Lawmakers call for making laws banning changing cultivable land to non-agricultural

KATHMANDU: Lawmakers of the House of Representatives (HoR) have stressed the need to include the issue of taking initiatives to recommend a special law so that agricultural land cannot be converted into non-agricultural land in the National Agriculture Policy-2025.

They were speaking in today’s meeting of the Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee under the HoR on the theme ‘Discussions and Collection of Necessary Suggestions on Agriculture Policy, which is in the formulation stage at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development’.

Saraswati Subba said agriculture was becoming women-dominated and stressed the need for focusing on women-friendly policies in terms of technology and grants.

Meena Tamang stressed the need of providing necessary support to the private sector to ensure market for agricultural commodities in the agriculture policy.

Surya Prasad Dhakal emphasized on formulating integrated agriculture act on the basis of agriculture policy so that real farmers are respected.

Rupa Soshi Chaudhary opined that a policy should be formulated to encourage and prioritize domestic agricultural production by strengthening the agricultural market.

Committee President Kusum Devi Thapa shared that the committee was collecting suggestions after holding detailed discussions with the concerned bodies as the Integrated Agriculture Act would be formulated on the basis of the agriculture policy.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the agriculture sector contributes 24.12 percent to Nepal’s GDP while 50.1 percent of the economically active population is engaged in the agriculture sector.

Overall, the average annual growth rate of the agriculture sector in the last three decades has been around 3 per cent. Most of the country’s farmers own less than one hectare of land per family.

According to the Ministry, 45 percent of the households are capable of meeting the food needs throughout the year from their own agricultural produce, while 55 percent of the farmer households are in a state of food insecurity.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has formulated the National Agriculture Policy-2081 with the objective of effective implementation of food security and food sovereignty provisions guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal as a fundamental right and to address the existing challenges in the agriculture sector and to utilize the available opportunities to lay the foundation for a sustainable and prosperous agricultural economy.