In Panvel, a city located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, land prices have witnessed a rise in the past few years. It is estimated that nearly 12 per cent of the agricultural land of this city, in the past six years, has been converted non-agricultural purposes. This is because when land prices are rising, the farmers do not have much of an incentive to hold on to their land. This fits in with a worldwide trend, too. Soon, if government laws do not stand in the way, agricultural activity may be restricted to rural area where land is cheap. Is there anything wrong in this? Certainly not. Even if agricultural land is declining, we are not losing much, because agricultural productivity has risen much in the past few decades. Moreover, much of the land on earth remains idle. Even if agricultural land in Mumbai is converted for other purposes, there is still incomparably more land elsewhere in India, and the world.

SHANU