Kathmandu, January 27:

Legal and development experts today urged the government to come up with realistic and inclusive programmes of land reforms in context of globalisation.

Addressing an interaction programme organised by Community Self-Reliance Centre, the participants said the programmes of land reform failed to achieve its targets because of the lack of will power in the government.

Dina Mani Pokhrel, the legal officer at Action Aid Nepal, said that only through re-distribution of land, the target of land reformation could be achieved. “It is important to note that on the basis of equity and justice, we have to defy the interest of handful power centres and ensure social justice in Nepal. In this regard, it is important to build a national consensus for land reform marinating strong alliance with international justice and human right movements,” he said.

He added that progressive change in land policies and policy implementation can occur only through the interactions between different, often conflicting, key actors - rural social movements, policy experts and NGOs, as well as national government and academics.

A researcher at Martin Chautari, Dr Jagannath Adhikari, said that radical land reform should follow land to the tillers’ concept.

According to him, agriculture is going into the hands of big multinational companies, because of which the developing countries import more food than they expert and earn less from exporting.

As corporate companies enter developing countries, they grade land for commercial agriculture, destroy the environment and the burden is then left on the local population.

Thus, “Globalisation seems to present another threat on this regard.”

“Land ceiling needs to be fixed and available land should be purchased and distributed to the landless farmers. Land reform should entail not only land but also other resources like forest, pasture and water. For this, various institutional supports, like credit and infrastructure are also required.”

Spokesperson of Ministry for Land Reform and Management, Baburam Acharya, said that a new and well-defined land reform policy is needed in our country, which is applicable to the changing global context. “We often impose new policies through statements, which often fails. We have to seek ideas and experience from all stakeholders for better response,” he said.