Problems faced by the Agricultural Lands in Punjab

Pakistan is famous for its Agricultural exports.Punjab is one of the main provinces contributing to these exports.It has great options for agricultural land available.Many agricultural lands are rented as well as bought as investment purpose in Punjab because of this.To rent a specific plot, some of the main platforms that provide these kinds of services in Pakistan areRealProperty andLamudi.Another option can be to contact real estate agentslike Abdullahestates.However, before making a huge investment, one should be aware of all the problems that are faced by farmers and owners of Land in Punjab.Wasted LandIt remains a fact that 60% of the entire land in Pakistan is agricultural land. However, merely 2-3% of that land is used for agriculture and cultivation, whereas the rest stands wasted.Out of the total land area of 80 million hectares, barely 21 million hectares is cultivable.The land wastage issue stems from waterlogging, salinity, industrialization, lack of transportation ofmachinery and difficult terrain.Lack of crop rotationThe concept of crop rotation entails growing different varieties of crops sequentially, while giving the land due breaks in between so that the land is revitalized with nutrients instead of becoming devoid of them.Lack of proper agricultural training and knowledge amongst local farmers has rendered crop rotation rarely practiced in Pakistan, leading to agricultural land and soil bereft of nutrients and fertility.Water Logging and SalinityThe salinity and waterlogging issues persist and every year 40,000 hectares of flooded area is lost to waterlogging and saltiness.From one perspective, the country needs more food and crop produce to sate its expanding populace while on the other hand, every year the Cultivable Commanded Area (CCA) is diminishing because of this tenacious threat that ruins soil.Even though waterlogging and salinity are curable issues, little effort is made to counter the problem in rural Punjab.Furthermore, in an extremely flood-prone zone like Punjab, especially Lahore that runs along the Ravi, constant renewed floods render every effort to counter these twin problems futile.ErosionThe production capacity of agricultural land is derived from the inherent properties of its soil. Erosion is a process that removes the top most layer of the soil and leaves the sub-soil exposed, thus altering its fertility and potential.Furthermore, erosion removes organic content from the soil including the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, iron and manganese levels.The capacity of the soil to retain water and the soil’s permeability is greatly diminished as the result of erosion. The only solution to making the soil structure resilient against erosion is ‘heavy manuring’.However, lack of suitable and imported manure in Pakistan and excessive use of substandard local manure makes soil prone to erosion.IndustrializationLastly, excessive industrialization in Punjab, especially an urban metropolis like Lahore is a pervading menace.This has not only given rise to uncontrollable pollution, but also illegal dumping of toxic waste in agricultural land and resulting in waste land due to deteriorating soil.Moreover, with a rise in industrialization, there is very little incentive for farmers and landlords to invest in the agricultural sector since businesses have proven to be more lucrative.November 2014Courtesy:Pakissan Report