GROWING URBANIZATION

GROWING URBANIZATION

Estimates reveal that 80% of our urban population would be living in urban centres by 2050. Not a good news from the environment angle. Urbanisation means more concrete and less green; more pollution and less water ; more crowd with less space ; more poverty and hunger.

The urbanites have neither space for cultivation nor water. Every one of them desire to sit inside a cubicle and get connected with the world through invisible wires. They tend to believe that everything is available on 'net'. It is true today one can place orders for apple fruits  or Apple systems over net. But we have to think who would cultivate the crores of acres of lands around the globe if everyone prefers  a white collar job. Also it is feared we may lose our lands for this growing concrete jungles and left with minimum for cultivation.  The humanity has to realise in the name of a new world we should not lose our original world.

Suggestions for checking the growth of urbanisation

• Fix  remunerative prices for vegetables, fruits,grains  and all items that are cultivated by farmers
• Recognise agriculture as an industry and extend all help to the sector
• Declare at least one person from each farmer's  family as ' government servant' and pay him /her salary  
• Ensure the farmer gets a decent shelter, health care, insurance against his life and his crops
• Ensure pension for farmers who are  attaining  the age of  65 
• Ban the conversion of agriculture lands into  factories/residential projects/industrial purposes
• Buy the products on harvest and don't burden the farmers with the cost of storage 
• Reduce  the burden of farmers by asking them to pay for ware houses 
• Reduce their transportation  by planning the distribution of grains wisely and  reduce wastage of  grains
• Don't  encroach their rights to cultivate their choice crops and monopolise cultivation by asking them to have only rice/wheat. People have survived with a variety of grains for millenniums     
• Discourage farmers from using chemicals as fertilizers and pesticides 
• Make arrangement for providing quality education for all,  related to their field of operation
• Ban the purchase of cultivable lands by non- farmers
• As lands can neither produced nor consumed ensure they are not treated as 'products' from markets or shares of companies
• Provide water and  energy absolutely free. 
• Give financial support monthly to all farm labourers who own no  piece of land

These suggestions and many more will keep the rural populace from migrating to urban centres and ensure food security to the estimated 10 billion people who will occupy this planet by 2050.

But a still easier solution lies in controlling the aggressive growth of population.