Land is there for us to put to good use, to produce, feed, and give us a sense of belonging.
But land has also been the cause of many a political and family dispute. Land is also why countries have gone to war.
History is replete with such narratives — a king invades a neighbouring country to acquire land to expand his empire, or the more recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict over Israeli’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In recent years, land has been classified as agricultural, residential, farm, commercial and idle.
This Leader’s focus is on idle land and why it cannot be left to remain as such. Idle land is horrible to a country’s image. It’s akin to land degradation, and this is already happening — deforestation, water-logging, mining and overgrazing.
Idle land — which stems mostly from ownership dispute and shortage of workers to till the land — has also led to it being exploited for commercial purposes, an unhealthy trend that needs to be curbed.
Available statistics (2014) from the Agriculture Department show there are 119,273ha of idle land suitable for agriculture nationwide.
They include Malay Reserve Land, Malay Customary Land, Malay Land Holdings and wakaf land.
Additionally, figures quoted by the Minerals and Geoscience Department show some 300,000ha of ex-mining land are idle, while 24,000ha wakaf land are undeveloped according to the National Waqaf Foundation (2016).
Why are we chopping down trees, but not cultivating idle land? Idle land is testament to poor-work ethics. Put idle land to good use. Plant vegetables and fruits that can be harvested within a short period. Have vegetable patches in areas where the land is not suited for padi. Or, plant pineapples, bananas — they can grow anywhere.
In Hulu Langat, there is a cemetery reserve that the kampung folk have taken to grow bananas.
There is plenty of empty land in kampung around the city that has been put to good use.
Planting crops is very up the food security street. The output can help slash our food import bill that now runs into billions of ringgit. The Agriculture Department’s Idle Land Development Programme encourages farmers to cultivate idle land to increase their income and the nation’s food production capacity.
But more can be done. The government may want to incentivise kampung folks and subsidise towards a sustainable food security policy.
Advisory agro-agencies may be set up to encourage vegetable gardens and animal husbandry for household consumption.
They can also be the gamechanger to share agriculture know-how with the populace via the media instead of some obscure website.
So, keep the forests — tropical jungles are awesome; check out the East-West Highway, or the scenic Rawang Bypass — but not the bushes, weeds or creepers.
The countryside should be filled with crops. The mark of a country is the things that we do for it which define it.
Respect the land and its harvest for they will be the legacy of future generations.
The land that we till will help preserve our landscape and inspire our young with work ethics that can last them for generations.
A nation that destroys its soils (land) destroys itself — Franklin D. Roosevelt.