Optimizing Land Use: Pathways to Sustainable Development in Assam

Abstract: Increasing growth of population pressurizes land and other resources for a variety of reasons. Since the demand for resources far outweighs their availability, therefore, the optimization of the use of such limited resources like land has become indispensable to defeat unwanted situations like unemployment, food scarcity, hunger, poverty and death. At the same time, it is equally important to adopt only those means of development which takes care of the health of our surrounding environment. This paper thus, makes a sincere attempt to (a) study the land use pattern in the state of Assam with the help of secondary data collected from sources like Directorate of Economics and Statistics and Reserve Bank of India; and tries to (b) justify whether the land-use pattern in the state complies with the goal of sustainable development of the region or not. By observing the nature of land usage for agricultural and/or non-agricultural purposes and further, by comparing the land productivity of Assam with that of other selected states of the country, the study envisages the need for optimizing land use in the state for achieving sustainable development.