Stop the sprawl

This letter refers to the news report ‘Punjab mulls regulating commercial use of farmland’ (April 25, 2024). According to the report, in a recent ministerial meeting held in Punjab, some expressed concern over the rapid conversion of agricultural land surrounding cities into housing societies. I would tend to endorse this point of view. Our food crops and the all-important cotton crop require vast tracts of agricultural land whereas our expanding dairy farming and poultry farming sectors also require considerable amounts of rural lands to operate upon. We must invest and divert more financial resources towards agriculture as well as all those sectors which pertain to agriculture, such as dairy, fish, and poultry farming as well as the fertilizer industry.

Construction of mid-sized buildings, offering apartments, shops, and offices and small residential plots should be encouraged as opposed to the wholesale development of double story or triple story houses, minimizing the threat of further encroachment upon agricultural land. We could also take a look at how China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh are dealing with the onslaught of urbanization on their respective rural spectrums for ideas.

Abbas R Siddiqi

Lahore