ISLAMABAD: The housing societies in Pakistan are increasing annually at the cost of precious agricultural land. Currently, there are around 8,700 housing societies countrywide out of which 6,000 are not registered with the departments concerned and are operating illegally. The expansion of these housing societies has caused reduction in the agricultural land. As a result, the country is facing shortage and rising prices of the commodities.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing and Works told WealthPK that the alarming increase in the housing societies has caused shortage of agricultural land. There are over 8,000 housing societies across the country which are mostly illegal or are not registered with the department concerned. There are almost 150 housing societies in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, he added.
The rapid expansion of housing societies has reduced the agricultural land, causing shortage in the production of commodities, he said.
“A plan is under discussion to stop the expansion of housing societies in the country. To save the agricultural land, it is better to switch over from horizontal to vertical and high-rise buildings,” said the official.
Talking to WealthPK, Muhammad Akbar Khan, the owner of a private flour mill said there was a need for government intervention to stop further expansion of the housing societies and to save the agricultural land. He said there was a serious shortage of wheat, fruits and vegetables in the domestic market due to reduction in the agricultural land.
“People complain of a rapid increase in the flour price. This increase [in the flour price] is due to the shortage of wheat in the domestic market as well as shortage in the wheat import,” Akbar added.
Pleading anonymity, a female lecturer in economics at an Islamabad model college told WealthPK that Pakistan’s agricultural system has a greater contribution to exports and imports.
‘’A couple of years ago, Pakistan exported wheat, mango, rice, cotton, sugarcane etc to other countries but due to shortage of agricultural land, the exports of these commodities has changed to imports,’’ she said.
She said Pakistan exported 1400MT wheat in 2010, which decreased to 600MT and gradually it came to 500MT in 2020. So due to reduction in the agricultural land, Pakistan’s status has changed from a wheat exporter to wheat importer.
Patron-in-Chief All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters Importers and Merchants Association Mian Waheed said last year Pakistan’s mango export target was 80,000 tons but due to reduction in the agricultural land, Covid-19 upsurge and high tariffs, exports decreased to 70,000 ton for the current year.
In the past 10 years, cotton production has almost halved, as the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has reported, from 13.6 million bales in 2011/12 to about 7 million in 2020/21. During this period, the land used for cotton cultivation reduced from about 2.8 million hectares to 2.1 million hectares.
