WE REITERATE, by way of returning to last Friday's Senate debate, that there is a pressing need to rationalise land use in this country as a significant national development issue.Senator Norman Grant, in moving a motion for government to refrain from further construction of housing schemes on agricultural lands, gave a parish by parish listing from STATIN of the acreages of farm lands which have fallen out of production. Nearly a half of the arable land area in the country is not now being used for agricultural production. When it is considered that most of the island's mountainous interior is unsuitable for agriculture, the large-scale non-use of what is available is an even greater cause for concern.
Given that agriculture has been in a state of steady decline for decades in terms of acreage under cultivation, volumes of produce, and contribution to GDP, unless there are short to medium-term plans to return these idle lands to farming, then we are just allowing sentiment to override practicality if we insist on keeping them labelled "agricultural lands". Many of the same features which make flat land with access to water desirable for agriculture make the same area ideal for housing development. A balance has to be struck. But the growing non-use of land for agriculture hardly helps to strengthen the argument that housing developments should back off.
Of course, several factors have contributed to the decline of agriculture, with praedial larceny probably heading the list. But the availability of irrigation water, access to credit, market conditions, plus a general shift in economic activity, must also be taken into account. The heyday of agriculture as the linchpin of the economy is past, but the point is well-taken that land suitable for agriculture should not be lightly diverted to other purposes. The problem is how to get those lands back into production as viable operations to meet market demands competitively.
We have already noted that Mr. Grant's proposed solution of diverting into agriculture a portion of the tax collected from former agricultural lands now being used for residential and commercial purposes is too simplistic to be really useful. But an integrated land use policy will not be easy to come by.
Although Government moved some years ago to create a national land agency, elements of the land portfolio reside in the Ministries of land and environment, agriculture, and water and housing. A re-examination of this policy with a clear view to tightening and rationalising the management of these portfolio responsibilities, would be a step in the right direction.
