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Conversion of Agricultural Land to Non-agricultural Uses in Bangladesh: Extent and Determinants

MD ABUL QUASEM *
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Bangladesh is a land scarce country where per capita cultivated land is only 12.5 decimals. It is claimed that every year about one per cent of farm land in the country is being converted to non- agricultural uses (such high rate of conversion will not only hamper agricultural production but will have adverse impact on food security). The present study estimates the rate of land conversion and consequent loss of agricultural production of the country besides determining the factors affecting such conversion. The study is based mainly on field survey covering 24 villages from six divisions of the country Annual Conversion of farm land is estimated to be 0.56 per cent and the country’s loss of rice production is also estimated to be between 0.86 and 1.16 per cent. The converted land is predominantly used for construction of houses, followed by roads and establishment of business enterprises. The land poor records higher rate of land conversion. The two principal determining factors for such conversion are found to be land ownership size of a household and the non-agricultural occupation of household heads. To arrest the existing rate of land conversion, the surveyed households suggest for more profitable rates of return from farming activities besides imposing special sales tax for conversion of farm land.

Keywords: Conversion, Agricultural Land, Crop production

Location: Raipur, Jamalganj, Sadarpur, Mohadevpur, Kaliganj and Sharup Kathi

Start Date: 00-00-2001

End Date: 00-00-2008

Program Area: Resource Development and Management

Commodity: Land management

Objectives:

i. To estimate annual conversion of agricultural land to non-agriculture and consequent loss of crop production during the eight year period of 2001 to 2008.

ii. To investigate into the present pattern of non-agricultural uses of the converted land.

iii.To determine the factors affecting such conversion of agricultural land to non- agriculture.

iv. To suggest suitable policy measures towards protection of farm land in the country.

Methodology:

The study was based primarily on a field survey carried out in 24 villages spread over in all six administrative divisions of the country i.e. four in each division. In each division besides the city localities one district town and in that selected district, one Upazilla town was selected purposively. The selected district was Laxmipur in the Chittaging division and Sunamganj from Sylhet, Faridpur from Dhaka, Naogaon from Rajshahi, Jhenaidah from Khulna and Pirojpur from Barisal Division. The Upazillas selected in those districts were respectively Raipur, Jamalganj, Sadarpur, Mohadevpur, Kaliganj and Sharup Kathi. In each of the selected Upazillas another set of six villages in rural areas was also included in the survey to compare the extent of land conversion in actual rural areas vis-avis urban conditions at every level of the City, District and Upazilla, termed as Metro village, Urban village, Peri-urban village respectively. The name of the village and their locations. The selection of villages for field survey at the outskirts of the cities and towns was quite complex as we first had to capture the area potential for urban expansion and industrialization that existed eight year s ago keeping in mind the level of land conversion that took place during the study period of early 2001 to end 2008. To understand the recent trend in the changes in land use, the selected villages should have the normal access to the cities and towns leaving at present 20 to 30 per cent of the village area under agriculture indicating that there is still scope for land conversion to non-agriculture. It also suggests that eight years back there was no limitation to land conversion as far as land availability w as concerned. Furthermore, the villages should not be of very much low-lying topography that was abnormally flooded that might restrict land conversion. So, for the selection of representative villages at the outskirt of each category of town, one needs to visit several villages around all the selected towns and consult several groups of urban and peri-urban dwellers to understand the previous situations. In the selection of rural villages care was also taken to cover very similar to the one selected near the Upazilla centre. In each of the selected villages 25 households were selected at random from the list of resident farmers, prepared earlier by the Sub-Assistant Agricultural Officers (SAAO) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). The enlisted farmers were found to include predominantly the resident land owners of different sizes. These households were interviewed following a structured questionnaire that contains household information relating to area owned and its uses, size of the family, occupation of the household head, amount of land converted in the last 8 years from January 2001 to December 2008, current non-agriculture uses of converted land, loss of agriculture production, changes in the levels of food security, causes of land conversion, etc. The household survey was conducted in July-September 2009. It may be mentioned that in each division four villages were selected fo which three were located at the outskirt of the city, district town and Upazilla town and another was the rural village. In all these villages in a division 100 households were interviewed totaling to 600 in the six divisions of Bangladesh.

Source of Information: Bangladesh Development Studies, Vol. XXXIV, PP 59-85, No. 1, March 2011

Article Link (Online Journal): http://www.bids.org.bd/bds/34/34-1/04quasem.pdf

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The study finds that during the eight year period of 2001 to 2008 annual conversion of agricultural land amounts to 0.56 per cent against the earlier reported figure of about one per cent. Highest rate of conversion was noted in Dhaka division (1.45 per cent) and the least in Khulna (0.26 per cent). In such conversion, 42 per cent of land owner households were involved. Among the different land ownership groups maximum rate of conversion was recorded among the functionally landless households (2.86 per cent per year) and the least was in the large land owners group, (0.20 per cent). The main non-agricultural uses of converted land were identified to be housing, road construction, business establishment and educational and health organizations occupying 55,10,8 and 3 per cent of the converted land respectively, with little variations among the five land owners hip groups. Converted land under self- ownership was predominantly used in housing to the extent of 78 per cent but it was as high as 89 per cent in urban villages. The coverage by housing in the case of sold out land was lower (30 per cent). Based on the current estimated rate of conversion (0.56 per cent per year), annual loss of rice production in Bangladesh amounts to 0.23 million tons or 0.86 per cent of the country’s annual rice production. Similar exercise using loss of paddy (0.8 maund) per land owner household, total amount of loss of rice comes to 0.302 million tons or about 1.16 per cent. Information available indicate that the conversion of land benefits the converter households in terms of both higher house hold income and improved level of food security. But the estimate of actual consumption of rice, flour and pulses was found to be almost equal. Improvement in the food security among the converter households was reportedly due to higher non-agricultural income, facilitated by expansion of business.

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