The government is developing policies to safeguard agricultural land from increasing demand for housing and commercial development, as part of efforts to strengthen food security, Agriculture Minister Anthony Smith Jr. said.

Smith said competing demands for land have intensified in recent years, forcing the government to balance development needs with the protection of farmland.

“We have very limited lands… and the requests for lands… for housing and commercial purposes… the request is very high,” he said.

He said the ministry is working with technical teams to ensure that agricultural lands are preserved and used for production rather than being converted for other uses.

“We always have to try and strike that balance,” Smith said, noting that agriculture remains critical to national development.

As part of that effort, the government is considering policy measures to formally designate and protect farmland.

“We are trying to come up with policies in which we can lock agriculture lands right in,” he said.

Smith said the ministry’s approach also includes reassigning idle farmland to more productive farmers, rather than converting it to non-agricultural use.

“It’s not about the unproductive land, but it could be an unproductive farmer,” he said, adding that the goal is to ensure land remains in agriculture while improving output.

He noted that some areas historically designated for farming may be reassessed, but the overall policy direction is to retain sufficient land for agricultural production amid growing development pressures.

The move comes as the government seeks to expand local food production and reduce reliance on imports, while managing competing land use demands across the country.