hand, some highly productive land is being covered by urbanization along the infrastructures. The vertical expansion of area, i.e., by increasing cropping intensity is still possible. For example, the land remains unutilized for about 2-3 months after the harvest of Rabi crops which can be used for green manuring and raising other short duration but leguminous crops like pulses and oilseeds. Rice-wheat system in low productivity areas of Punjab needs to be replaced by alternative less nutrient exhaustive crops through policy measures like providing quality seeds and ensuring procurement of such crops at reasonable prices. Forest cover To maintain the ecological balance, check soil erosion, meet the demand of timber and industry, provide firewood and shelter to the habitat and wild life, forests play an important role in the economy. In Punjab, there is no source of petroleum. The possibility of exploiting hydroelectric resources is also limited. Therefore, forests can go a long way to supplement the energy requirements. After reorganization of Punjab, only 1872 square kilometers of forestland came to the share of Indian Punjab, which accounted for only 3.72 per cent of geographical area of the state. A similar situation occurred in case of orchards. The National Forest Policy (1952, 1988) stressed that for proper maintenance of balance of nature and to meet the needs of development, 60 per cent of the total area in hills and 20 per cent in the plains should be under forest so that an overall average of 33 per cent is maintained. The area under forests in the state is increasing though at a slow pace but the existing 6 per cent area under forests is much less than the requirement for maintaining ecological balance. Furthermore, the forest area in the state is concentrated mainly in semi-hilly tracts of Hoshiarpur, Ropar and Gurdaspur districts. On the other hand, some districts like Fatehgarh Sahib and Moga have even less than one per cent area under forests. Though social forestry is not profitable as compared to common crops except in case of marginal lands, yet plantation along roads, rail tracts and river banks can be done more vigorously. The Kandi belt of the state has vast potential of plantation especially the traditional forest and fruit trees. The majority of farmers in this area are small and marginal and crop productivity is also very low. Infested with poverty these farmers cannot wait for a few years till the trees are ready for the market. Therefore, corpus fund for advancing cheap loans equal to the gestation period of trees is required to encourage agro-forestry in the area. The plantation at the public places should also be encouraged. |
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Honour for NDP MLA for Helping Women in Kuwait Election
Most women were from Pakistan, who honoured her for assisting the Kuwaiti women in the June 29 election. This was the first time in the history of the conservative society of Kuwait when women were allowed to vote and contest election. Being associated with the US based National Democratic Institute; Sue Hammell traveled to Kuwait to help female candidates. Although none of the 28 female candidates could win, Sue Hammell believes that this was a moral victory for women in an orthodox male dominated society that prevented them from voting until now. Women were granted the right to vote and run for political office in May 2005 after years of struggle. Having women participate in the electoral process is itself a victory’’, she says. She presented a slide show before the local Muslim women and the media that depicted the pictures of her historic tour. Being an experienced politician, she helped the female candidates in organizing fund raising events, training the volunteers and sending across the message to the voters. ``I was like a big sister to them’’. She remembered that there were some signs of hostilities from the male voters, but the female candidates were determined to make a history. In some cases, the female candidates ended up in the fourth of fifth position which is quite encouraging.’ However, Sue Hammell said that in the West too the women have miles to go in politics. ``We did not get the right to vote along with the men. We had to fight for this right in Canada as well. When women first contested election here, they were yelled at and tomato-ed too’’. |
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THE
New Democratic Party MLA from Surrey Green Timbers and the Deputy
Speaker in the BC assembly, Sue Hammell was honoured for helping women
in the Kuwait election last month. A Surrey based association of Muslim
women honoured her at a small but warm civic reception held on July 18.