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| Picture clicked by Nandini Soondram |
Prime agricultural land is the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops. While we may argue that the vast expanse of land should be exploited for infrastructural usage and hence to boost the economic machineries, its preservation for ecological sustainability is primordial. For this contentious issue entails both positive and negative corollaries, an in-depth diagnosis would be required to strike a consensus.
To start with, taking care of millions of people who are starving is more important than saving natural resources, most of which are renewable anyway. We cannot expect developing nations such as Guinea and Togo to share the green concerns of developed countries when they are faced with dire poverty and a constant battle for survival. Moreover, if it is argued that agricultural land can be further developed to build a long-term business in the world facing famine and food crisis, often, these same lands are at risks of natural calamities, polluted water which leads to crop failures, climate change that can ultimately turn fertile fields into desert and flood coastal areas where hundreds of millions live. Developing countries have to choose apartments and offices if they want a future for their people.
As it is, economic development is vital for meeting the basic needs of the growing populations of developing countries. If we do not allow them to industrialize, these nations will not survive in the ferociously competitive economic world. And with evolving demographics, more space is naturally needed to accommodate the locals. At times, foreign direct investors cause a transhumance to a particular area, and the authorities are left with no choice than to build residential areas on the only available space.
The real issue is that we have limited resources for our unlimited wants and thus, preserving resources is tantamount to wasting them. India, for instance, despite having 60.3 % of arable agricultural land, felt the need to postulate ambitious diversification of its economy and went to create technological, entertainment and industrial pillars. It is important to not only concentrate on prime agriculture and attempt to integrate with the world map of global macro-economies. In so doing, the scenery of a country is changed and becomes fit of globalization. The upcoming generations are more open to the world and apt to become a global citizen as they are presented with an array of opportunities. Bringing forth offices means that the populace is boosted to adopt a white-collar lifestyle and hence education of children is emphasized and encouraged.
On the other hand, whilst living with the flow of present economic process, as a society, we cannot trivialize the ecological processes that are the very basis of a living planet. Ecologies are foundational and the loss of prime of agricultural land also means the loss of an important biodiversity which is not being conserved for future generations. The failure to understand this is one of the consequences of being drawn deeply into the economic designs that seem to more directly impact the safety and comfort of our home. No one wants to stop economic progress that could give millions better lives. But we must insist on sustainable development that combines environmental care, social justice and economic growth. Earth cannot support unrestricted growth. Companies in developed countries already have higher costs of production because of rules to protect the environment.
And if all prime agricultural land was to be replaced by apartments and offices, what would happen to our lives stocks? As such, solutions need to be found. Dennis Weaver’s ‘ecolonomical’ approach is a good starting point. Managing the available resources too, by an effective cohabitation of agriculture and infrastructure would be highly recommended. Several buildings in Singapore, for example, all the while accommodating a high population for its restricted land availability as consumers to drive its economy, also take care of cultivating plants and green spaces on their roof top through hydroponic gardens and greenhouses. As a matter of fact even, barren and infertile land may be used instead for infrastructural purposes and in extreme situations, the transplantation of the cultivation is also reliable.
Therefore, it is important to maintain natural resources in ways that are economically sound.