7 Ways By Which We Increase Effective Supply Of Land

To achieve the Narendra Modi-led central government's target of 'Housing for All by 2022', better utilisation of land is important. This is why industry experts propose that the government streamline land records and implement major reforms to increase the supply of land.

Here are seven ways by which we can make the most of the land we have:

Improving agricultural yield

The world has long been producing more food than we need. This is because agricultural yield has been rising in the several past decades. In fact, we need less land to feed the same number of people today. For example, the land that yielded 25 bushels of wheat in 1950 produces 50 bushels today. So long as countries across the world are willing to adopt modern technology, the land needed for farming will become much less. Everything, from machines to fertilisers, has improved the yield. This has also allowed people to engage in other pursuits which has increased the economic value of land, freeing up as much land for building houses and office spaces as possible.

Refrigeration

It is difficult for many people to imagine how refrigeration can increase the economic value of land. Despite the assumption that modern food is not very fresh, the concept of fresh food is relatively recent. It was difficult to maintain the “freshness” of food in the past, because refrigeration and other modern technologies did not exist. In the past, we needed more land to produce food because it quickly became rotten and worthless. The effect of refrigeration is the same as that of increasing the supply of land.

Bridges

Bridges and similar physical structures have effectively increased the supply of land by uniting disjointed masses of land. When land masses are separated by a river or sea, bridges connect them. When a bridge is built, such geographical liabilities even become assets because people are able to move more quickly from one part of a city to another. The land that was previously inhabited by people suddenly becomes valuable.

Better means of transportation

The world is larger than we think. According to Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, everybody on earth can fit into Texas, with a personal townhouse for each. But, instead of occupying all the land on earth, people prefer to live where other people are. This is why land in cities is very expensive. So, scarcity of land was never a pressing problem after all. What people wanted was urban land. It was modern means of transportation, such as trains and automobiles, that increased the supply of urban land. Instead of too many people living at a walkable distance from the city centre, now more people can afford to live far away. This effectively increases the supply of land.

Computers

Computers have drastically cut down the need for paper. People do not need to cut down as many trees as they did in the past. They do not need to grow trees to be cut down to be turned into paper. This frees up more land for housing.

Internet

The Internet allows many of us to work remotely, and to coordinate in work-related and personal matters more easily. This increases personal mobility, allowing more people to live where they prefer to. Writer Pankaj Mishra, for example, lives in Mashobra, a small town in Shimla, for six months every year. If modern technology did not exist, land in Mashobra would not have been worth much for Mishra.

Ideas

Today, people are more moral and intellectually refined. In many different ways, this increases the effective supply of land. For example, people realise the value of living in a city more than ever. So, more and more people move to cities, freeing up land elsewhere. The tendency is so pronounced that much of the world will be urban in the next few decades. Modern technology is an offshoot of moral and intellectual refinement. Much of the advancements in technology would not have happened without the advent of capitalism and industrial revolution. Skyscrapers allow more and more people to live and work on a certain plot of land. Elevators, electricity, and modern methods of construction have played a very important role in all this. The Empire State building in New York City allows over 3,400 people to work on a plot where about 100 people would have otherwise worked. We have the technology to house more people, and build taller. What we need today is wider acceptance of economically informed policies.