Annotated Bibliography On Land Research in Nepal (2011)

An Introduction to
COLARP
COLARP was first established as a loosely federated consortium in 2007 by alliance of Universities,
research organizations and advocacy/ practice based organizations. It was later registered as a non-
profit making research based service oriented organisation under the Company Act 2063 in 2009.
Nepal is undergoing a substantial transformation in terms of politics, social relations and power
dynamics. There are millions of landless who are working on landlords' land for their livelihood.
Inequities prevail between these landlords and the farmers. Besides being a source of livelihood land
is also a fundamental basis of feudal power relation in rural society. Land is severely used as political
tool and therefore, it will be a major issue of contention in the future. Because of lack of authentic
data and research based on evidences, land related decisions are made on ad hoc basis, politicized and
exaggerated or undermined. Thus study in land becomes a study of social justice for improving equity.
Therefore, a systematic, long term engagement in land related research is essential. To support this,
COLARP was established. The main working areas of COLARP are Land and Agrarian Issues; Land Policy
Analysis, Food Security, Livelihood and Poverty Alleviation, Social Exclusion/Inclusion, Resource Conflict,
and Environmental Security.
Vision: - A society without poverty where every one enjoys dignified life by equitable access to and
control over resources.
Mission: - Develop COLARP as an organization capable of helping the poor and the landless to improve
their life situation by engaging in research and policy analysis.
Goal: - To bring research and policy actors and practitioners together to promote evidence-based
policy debate that will help the poor, landless and near landless people gain access to and control over
productive resources including land.
Objectives:-
To contribute to addressing land related issues by systematically engaging the consortium in

research, development and consultancy services;
To promote informed policy debate on land issues;
To help the government in the formulation and implementation of relevant policies and their
eective implementation and;
To develop COLARP as an independent 'think tank' on land resources.
List of Publications:-
Pyakuryal K, Nepali P, Singh S, Ghimire S, editors. 2009. Proceeding of the National Dialogue on
Land Issues in Changing Political Context. Kathmandu: Consortium for Land Research and Policy
Dialogue (COLARP).
Pyakuryal KN, Upreti BR, editors. 2011. Land, Agriculture and Agrarian Transformation. Kathmandu:
Consortium for Land Research and Policy Dialogue (COLARP).
An Annotated
Bibliography
on Land Research
in Nepal
Consortium for Land Research and
Policy Dialogue (COLARP)
Compiled by:
Shristee Singh Shrestha
July, 2011
Kathmandu
An Annotated Bibliography on Land Research in Nepal
ISBN No : 978-9937-2-3738-3
Year of Publication : July, 2011
Copyright : Reserved with COLARP
Design & Print : Sigma General Oset Press
Sanepa, Lalitpur-2
Tel. 01 5554029 Fax. 01 5554580
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are entirely of the individual contributors and do not
necessarily reflect the ocial views of the organizations with which the compiler is aliated.
Published by
Consortium for Land Research and policy Dialogue (COLARP)
Ekantakuna, Jawalakhel
GPO Box 910 KTM, Nepal
Ph : +977 1 5 000 053
+977 1 5 554 756
Fax/Ph : +977 1 5 547 756
E-mail : colarp_nccr@wlink.com.np
Website : www.colarp.org.np
Contents
Annotated
Bibliography Page no.
A 1
B 7
C 9
D 11
F 11
G 11
H 14
J 16
K 18
L 19
M 19
N 21
O 24
P 25
R 27
S 28
T 34
U 37
W 39
Z 40
The publisher of "An Annotated Bibliography on Land
Research in Nepal" acknowledges support from the Swiss
National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-
South, co-funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
(SNSF), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
(SDC) and the participating institutions.
Preface and Acknowledgement
The Consortium for Land Research and Policy Dialogue (COLARP) as an institution engaged
in land research carried out a serious search on literature (published books, articles, grey
literature and reports) which focused mainly on land (land reform, land resource, land use,
land administration, land size and productivity, land based conflict and the likes) issues in
Nepal. This volume contains 80 such documents which have been annotated.
We believe that this compiled volume will be useful to all those who are interested in
land issues as it provides a bird's eye view in the subject. Researchers, students, policy
makers and general people will benefit alike as the publication will be utterly useful to
help explore further details by reviewing the needed literature.
Ms. Shristee Singh Shrestha, Project Ocer at COLARP deserves a deep appreciation for the
search, summarization and compilation of various documents included in this volume.
There is always a room for improvement and this volume too must be incomplete in the
sense that there may be many more documents which may be missing in this volume. We
will certainly be encouraged to publish a second volume if we received feedback for such
a need.
There are several individuals and institution who have contributed towards bringing this
volume to this form.
Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti , Regional Coordinator of the National Centre for Competence in
Research (NCCR) North-South, South Asia Coordination Oce of NCCR North-South,
Jawlakhel, Kathmandu, Nepal deserves our heartfelt gratitude for his professional support
for this publication.
Mr. Purna Bahadur Nepali, Ph.D. candidate in Kathmandu University and an aliate to
COLARP helped us for literature review. Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to Dr.
Anita Bhattarai, Post doc Fellow at the NCCR North-South, South Asia Coordination Oce,
Jwalakhel for the help she provided in updating this manuscript.
...............................
Prof. Kailash Nath Pyakuryal, Ph.D.
Chairperson, COLARP
Kathmandu, Nepal
July, 2011.
An Annotated Bibliography 1
on Land Research in Nepal
Annotated Bibliography
A
Acharya AK, Kafle N. 2009. Land degradation issues in Nepal and its management through
agro forestry. The Journal of Agriculture and Environment 10.
www.nepjol.info/index.php/AEJ/article/viewArticle/2138; accessed on 26 April 2009.
Land degradation is a major challenge of Nepal. The paper focuses mainly on

causes and consequences of land degradation and their management approaches. Land
degradation may occur through dierent physical, chemical and biological processes induced
directly or indirectly by human activities like deforestation, shifting cultivation, overgrazing,
steep slope farming, over use of chemical fertilizers and forest resources. These create
many social problems like poverty, poor health and nutrition and demographic dynamics by
lowering agricultural productivity. Agro-forestry approaches like use of Multi Purpose Tree
Species (MPTs), relay-cropping, terracing and contour cultivation, strip and alley cropping
are appropriate to fulfill the needs of low resource farmers by restoring and increasing land
productivity. The potentiality of the approach can be made more eective through holistic
eorts, based on needs with active participation of farmers in planning and implementation
stage.
Acharya BR. 2008. Government and Public Land Management in Nepal. Paper presented at
FIG/FAO/CNG International Seminar on State and Public Sector Land Management. Verona,
Italy, 9-10 September.
Most of the rural population in Nepal are engaged in subsistence farming. There is
a high rate of migration of poor landless people from the mountains to the plains and the
rural to the urban areas in search of better land for farming and better job for livelihood.
This has resulted in heavy encroachment on government and public land. There are several
legal arrangements for the preservation and management of government and public land,
but the lack of a comprehensive land policy, an integrated land act, and a responsible
bureau for their preservation and management has resulted in their continuous depletion.
A recommendation is made for a better management of government and public land in
Nepal.
Acharya BR. 2008. Land Tenure and Land Registration in Nepal. Paper presented at Integrating
Generations FIG Working Week 2008. Stockholm, Sweden 14-19 June.
www.fig.net/pub/fig2008/papers/ts07b/ts07b_02_acharya_2747.pdf; accessed on 21 June

2010.
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2 An Annotated Bibliography
The history of land tenure in Nepal is very old. It is conceptually based on Hindu
culture. Land is still considered as the wealth and the prime indicator of social prestige.
Land is not only the main source of livelihood but is also full of traditional sentiments. In
Nepal, land management and administration has been influenced by such sentiments. It
is imperative that, one should understand the history and culture of land tenure of the
country for proper management of land. In this context, attempt is made to analyze the
history of land tenure provisions and put on record the present system of land tenure and
land registration in Nepal.
Acharya BR. 2009. Necessity of Eective Land Management for Sustainable Real Estate
Market in Nepal. Paper presented at the FIG Working Week 2009 on Surveyors Key Role in
Accelerated Development. Eilat, Israel, 3-8 May.
www.fig.net/pub/fig2009/papers/ts05a/ts05a_acharya_3352.pdf; accessed on 23 June

2010.
Land is a basic resource of livelihood for almost eighty percent of the population in
Nepal. On one hand, there is lower productivity of land and on the other hand, high rate of
migration from hilly region to urban and plain fertile land (Terai land) has created unplanned
settlement and unhealthy real estate market. Land price is sky-rising. This imbalance and
unplanned land use and real estate market has directed towards deterioration of natural
setup. Most of the remittances and local savings are invested in the real estate because of the
lack of other investment sectors. The land records (cadastre) for land administration in the
country is based on graphical "cadastral maps" with general boundary principle and "deeds
registration system". It has been realized that this traditional cadastre base could not fulfill
the present social demands. Therefore, there is a high need for eective land management
based on reliable land records, ecient land administration, smart land professionals and
service driven real estate institutions.
Acharya BR, Sharma RK. 2004. Approach to Promoting Decentralized Land Management
in Nepal. Paper presented at the 3rd FIG Regional Conference on Spatial Planning and the
Community. Jakarta, Indonesia, 3-7 October.
http://www.fig.net/pub/jakarta/papers/ts_04/ts_04_3_sharma_acharya.pdf; accessed on
25 June 2010.
Nepal being the mountainous country has dicult terrain. Land is the main source
of livelihood. The limited arable land with sparse and diverse utilization is not meeting even
the bare food needs of the ever growing population. Unless a proper balance between land
and people is maintained poverty reduction is not possible. Proper Land Management based
on local spatial knowledge will enhance the economic growth of the poor and enhance
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the growth of municipalities and villages. In fact the Local Governance Act 1999 empowers
local bodies to manage land to some extent. In reality, it is not functioning well due to lack
of commitment and various constraints. Decentralized Land Management model, though
ambitious, will hopefully promote economic and social welfare in the locality and uplift the
quality of life of the Nepalese people. The significance of spatial planning in the framework
of decentralized approach is envisioned so that the people will experience sustainable
economic growth and balanced eco-system.
Acharya KP, Adhikari J, Khanal D. 2008. Forest tenure regimes and their impact on livelihoods
in Nepal. Journal of Forest and Livelihood 7(1):6-18.
Forest land tenure patterns have rapidly changed in Nepal in the past. The
historically dominant land tenures are disappearing, and new tenures are emerging. This
paper describes and analyses this dynamic nature of forest tenure, forest management
modalities and the tenurial pattern they embody as well as their impact on livelihood,
income, forest condition and equity in benefit distribution. Here, tenure means all options
and opportunities- legal, non-legal and customary-to own, use or share any forest products
and trees. Nepals forests can broadly be divided into two types from ownership perspective,
viz., national forest and private forest. Within the national forest there are dierent forest
management regimes encompassing dierent rights and responsibilities given to the
people. The forest or trees held in common or managed by communities seem to be more
sustainable than other forms of tenurial arrangement. Increasing numbers of community-
based management modalities have developed innovative means of tenure arrangements
to contribute positively to livelihood and environmental sustainability. It demonstrates that
decentralized and democratic governance system strengthens land tenure in favour of local
peoples livelihood. The paper argues that secure tenure is important for the conservation of
forest resources and for encouraging investment in conservation and management. Which
tenure regime is suitable at a particular time and place or location is more of a contextual
matter, and thus, depending upon peoples participation, tenurial modalities need to be
determined.
Adhikari C, Chatfield P. 2008. The Role of Land Reform in Reducing Poverty across Nepal.
Paper presented at Third Annual Himalayan Policy Research Conference, Nepal Study Centre
in Madison, 16 October.
https://repository.unm.edu/.../Adhikari,%20Chandra_The%20role%20of%20land%20
reform%20in%20reducing%20pove; accessed on 23 June 2010.
Land is the main source of income and consumption for Nepalese people. This
study analyses the economic relationship between access to land and poverty in Nepal by
establishing the link between land and consumption as well as land and income. A generalised
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additive model and OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) demonstrate that greater access to land for
the poor increases income and consumption and thereby reduces poverty. The significant
marginal value of land of both consumption and income implies that an eective land
reform policy could well be the most eective approach to alleviate rural poverty. However,
land reform must come as part of a larger overhaul. Cluster analysis shows that land reform
should target appropriate subgroups within the community in order to dierentiate those
who would make use of the extra land from those who would not and so applying strategies
to each one. It reveals the importance of subgroups in determining an appropriate strategy
for tackling poverty. Three distinct groups are found within the dataset that explain most of
the variation.
Adhikari J. 2008. Land Reform in Nepal: Problems and Prospects. Kathmandu: Nepal Institute
of Development Studies and Action Aid.
This book reviews Nepal's land reform programmes in the historical context and
assesses the future prospects in terms of eective policy formulation and implementation.
It also takes a look at various approaches and experiences of land reform programmes in
other countries. Controversies and misconceptions surrounding the land reform are also
analyzed. Dierent practices of the government and non governmental agencies and their
experiences in increasing the access of marginalized land dependent individuals, households
and communities to land have also been included to provide an understanding of a range of
options for land reform. The book argues that a broad concept of 'agrarian reform' is required
to capture various issues related to land distribution, formation of farmers' organizations
and provision of support services. The roles, responsibilities and strategies that are required
on the part of important stakeholders for the formulation and implementation of agrarian
reform programmes are also outlined.
As most successful land reform policies in the world have been formulated and
implemented in the immediate aftermath of political revolutions, Jana Aandolan II provides
an appropriate opportunity for this in Nepal. To utilise this opportunity and implement land
reform programmes, adequate discussions are necessary among the stakeholders, who
should come up with implementable policies.
Adhikari N. 2009. Political Ecology of Vulnerability: Case Study of Syangja, Nepal [Master
dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu University.
The ancient iconographies of Lord Shiva and Goddess Kali, which depict the world
as a cycle of construction and destruction are testimony to the fact that the ancient people
had already realized the ephemeral nature of the universe. The fragile geography and rich
biodiversity- floods, landslides, earthquakes, thunderstorm, droughts, diseases and wildlife-
are part of the collective consciousness of the people of the Nepal. However at present
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people are increasingly facing diculty in coping with and adapting to such challenges.
The adaptive capability is now impeded, because the locals do not have access to natural
resources. A closure look at the indigenous knowledge system provided a glimpse of how
people had built settlements in order to avoid floods, landslides, fires, thunderstorms,
etc. They have proved capable of developing their own mitigation and adaptive measures,
provided they are given access to the resources they live with. Access to land, is the most
fundamental. This study, using primarily qualitative and some quantitative methods of data
collection found that there is a significant tripartite linkage between disaster vulnerability,
resilience and distribution of land. These findings can contribute to the ongoing debate on
land reform by advocating that land reform also needs to incorporate non-farming groups
like traditional caste-based artisans, women, and other vulnerable groups because land is,
other than a source of economic production a foundation for individual identity, security,
insurance, social status and transformative capability.
Adhikari S. 2008. Livelihood Options of Dalits, an Analysis with Reference to Land Resources,
Study in Dhangadi Municipality [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu
University.
Dalits are considered as synonymous to landlessness. They do not have enough

land to support their family. They have to depend on landlords for their subsistence. This
study has attempted to examine the various options available and adopted by the Dalits
and their standard of living. The study revealed that most of the Dalits were based on the
agriculture for their livelihood besides that they were also engaged in other sources such
as low graded jobs in India, caste based occupation, government jobs and some sort of
small business etc. The old aged people were engaged in traditional occupation but could
not force their youngsters to follow the same occupation because of the unstable income
from it. But they still think if they got help and support from the outer society and market
exposure their handmade product would be preferred by other people. Similarly, this study
also attempted to examine the access of Dalit into the natural resources available in their
locality. It was found that almost everyone had some amount of land which was given to
them by the government during the resettlement programme.
Allendorf K. 2007. Do womens land rights promote empowerment and child health in
Nepal? World Development 35(11):1975-1988.
Womens land rights are increasingly put forth as a means to promote development
by empowering women, increasing productivity, and improving welfare. However, little
empirical research has evaluated these claims. This paper uses the 2001 Nepal Demographic
and Health Survey to explore whether womens land rights empower women and benefit
young childrens health in Nepal. The results provide support for both of these hypotheses.
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Women who own land are significantly more likely to have the final say in household
decisions, a measure of empowerment. Similarly, children of mothers who own land are
significantly less likely to be severely underweight.
Aryal SS, Zoebisch M. 2004. The Role of Women in Land Management and Conservation - A
Case from the Middle-hill Region of Nepal. Paper presented at ISCO 2004 - 13th International
Soil Conservation Organisation Conference Brisbane. Australia 4-9 July.
www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/isco/isco13/PAPERS%20A-E/ARYAL.pdf ; accessed on 16 June 2010
In smallholder farming, women play an important role and their contribution to

the farm income is often disproportionately high. The study aimed to understand the role
and perceptions of women farmers in land management and conservation, and to identify
possible pathways for better representation of women's' needs in on-farm land management
and conservation. The study was conducted in a typical watershed in the Middle-Hill region
of Nepal, with a high diversity of age, caste and education amongst the women. All farms
in the area are subsistence-oriented. The study is based on semi-quantitative surveys of
farming families. There are marked dierences in the types of farm work between men
and women, but also between dierent groups of women. Caste was not found to be an
important criterion in defining the work of women, but rather education and age. Over the
past years, more girls are being sent to schools and this inevitably limits their availability
for farm work. This trend has also led to a loss of local knowledge on land management
with girls and young women. Women without school education obtain their knowledge
principally from older women and by practical experiences. Women with school education
are able to understand extension messages more easily and they usually have a more
'scientific' approach to understanding things. These dierences lead to dierent perceptions
of farming and to problem solving. There are also noted dierences between more remote
villages and the villages closer to the road network and with better access to extension.
Women in villages that are more easily accessible have generally a better understanding
of modern technologies. These women also have better access to markets for better cash
income, which -in turn- gives them more influence on farming decisions.
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B
Baidya J. 2010. Assistance for Conflict Induced IDPS: A Case Study of Morang (An Emerging
Right to Restitution) [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu University.
This study assesses the current situation of the Internally Displaced Person (IDP),
with respect to seized Housing, Land and Property (HLP), analyses the national IDPs policies
with respect to HLP and explore various issues related to HLP. Although issues of HLP
are ardently defined in political arena the issues has so far received much less attention
to its gravity. Since the signing of the 12- Point understanding between the Seven Party
Alliance (SPA) and the UCPN (M), they have made many commitments aimed at resolving
HLP issues, but these promises have not been fulfilled. Despite various commitments and
agreements, no significant progress on HLP protection of restitution has been achieved. Non
compliance of the UCPN (M) party and lack of strong government policy on repossession
and compensation are to be blamed. The problems of the IDPs in the region have neither
been lack of a regional legal framework nor limited involvement by international actors but
rather endemic leadership problems at national level. Although various agreements and
commitments were made at the central government level, proper implementation at the
field level has not been satisfactorily materialized. Consequently, IDPs' lack of access to
the durable solutions, the gaps in National IDP policy implementation and monitoring and
pending unapproved Procedural Directives are all revealing that government of Nepal is not
taking the issues of IDPs seriously. Such tendency is impeding the process, as sustainable
solutions to the problems of the displaced person and returnee are critical to a lasting peace
in Nepal.
BC KR. 2002. Formulation of a Strategic Plan for Land Information Systems in Nepal [Masters
dissertation]. Enschede, Netherlands: ITC.
In Nepal, there is increasingly a high demand for reliable and up-to date land
information for various purposes such as planning and control of rapid urbanization, managing
natural resources, stimulating the land markets, and providing better security of rights on
land thereby reducing land disputes, so on. But, the current manual land administration
system is not ecient to provide the reliable and up-to-date land information, which is
fundamental requirement to tackle the above-mentioned problems.
To take the advantage of the advancement of information and communication

technology (ICT), HMG/ Nepal is now putting considerable eorts to develop and implement
land information systems to modernize its land administration systems. Recently, a dedicated
Department called Department of Land Information and Archive (DoLIA)" is established to
develop and implement nationwide Land Information System (LIS). Since, developing and
implementing a nationwide LIS is complex in nature, it needs high investment in terms of
cost, time and skilled human resources. In this context, strategic planning plays a vital role
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for eective and optimal utilization of available resources in order to achieve the defined
goals/objectives within the planned time.
The SWOT analysis shows that there are 26 alternative strategies to achieve
the desired future of DoLIA. Of these 26 strategies, few are as follows: a) building inter-
departmental/organizational relationship and partnership for successful implementation
of LIS, b) formulation of Policy/Acts and restructuring of the organization to ensure the
eective implementation and maintenance of LIS, c) human resource development, d)
design and develop business services to supply reliable and up-to-date land information, e)
re-engineering of land administration processes, and f) acceleration of activities towards LIS
development and implementation to stimulate land markets. The study argues that there is
a need to revise the DoLIAs mission and vision to make more clear and understandable by
fixing deadlines (by the year 2017).
Burton S, Kennedy G, Schreier H. 1990. An analysis of land-use options in Chitwan, Nepal.

Mountain Research and Development 10(1):73-87.
Using data from farm interviews and soil analyses, eight land-use options, involving
double and triple annual crop rotations, were evaluated in the Chitwan district in Nepal.
Productivity and profitability of the eight crop rotation sequences were determined using
a micro-computer-based budgeting technique. Land-use options were evaluated in terms
of crop preference, productivity, profitability, resource requirements (such as land, labor,
draft power, and capital), soil quality, and risks. The results showed that some of the more
innovative, triple crop rotation systems with early maturing rice and agro-forestry were
soil conserving and very profitable; but higher risk and capital inputs make these land-
use options dicult for subsistence farmers. The method used in this study facilitates the
decision-making process since it provides a means to evaluate land-use options in a flexible
way within the context of the farmer's priorities.
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C
Cameron MM. 1995. Transformations of gender and caste divisions of labor in rural Nepal:
Land hierarchy, and the case of untouchable women. Journal of Anthropological Research
51(3):84-93.
The article demonstrates how gender and caste divisions of labor in rural western
Nepal have been historically linked with practices of social hierarchy and land distribution.
Because of their low status in two hierarchies--caste and gender-untouchable women serve
as handmaidens to the community's changing economic needs. Over the past century, their
primarily artisan-related production has been replaced with a variety of paid agricultural and
nonagricultural work in the increasingly capitalized agricultural economy. The consequent
breakdown of secure inter-caste patron-client relationships and increasing poverty are
countered by women's increasing economic power.
Caplan L. 1970. Land and Social Change in East Nepal: A Study of Hindu-tribal Relations.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
This book examines the relations between the Limbus, an indigenous tribal people
in East Nepal, and the Hindus who entered their region during the past two hundred
years. Describing the divisions which have arisen between the two groups as a result of
confrontation over land, the book nonetheless stresses how they are linked by ties of
economic and political interdependence and in so doing, explores the link between culture
and politics.
Chaudhary JK. 2008. Landlessness and Its Impact in the Life of Musahar: A Study of Madheshi
Dalit People at Pothiyahi VDC in Rautahat District, Nepal. A Research Report Submitted to
Social Inclusion Research Fund (SIRF), SNV Nepal.
www.socialinclusion.org.np/download.php?p=researchReport&f; accessed on 21 June.
The study focuses on the landlessness of Musahar people. Land is the backbone of
country's economy as well as livelihood of the poor people. Therefore, one could imagine
what poor conditions the poor would face who are totally deprived of land. Musahar are
highly marginalized people living in Tarai region. They are considered to be untouchable and
are excluded from many socio-economic aspects. The rate of poverty and illiteracy is very
high among them. Landlessness is the key factor of their backwardness. Being landless, they
are compelled to work on others' land for their livelihood. The study focuses on the causes
of exclusion of the Musahar people due to landlessness.
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Childs G. 2001. Demographic dimensions of an inter village land dispute in Nubri, Nepal.
American Anthropologist 103(4):1096-1113.
The demographic basis for a land dispute between two Tibetan villages in Nubri,
Nepal, is examined in relation to family systems. Despite close proximity and socio-cultural
ties, the villages experience divergent population growth rates resulting from dierent
frequencies of marriage. In one, old-age security concerns induce parents to retain female
labor within the household by designating daughters to be nuns, a practice that has the
unintended consequence of limiting aggregate population growth by barring many women
from marriage and reproduction. In the other village the slightly dierent family system
results in fewer nuns, faster population growth, and a need for more land. Comparisons
with family systems and demographic outcomes in Europe and Asia reveal this to be a case
in which preventive checks can exist in a context of early marriage and high marital fertility
and demonstrate how concerns for old-age security can act as a restraint on aggregate
fertility.
Community Self Reliance Centre. Land First. Occasional Journal of Land Rights.
This journal has been in publication since 2004. It publishes its journal half yearly
and has already published 10 volumes till now. Earlier this journal used to focus on the
activities of Community Self Reliance Centre. However, since 2009 it publishes articles based
on research on land mostly using primary and secondary sources of data collection methods.
It also covers the issues of movement, land and agrarian reform.
Cox T. 1990. Land rights and ethnic conflict in Nepal. Economic and Political Weekly
25(24):1318-1320.
Studying land rights in Nepal reveals serious ongoing conflict between dominant
high-caste Hindus and some ethnic minorities, in the process shattering the myth about
Nepal being a country of ethnic harmony. Land reform legislation has done more to hurt
these minorities than help them.
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D
Dignan T, Haynes KE, Conway D, Shrestha NR. 1989. Land and landlessness among rural to
rural migrants in Nepals Terai region. International Regional Science Review 12(2):189-209.
Nepal has been experiencing a permanent rural-to-rural migration of households

from the central hill zone to the Terai region. Migrant households, due to the structure of
the Terai economy, are impelled to acquire control of land for subsistence agriculture by
squatting, purchasing, or receiving a grant. A household's ability to maximize subsistence
opportunities is partly a function of the means by which land is acquired and whether land
is acquired at all. Factors which determine the chances of acquiring land reflect the role
of institutional rigidities such as the distribution of wealth and the caste structure, state-
imposed land reform policies, and such household characteristics as family size and risk
aversion. A multinomial logit model is used to empirically assess the importance of these
elements in the outcomes of migrant households' resource acquisition decisions.
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Forbes AA. 1999. Mapping power: Disputing claims to Kipat lands in north eastern Nepal.
American Ethnologist 26(1):114-138.
Through a close reading of a land dispute in northeastern Nepal, the author

examines broader shifts in local-national political relations as Nepal is transformed from
a kingdom to a nation-state. In addition to documenting the shift from a customary to a
private system of tenure, this case raises broader questions about the relationship between
identity, politics, and place, and the impact of globalization on these relations.
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Gautam AP, Webb EL, Eiumnoh A. 2002. GIS Assessment of land use/land cover changes
associated with community forestry implementation in the middle hills of Nepal. Mountain
Research and Development 22(1):6369.
This study analyzes the spatial and temporal changes in land use between 1978
and 1992 in a typical watershed covering 543 km in the Middle Hills of Nepal and uses GIS
to compare land use changes between village development committees (VDCs) with and
without formally handed-over community forests during this period. The forest handover
procedure followed the specifications of the national community forestry policy of Nepal.
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In the watershed, the total area of forested land (defined as high forest plus shrub land)
declined by about 8% during the period. However, high forest increased over the study
period, whereas shrub land cover declined. Between VDCs with community forests and
those without, there were large dierences in the rate of total forested area loss, with
community forest VDCs losing less total forested area over the 14-year period. Moreover, in
the group of VDCs with community forests, high forest area increased by 77%, in comparison
with 13% for VDCs without community forests. Higher shrub loss in community forest VDCs
was attributable to conversion into high forest via plantation establishment and natural
succession. The results of this study indicate the positive impacts of Nepals community
forestry activities on the extent of forest cover.
Gautam CM, Watanabe T. 2004. Reliability of land use/land cover assessment in Montane
Nepal: A case study in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA). Mountain Research and
Development 24(1):3543.
The Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA, Nepal) was the subject of a comparative
study on land use/land cover change, using the maps and air photographs available
for 2 dierent years (1978/79 and 1992). Digitized land use maps for 1978 (LUM78) and
topographical maps for 1992 (TOPO92) were first interpreted using a Geographic Information
System (GIS); this was followed by comparative interpretation of black and white air
photographs from the same years. Lelep, Sekhathum-Amjilesa, Syajunma and Ramsyampati
were the 4 areas selected for analysis. The initial map interpretation of LUM78 and TOPO92
implied that considerable changes in land use/cover had occurred between 1978/79 and
1992. Forestland was shown to have decreased by 62.5% (23.15 km2), agricultural land to
have increased by 35.7% (1.49 km2), and shrubland to have increased by 238.2% (30.16
km2). Grazing land, with an area of 22.57 km2 on the 1978/79 and 1992 imagery, appeared
to have disappeared completely by 1992. An interpretation of air photographs for the same
period, however, revealed that the actual changes were far smaller than those inferred from
the map interpretation: decrease in forest and grazing lands by 14.9% (5.45 km2) and 77.9%
(2.75 km2), respectively, and increase in agricultural and shrublands by 4.9% (0.21 km2) and
19.7% (4.41 km2), respectively. The results of a questionnaire survey of the local inhabitants
confirmed that no significant changes had occurred. The discrepancies identified highlight
the problems inherent in assigning land categories. In particular, distinctions made on the
LUM78 material between shrub, grazing land, and barren lands were inappropriate. Similarly,
forest and shrub lands were incorrectly assigned in TOPO92. Caution must be exercised
when using such information; verification from other sources is needed.
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Ghimire K. 1992. Forest or Farm? The Politics of Poverty and Land Hunger in Nepal. Delhi:
Oxford University Press.
It is argued that countries such as Nepal could increase social benefits through the
promotion of smallholder land settlements in regions most suitable for agriculture, instead
of pursuing policies associated with conservation which lets productive land lie idle. The
book suggests that the historically evolved unequal distribution of cultivated land across
various social classes, and in particular the existence of extremely small land units held by the
majority of farmers, combined with declining yields and population growth, has produced a
process of landlessness. There has been a high level of internal migration and spontaneous
land settlement in forested areas in the Nepal Tarai. Recent state policies emphasize forest
protection, and the eviction of self-settled peasants. The book examines this situation, and
considers the rationality of present land-use policies, looking at the interests of many socially
dominant groups, whose interests coincide with the ocial forest-protection measures, but
which contradict the subsistence needs of the landless. Data were collected from the Tarai
through fieldwork conducted in the late 1980s, surveying 160 households.
Ghimire KB. 2001. Land Reform and Peasant Livelihoods: The Social Dynamics of Rural
Poverty and Agrarian Reforms in Developing Countries. London: ITDG Publishing.
This critical analysis of the performance of land reform programmes on a world-

wide basis is written by several prominent scholars who have extensive experience in field
research, advisory work and the implementation of reform programmes. They provide
empirical evidence from many countries how improved access to land is positively linked to
production, investment, employment, food security and poverty reduction. They examine
the reasons for success and failure as well as shortcomings of past reform eorts and review
the role of the dierent actors in this process. The book provides a timely contribution
to the discussion on land reform which has in recent years re-appeared on the agenda of
national governments and development agencies. The authors scrutinize the inadequacy of
the market-oriented approach to land reform which is linked to the structural adjustment
policies of the World Bank and advocate convincingly a flexible approach towards re-
distributive reforms as the most appropriate strategy towards alleviating rural poverty.
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H
High Level Commission for Scientific Land Reform. 2010. High Level Commission on
Scientific Land Reform Report 2010. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal.
The yet unpublished and latest report of High Level Commission for Scientific Land
Reform (2010) has multidimensional coverage such as abolishing feudal land ownership and
its associated labour relation, ensuring land ownership by equitable distribution, ensuring
safe housing of squatters and landless, ensuring production and productivity of land etc.
The report claims that one of its purposes of scientific land reform is to bring change
in the unequal relations, more specifically feudal land ownership in the land and distribute
the land to the tillers. As for the change in land relations, the report suggests for a provision
of land ceiling that is no one shall own the amount of land more than the fixed ceiling. The
fixed ceilings on land for housing/settlement is 6 ropani (0.3 hectares) for each household
and for agriculture it is 4 bigas (2.71 hectare) in Terai, 10 ropanis (0.5 hectares) in city areas,
55 ropanis (2.80 hectares) in hill region and 70 ropanis (3.56 hectares) in mountain region.
The land above this ceiling would be seized by the state and distributed to the landless
and squatters. And, there would be no compensation for the land above the ceiling made
in 2058 B S. The report suggests for giving land to the landless farmers, Haliyas, Haruwas,
Charuwas and Kamaiyas and housing land for squatters. Regarding tenancy rights the report
suggests for establishing tenancy rights who have not been registered.
The report has made provision of devolving power to the local communities
by suggesting a Land Reform Commission in three levels, central, federal and local, in
which, besides authorities from state and few land experts, two representatives from the
stakeholders such as landless, squatters, and farmers will be included.
High Level Land Reform Commission (in Nepali). 1995. Report of High Level Land Reform
Commission (Badal) 1994. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal.
The objective of this commission was to suggest the government land ceiling
based on a scientific basis which would end land based feudalism and improve the socio-
economic conditions of the majority of the landless, small and poor farmers. According to
this report, 500,000 people were completely landless in the early 1990s. The maximum
ceilings fixed by Badal Commission were 3 ha in Terai & Inner Terai, 2 ha in Mid-hill area, 4
ha in Himal, 1 ha in Kathmandu Valley, 0.5 ha in Municipalities area in Kathmandu valley and
1 ha in other municipalities. Landlessness has several implications for families: devoid of
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citizenship, inability to take part in political aairs, lack of access to services like education,
health and credit. The report also substantiates its recommendations by citing examples
of inverse relationship between land size and crop production. Hence, the report suggests
pragmatic measures for the overall land reform in Nepal which is linked with agriculture
development.
Hrabovszky JP, Miyan K. 1987. Population growth and land use in Nepal: The great turnabout.
Mountain Research and Development 7(3):264-270.
Historically, Nepal has demonstrated a "great turnabout" trend, in which initial

immigration from the low land areas to the mountains has been replaced by accelerating
migration from the hills to the plains. The reason for this reversal has been a rapid growth
in population within the confines of limited availability of potentially cultivable land.
Given Nepal's slow economic development, the overwhelming majority of increases
in population have to be accommodated within the agricultural sector, on which 83% of
Nepal's households are dependent. Fundamental land use issues in Nepal include rapid
achievement of the final limit of land suitability for cultivation and the speed at which land
can be brought into cultivation. The Government of Nepal has developed the objectives
of increased food production to provide a satisfactory diet for the population, increased
per capita income, improved regional balance in income and development, conservation of
natural resources such as land and forests, and overall development of the economy through
income generation, export earnings, and release of agricultural labor to other sectors.
Three perspective studies have identified a number of policies and programmes that could
bring Nepal closer to these goals. These studies analyzed potential land use development,
agricultural production, and food availability by the year 2005. Most essential is the need
to intensify land use not only in crop agriculture, but also grasslands and forest use. Land
must be allocated to uses that represent the most productive use of that land without being
degraded. Technologies are available for land use in each of the main types of uses-crop
agriculture, livestock, and forests-that can provide protection against land degradation.
Finally, irrigation is a key element in raising agricultural output. Close cooperation between
the government and the people is crucial for the success of the task of finding a balance
between population growth and its demand for services of the land.
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J
Jackson WJ, Tamrakar RM, Hunt S, Shepherd KR. 1998. Land-use changes in two middle hill
districts of Nepal. Mountain Research and Development 18(3):193-212.
Between 1993 and 1996 the Nepal Australia Community Forestry Project carried
out four comparative land-use studies in Sindhu Palchok and Kabhre Palanchok districts
of Nepal to evaluate the impacts of Australian development assistance over a continuous
19-year period fostering community forestry. The four studies made use of sets of air
photographs taken in 1978 and 1992 to assess land-use changes. The samples covered
almost 15 percent of the 400,000 ha land area of the two districts; they ranged between
600 and 4,000 m in altitude. Land-use change based on photo interpretation and ground
truthing was supplemented by Rapid Rural Appraisal and by information obtained from
local villagers. Community forestry activities within certain areas at the lower altitudes are
having a beneficial eect on the balance of land use as part of a broader process of agrarian
change. Shrub lands and grasslands are being converted to more productive categories
of forest land, reflecting the care of communities in managing and conserving their own
forest resources. The same cannot be said for the upper slopes where there is evidence
that the forest cover is being denuded rapidly and that the shrub land and grassland areas
are expanding at the expense of forest cover. Many current land-use practices need to be
abandoned or modified. Use of land for agricultural purposes appears to be stable. Recent
evidence suggests that reliance on subsistence farming is declining as opportunities increase
for o-farm income, but whether this has allowed population pressure on land resources
to be contained is debatable. While it appears that community forestry has reduced the
pressure on land at the lower altitudes of Sindhu Palchok and Kabhre Palanchok, sustained
population pressures combined with a lack of coherent and coordinated land management
policies and practices, have resulted in a rapid decline in forest resources on the upper
slopes together with loss of catchment stability.
Jain SC. 1985. Nepal: The Land Question. Kanchan Bang: Development Publishers.
This book deals with gigantic problem concerning declining soil fertility and land
productivity that provide bread to over 14 million Nepalese people and by-products and
residues to more than 16 million livestock head. It contains measures for restoring soil
fertility and land productivity.
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Joshi M, Mason TD. 2007. Land tenure, democracy, and insurgency in Nepal: Peasant
support for insurgency versus democracy. Asian Survey 47(3):393414.
Nepal's Maoist party has been able to mobilize peasants for insurgency, but it could
not mobilize them to vote for the communists in elections. Ties of clientelist dependency
enabled landed elites to mobilize peasants to vote for other parties in 1992 and 1994,
but insurgent violence weakened those ties, enabling Maoists to mobilize support for
insurgency.
Joshi M, Mason TD. 2008. Between democracy and revolution: Peasant support for
insurgency versus democracy in Nepal. Journal of Peace Research 45(6):765-782.
The Maoist insurgency in Nepal presents an anomaly for students of civil war and
democratic transitions. How was the Maoist wing of the Nepal Communist Party able to
mobilize peasants to support their insurgency when they could not mobilize enough peasants
to vote for them in elections? The authors address these questions by exploring the ways
in which the persistence of traditional clientelist networks in the countryside enabled rural
elites to mobilize peasants to vote for parties other than the Maoist party, even though
peasants would have benefited from that party's advocacy for land reform. When that
same party used insurgent violence against rural elites, peasants were willing and able to
support the insurgency and abstain from voting in the 1999 election in locales where the
insurgency succeeded in disrupting clientelist ties. The authors test these arguments with
district-level data on election turnout and the distribution of households among several
land-tenure categories. Findings support the argument that turnout was greater where land-
tenure patterns gave landed elite greater influence over peasant political behavior. Where
higher levels of insurgent violence disrupted patterns of clientelist dependency, turnout
declined. What electoral democracy could not deliver to peasants land reform and relief
from clientelist dependency the Maoist insurgency promised to bring through political
violence.
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K
Karkee K. 2004. Land Degradation in Nepal: A Menace to Economy and Ecosystems. Lund,
Sweden: International Masters Programme in Environmental Science, Lund University.
http://www.sasnet.lu.se/EASASpapers/15KrishnaKarkee.pdf; accessed on 16 June, 2010.
Land degradation is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind and Nepal is no
exception. Anthropogenic causes such as deforestation, excessive use of chemical fertilizers,
overgrazing, construction works and unscientific farming in the hills have resulted in the loss
in the flora and fauna, erosion of top soil, occurrence of landslides in the hills and flooding
in the plain areas. This has led to severe environmental degradation leading to poor socio-
economic condition and disruption of natural ecosystems in Nepal. In this paper the aspects
related to land degradation, extent and severity of damages and causes and consequences
of land degradation are discussed. Various measures for restoration of degraded lands
undergoing in Nepal have also been explained. The empirical study reveals that the rate of
degradation outweighs the restoration processes.
Khanal NR, Watanabe T. 2006. Abandonment of agricultural land and its consequences:
A case study in the Sikles area, Gandaki Basin, Nepal Himalaya. Mountain Research and
Development 26(1):3240.
This paper examines the extent, causes, and consequences of abandonment of

agricultural land near the village of Sikles in the Nepal Himalaya. Socioeconomic information
was collected in a household survey. Abandoned agricultural land and geomorphic damage
were mapped at plot level for an area of 149.6 ha. Plot-level analysis showed that nearly
49% of all khet land and 37% of all bari land had been abandoned. About 10% of all khet
land had been completely damaged by landslides and floods. Nearly 41% of all abandoned
plots were subjected to dierent forms of geomorphic damage. The amount of geomorphic
damage on plots abandoned earlier is greater than that on plots abandoned recently.
Abandonment of agricultural land does not automatically lead to plant colonization because
geomorphic damage is intensified prior to colonization. Abandoned land requires further
management for plant colonization as well as for reducing the risk of geomorphic hazards.
Prevailing government policies and acts are not eective in managing abandoned land. The
phenomenon of abandoned agricultural land observed in the Nepal Himalaya is not unique:
it is common in many mountain areas in the world. However, this phenomenon has recently
led to pronounced socioeconomic and environmental problems in Nepal.
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L
Lamichhane PR. 2005. Bonded Labour (Kamaiya) in Nepal.
This book deals with the research on bonded labourers in Nepal Tarai. It explores
the bonded labour (Kamaiya system) in Tharu community. The book not only analyses the
bond process but also their new emerging causes and consequences of the freed bonded
labourers (Kamaiyas). The book suggests all the planners, administrators, researchers, non-
governmental organizations and the INGOs to help solve the problems of bonded labor. The
work is illustrated with maps, diagrams, tables, photos and case studies.
Luitel A. 2010. Women's Land Ownership and Empowerment: A Case Study of Morang
District [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu University.
This research explains the relationship of women's landownership with that

of her social status i.e. at household and community level. Land is regarded as the most
prized possession that human beings can posses and despite policy intervention women
in patriarchal society are not allowed to inherit parental property. This research examines
dierent aspects of women with that of land ownership and the dierent variables like socio-
economic aspect and policy intervention. The research was carried out among 56 women
land owners in Biratnagar, Morang District, of Nepal which is the highest area to have land
transaction in women's name.
M
Maharjan R. 2009. Climate Change and Its Impact on Agriculture: Farmers' Perception
and Adaptation Measures (A Case Study of Jagatpur VDC of Chitwan District) [Master
Climate change has attracted scientific and public attention in the recent years.
Long drought, untimely precipitation and inundation have impacted on rural and poor
people dependent on agriculture and many hectares of arable land have turned into barren
land making these unproductive. Agriculture being primary occupation of the people living
in Jagatpur, it plays a crucial role for improvement of living conditions. Even a slight change
in climatic variables like precipitation and temperature may cause significant change in
agricultural production. The perception of farmers regarding impacts of climate change
on agriculture and their coping strategy were analyzed based on the data collected from
purposively selected 60 respondents of the old settlements of Jagatpur VDC using semi
structured questionnaires. Their perception regarding change in climatic variables has also
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been analyzed. The temperature is increasing in trend but the rate of increase is retarding.
Frequency of precipitation has decreased but its intensity has increased, causing extreme
events. The extreme precipitation from 1970s to the current decade has increased by about
70 mm. Decline in agriculture production has also been noticed as the result of change
in precipitation pattern. Both farming and non-farming adaptation measures have been
adopted to cope with adverse situations but they can be regarded as strategies for living
rather than for mitigating adversities created by climate change. With proper research
regarding mitigation measures, these adversities of climate change can be minimized not
only in agricultural production but also in global environment.
Mahat A. 2010. Can Local Communities Benefit from Forest Carbon in the Current Tenurial
Arrangement? A Case Study of Nawalparasi District [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu,
Nepal: Kathmandu University.
The main aim of the study was to explore whether local communities of Nepal are
qualified to reap benefits from carbon credit under the global initiatives on Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in existing forest tenurial arrangements. This
study analyses international, national and local processes in the context of community based
forest management regime and carbon credit. Literature review, participatory rural appraisal,
key-informant interviews, group discussions and informal interactions were used as methods
in order to gather information. The findings of this study show that despite community forest
user groups improving institutional performance record, the existing community forests
do not seem to be qualified for REDD and can be applied only in the new and would be
community forest having history of deforestation and degradation. Moreover, institutional,
methodological, geographical and technical complexities exacerbate the challenges. Due to
this, REDD could be perceived as disincentives for the existing groups studied in Nawalparasi
which have protected and managed forests for many years. Furthermore, Nepal's forest
land resources are either with individuals as private property or with the government as
state property. Under the current tenurial arrangement, though communities manage some
part of forests owned by state under community forestry and other community based forest
management regimes, they do not enjoy the privilege of having land entitlement, therefore
are very vulnerable to exclusion to access forestland and carbon benefits if any from it.
Politicians, climate scientists and technocrats dominate the scene. Local communities are
found to be the active victims of climate change but passive recipient of climate benefit.
Manandhar Gurung S. 2007. Beyond the Myth of Eco-Crisis: Local Responses to Pressure on
Land in Nepal - A study of Kakani in the Middle Hills. Kathmandu: Mandala Publications.
The diverse system of farms in the hills of Nepal has been significantly aected
by soil erosion. Foreign ecologists who have studied the problem have concluded that
population growth and deforestation have caused substantial land degradation in Nepal,
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resulting in an eco-crisis. Manandhar Gurung, a native Nepalese, believes otherwise.

She argues that the villagers' cultural background has equipped them with the knowledge
to renew and sustain their environment. Using questionnaires and extensive interviews
with villagers and observations of the cultural habits of three caste and ethnic groups, the
author develops and analyzes three sets of data to prove her point. The first set concerns
subsistence agriculture and the economy in the context of crop loss due to erosion and flood,
the second portrays the local decision-making process about environmental issues, and the
third surveys outside intervention on issues of agricultural improvement and eciency.
Manandhar Gurung shows how the villagers are well aware of the relationships involving
soil, slope, vegetation, and land use. The maps, diagrams, pictures, and aerial photographs
are valuable to geographers, anthropologists, and scholars interested in the study of political
economy in mountain adaptation.
Murshed SM, Gates S. 2005. Spatialhorizontal inequality and the Maoist insurgency in
Nepal. Review of Development Economics 9(1):121-134.
The Maoist insurgency in Nepal is one of the highest intensity internal conflicts
in recent times. Investigation into the causes of the conflict would suggest that grievance
rather than greed is the main motivating force. The concept of horizontal or intergroup
inequality, with both an ethnic and caste dimension, is highly relevant in explaining the
Nepalese civil war. There is also a spatial aspect to the conflict, which is most intense in the
most disadvantaged areas in terms of human development indicators and land holdings.
Using the intensity of conflict (fatalities) as the dependent variable and HDI indicators and
landlessness as explanatory variables, the authors find that the intensity of conflict across
the districts of Nepal is significantly explained by the degree of inequalities.
N
Nepali PB. 2007. Land issues in Nepal: Injustice, poverty and inequality. In: Adhikari, Anna.
The Organization. Kathmandu, Nepal: Organization Development Centre, pp 43-46.
This paper briefly discusses on land based poverty, injustice and inequality in an
agrarian society through introducing various contemporary issues. They are landlessness,
Kamaiya, Haliya, block measurement, Guthi, Ukhada, Dalit, womens land ownership. It
shows a kind of relationship among inequitable distribution of land, injustice and inequality,
indicating a fertile ground (source) of decades violent conflict (1996-2006) of Nepal.
Nepali PB. 2008. Access to land resource: Dalits and their livelihood insecurity. In: Pyakuryal
KN Upreti BR, Sharma SR, editors. Nepal: Transition to Transformation. Kathmandu: Human
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and Natural Resources Studies Centre- Kathmandu University (HNRSC-KU) and South Asia
Regional Coordination Oce of NCCR North-South, pp 163-184.
Land is indicator of broader socioeconomic status in agrarian society like Nepal. It

is fundamental productive asset, principal sources of livelihood and power, means of pride,
dignity, and prestige and symbol of prosperity. Here, access to land means right to ownership
and entitlement of land that oers or ensures full utilization of enjoyment of its virtues i.e.
socioeconomic security and other forms of security and social justice. Indeed, access to land
resource of Dalit (which account about 13 % of total population) is very nominal because
average land holdings of Dalit group is 0.12 ha of khet (irrigated land) and 0.225 ha of Pakho
(dry up land). Specially terai Dalit is synonym to landless. Most of Terai Dalit have only
infertile land suitable for residence. HDR 2004 reveals that 15.32 % Hill Dalits and 43.98 Terai
Dalits are landless. There are about 3 lakhs Dalit Haliya. In such context, they are bound to
be agricultural laborer, tenant cultivator, Haliya, Haruwa, Charuwa. Few of them are still
continuing their traditional caste based occupation. Dalit remains at very bottom of Nepali
caste hierarchy. The per capita income and HDI of Dalit is 39.6 $ (against national 210$) and
0.239 (against national 0.325 Livelihoods of Dalits is miserable due to landlessness. In brief,
landlessness, marginal and small landholdings and food deficiency for more than six months
of the year are typical feature of economy of Dalits or untouchable in Nepal. But, within the
Dalit community, this problem is more acute in Terai Dalit.
Nepali PB, Pyakuryal KN, Sharma SR. 2011. Scientific land reform in Nepal: Question of
equity and eciency. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology 1(6): 10-25
Scientific Land Reform is at centre of decades conflict and even during Peace
Process in Nepal. In this regards, land reform attempts to address equity and eciency so
as to address historical inequity and injustices for promoting peace process in Nepal. From
equity perspective, landlessness, unequal power structure and social relation, injustices and
discrimination for long centuries are key land issues. Along with this, economic eciency is
the fundamental for enhancing agricultural growth leading to economic growth. In particular,
this article argues that, in given prevailing condition i.e. traditional and subsistence and
rampant rural poverty and unequal power structure and injustices, small farms perform
better leading to food security and livelihood security at household level. Consequently,
Scientific Land Reform has been defined by taking into account the essence of equity and
eciency.
Nepali PB, Pyakuryal KN. 2010. Addressing land based discrimination in post conflict. In:
Upreti BR, Sharma SR, Pyakuryal KN, Ghimire S, editors. The Remake of a State: Post Conflict
Challenges and State Building in Nepal. Kathmandu: South Asia Regional Coordination
Oce of NCCR North-South and Human and Natural Resources Studies Centre-Kathmandu
University (HNRSC-KU), pp 151-166.
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This paper begins with the conceptual definition of discrimination and land based
discrimination. Borrowing from Marx, Sen, and Galtung, it attempts to explain various forms
of land based discrimination, exploitation and domination. Further, it makes point on the
importance of land or absence of class based discrimination for national integration because
current national debate of nation integration focuses more on gender, caste, ethnicity,
geographical territory.
Nepali PB, Pyakuryal KN. 2011. Livelihood options for landless and marginalized communities
in an agrarian society: A case study from far western Nepal. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural
Science 48(1):1-10.
Land based livelihood options overwhelmingly predominate in an agrarian society

like Nepal because non-agricultural sectors, namely, trade, commerce and industry have not
flourished and also have not been able to generate employment opportunities to a large
number of people. This paper is based on a survey research conducted in the Far Western
Region of Nepal during July 2007-Nov 2008. The study reveals that food is barely enough
for 0-3 months for the majority in the region. In fact, the poor engage themselves in wage
earning in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors, they move to India as seasonal labor
migrants, supplement their earning by cutting and sale of fire wood, and engage themselves
in caste based occupation etc (true for Dalit) as livelihood options. The paper argues that
this situation is a product of, and also regulated by, various local age long feudal social
institutions like Khalo Pratha (System), Haliya Pratha (System), Land Mortgage System
(Mate Bandaki), Share cropping, etc which exhibit positive and negative relationship. It is
also because of structural constraints in land holding pattern (class), existing caste system,
and gender disparity. By and large, the most of these institutions have been found as
discriminatory and exploitative to the land poor by giving them unfair wage, debt burden,
and treating them inhumanly like semi-slavery and social discrimination.
Neupane M. 2008. Access to Land Resources: Livelihood Strategy of Ex-Kamaiya of Kailali

District [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu University.
Kamayia is an agriculture-based bonded labour system, practiced in the Terai belt of

Nepal. This study attempts to understand the livelihood status and strategies, the vulnerability
and coping strategies of Ex-Kamayias with a main focus on their livelihood strategies in
combination with land resources. The study indicated that although all respondents had
access to land but they were not solely dependent on land for their livelihood strategy but
had rather adopted one or other options based on need and availability.
Niroula GS, Thapa GB. 2007. Impacts of land fragmentation on input use, crop yield and
production eciency in the mountains of Nepal. Land Degradation & Development 18
(3):237-248.
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Amidst the growing concern about agricultural underdevelopment in developing

countries, this study addresses the causes and trends of land fragmentation. It analyses the
impact of land fragmentation on input use eciency, crop yield and production eciency,
especially with reference to a mountain district in Nepal. Necessary information was obtained
from discussions with groups and individual land users and a questionnaire survey covering
184 households representing dierent degrees of land fragmentation. The analyses focused
on two staple crops, namely, maize and paddy. The analysis revealed an increasing trend in
the number of land parcels and a decreasing trend in the size of land parcels, primarily due
to the heredity tradition of equal division of land among the inheritors. Other factors such as
land purchase have also contributed to land fragmentation. Yield analysis revealed that small
parcels are more productive than large parcels, because of higher applications of inputs.
Consistent with this, small parcels also appeared to have a higher production eciency than
large parcels - considering both benefit and cost of purchased inputs - indicating a positive
impact of land fragmentation on farmers income. However, an analysis considering also the
cost of inputs produced on the farm revealed an opposite trend, that is, on large land parcels,
production is more ecient than on small parcels. In view of the need to also recover the
cost of the inputs produced on-farm, it is concluded that land fragmentation - leading to
small plots - has a negative impact on production eciency, thereby constraining agricultural
development.
O
Oli PP. 2001. Spatial Data for Land Use Planning in Nepal. Paper presented at the
International Conference on Spatial Information for Sustainable Development. Nairobi,
Kenya, 2-5 October.
www.fig.net/pub/proceedings/nairobi/oli-TS10-4.pdf; accessed on 23 June 2010.
Land use planning is the process of assigning land for agriculture, forestry,
settlement/urban uses, grazing and other uses and using accordingly to implement national
programmes of solving problem of food security and environment and implementation of
international conventions like UN Frame work Convention on Climate Change, Agenda 21.
Spatial data are required to plan at national and lower levels and to implement the assigned
land use categories by cadastral parcels. Before launching Land Use Planning Programme,
appropriate legal system and administrative infrastructures required to be arranged
which are partially arranged in Nepal. Spatial data for planning at national and district
levels may be topographical, land utilisation, land system (land form and soils), geological,
climatological, land capability, other infrastructural data and various master plans collected
to form maps at the scale of 1:25,000 - 1:50,000 and converted into digital form. The spatial
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database for implementation at village level may be large-scale topographical, soil, cadastral
and infrastructure maps and data collected in digital form. Spatial data may be updated
using latest aerial photography and satellite imagery of appropriate resolution with field
verification.
P
Paudyal DR, Sharma RK. 2006. Community Participation Approach for Land Adjudication; an
Innovative Approach for Digital Cadastre in Nepal. Paper presented at XXIII FIG Congress on
Shaping the Change. Munich, Germany, 8-13 October.
www.fig.net/pub/fig2006/papers/ts89/ts89_04_paudyal_sharma_0464.pdf; accessed on
23 June 2010.
In Nepal due to secured life and opportunity for employment people are migrating
from rural area to urban area. The price of land is rising very high in urban and peri urban
area of Nepal. There is importance of one inch of face length of a parcel of land which is near
the road or highway. The existing cadastral maps cannot reflect the real situation of parcel
boundary on the ground as they are very old (in some place island maps), have of small scale
and the parcel boundary on map and field is dierent. Land owners are not satisfied with
these cadastral documents and asking for reliable cadastral information. It is worthless to
make the digital database with these erroneous documents. Hence Cadastral Survey Branch
of Survey Department has started Numerical Cadastral Mapping (NCM) method for data
acquisition in urban areas for the creation of digital cadastral database. During NCM, it was
found that the boundary of parcel on land and map is dierent in most of the places. People
are occupying and constructing houses without caring much on these cadastral documents.
This has become an accepted norms and value of the society and people are satisfied with
their occupied land. In re-cadastral mapping works, if surveyor follows the existing cadastral
maps it will take lots of time to adjudicate a single parcel boundary on the ground. Hence for
the land adjudication, an innovative approach has followed for numerical cadastral mapping
in Nepal. This paper first begins with introduction and describes about the evolution on
Nepalese cadastre starting from rudimentary cadastre to digital cadastre. It then describes
about the existing institutional framework for cadastral mapping and land registration as
well as cadastral processes in Nepal. It then elaborates the piloting of digital cadastre and
an innovative approach for land adjudication in Nepal for numerical cadastral mapping. It
also describes some typical cases of norms and values of the society which the authors
have noted during field survey. Finally, this paper concludes with some conclusions and
recommendations.
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Pokhrel B. 1989. Revenue Administration of Nepal: With Special Reference to Land Revenue
[PhD dissertation]. Banaras, India: Banaras Hindu University.
The study draws attention to scrutinize the revenue administration with special
reference to land revenue of Nepal. Thereby to increase the revenue from agricultural.
Untrained manpower, flexible laws and Acts etc. are the major aecting factors along with
the pyramid structure of land revenue administration.
Taxation in agricultural sector has been a matter of hard and complex practice. Since
this sector contributes significantly to the total GDP and provides major exportable items,
yet its contribution in national treasury is negligible. After evaluating whole components of
revenue administrative structure of Nepal, it was suggested to make the revenue related
Acts and Laws practical and flawless so that no chance of tax evasion may arise and a
systematic tax payment and collection can follow. Other suggestions relate with training
of the personnel and establishment of a separate revenue service. The study comes to the
conclusion that land tax alone cannot achieve the target of tapping adequate resources from
agricultural sector. Therefore, all agricultural taxes should be jointly planned. Likewise, the
reintroductions of PDLT with some modification, completion of survey as early as possible,
etc. are other suggestions. To conclude, the tax revenue is one of the important means
for economic development. In order to collect the tax according to the country's needs, a
fair revenue policy and smooth and clean administration must be linked with vertical and
horizontal linkage on the path of economic development. Then alone Nepal can succeed in
fulfilling national aspirations of breaking the vicious circle of poverty and giving a "big push"
to the economy so as to move towards the take-o stage.
Pyakuryal KN, Upreti BR, editors. 2011. Land, Agriculture and Agrarian Transformation.
Kathmandu: Consortium for Land Research and Policy Dialogue (COLARP).
The book contains 11 chapters related to land with focus on small farmers and
with an emphasis on agricultural development aiming at agrarian transformation. Very few
persons who controlled most of the resources and occupied power positions have blocked
alteration in the existing unequal agrarian relations. This book attempts to bring such issues
to the public. This book thus aims at helping the policymakers better understand the issues
related to agrarian transformation.
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R
Rai K. 2008. Tenancy System and Land Productivity in Masuriya VDC, Kailali [Master
Land is more than just a physical entity for an agricultural society where access to
and control over it determines the socio-economic structure and identity. The objectives
of this study are to examine the investment-production function in dierent land tenancy,
eect in the productivity and the power relation between land owners and the user. The
study showed that an alteration in input variables could produce more. But, the land owner
was least interested for extra investment and the tillers lacked capital. Thus, study showed
that sharecropping tenural system, though produces more in the land due to fear, is feudal
in nature, in which the tillers are exploited, discriminated and bound to live insecure life.
Regmi MC. 1977. Land Ownership in Nepal. Delhi: Adroit Publishers.
In this work, Regmi makes three contributions. First, he describes and analyzes
the traditional Nepali land holding system. This was complex, ever-evolving and variable
with respect to the rights and obligations of the state, of the beneficiaries of state land
bequests, and of tenants and cultivators. Regmi delineates his subject in fine detail, and
explains how the system contained within itself the seeds of its own demise. Second, he
analyzes the present state of land reform, achieved through the 1957 and 1964 Land Acts,
the outstanding features of which involve ceilings on individual land holdings, security of
tenancy rights, controls on land rents, and compulsory savings and credit provisions. Finally,
he oers proposals for future action. Regmi believes that existing reforms have neither
converted the agricultural surplus into productive capital nor suciently benefited the
peasant class. To achieve these goals, he proposes "a new form of landownership under
which every local Panchayat is the owner of lands used for agriculture and other productive
purposes in the areas under its jurisdiction".
Regmi MC. 1978. Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces: People and Landlords in 19th Century
Nepal. New Delhi: Vikas.
This is the first volume of a projected two-volume study on Nepals economic history
during the nineteenth century. The study is based on an approach to history that recognizes
it as a dialogue between the past and present. In as much as economic development is the
leading national slogan in Nepal today, it makes an attempt to explore some of the historical
and institutional constraints facing such development. Thatched Huts and Stucco Palaces,
therefore, concentrate on relations between the state and the landowning elites on the one
hand and peasants on the other, in order to identify those parasitic groups and the form and
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nature of their share in agricultural production. Essentially empirical in nature, the book has
proven to be of equal interest to scholars studying in dierent aspects of Nepals economy,
society and politics. In particular, it has helped explain how the Ranas were able to sustain
their family rule for over a century, and why eorts towards agrarian reform in Nepal since
the 1950s have not had the desired measure of success.
Rijal SP. 2007. Land holding and livelihoods: A synthesis from Modi Khola watershed, Nepal.
The Third Pole: Journal of Geography Education 5-7:43-51.
This paper analyzes land holding pattern and its consequences in rural livelihoods
especially of Modi Khola watershed located in Western Development Region, Nepal. The
study is mainly based on primary data collected from 360 households selected randomly
from Modi Khola watershed during September-October, 2002. Land is an important natural
asset, has greater implications on peoples livelihoods. The distribution of land among
households is uneven in this area. The implications of unequal distribution and access
of land can clearly be seen on household income as well as level of food suciency. The
average household income increases with the increase in land holding size. Likewise, the
percentage of household reporting sucient food production for household consumption
increases with land holding size. Thus, the well-being of local people is largely tied-up with
size of land owned by the household.
S
Seddon D, Blaikie P, Cameron J. 2002. Peasants and Workers in Nepal. Delhi: Adroit
Publishers.
Nine essays based on fieldwork during 1974 and 1975 analyse the economic and
social conditions in the towns and countryside of one region of Nepal, with particular
reference to peasants, workers, and the petty bourgeoisie. The authors use an integrated
social science approach in which the divisions between the disciplines of anthropology,
history, sociology and economics are set aside in favour of a consideration of the political
economy of Nepal in a historical context. Chapters on the changing circumstances of workers
and peasants, minor bureaucrats and small businessmen all acknowledge the complexity
of Nepalese society and economy, and the need for a correspondingly sophisticated
approach.
Shrestha L. 2009. Inclusive Land Policy and Human Security in Post-Conflict Situation: A Study
of Parsauni and Pratapur VDCs of Nawalparasi District [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu,
Nepal: Kathmandu University.
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Land is a very strategic socio-economic asset in an agrarian economy where wealth

and survival are measured by control of, and access to, land. It is also the source for inequity,
power struggle and conflict. This study is thus carried out with an objective to examine the
inter-relationship between access to land and human security in post conflict situation. It
is found that policy and power plays a significant role in creating land based inequities.
The role of migrant landholders is found to be more significant in the armed conflict than
the indigenous groups. The sole reason for armed conflict is found to be the land based
inequities and power relation between the large and marginal landholders. However, the
real actors are not satisfied with the outcome of the armed conflict as land based inequities
are left unaddressed. As a consequence, they feel there are chances of another form of
armed conflict.
Shrestha NR. 1982. A preliminary report on population and land resources in Nepal. Journal
of Developing Areas 16(2):197-212.
This article uses the Sen Gupta mathematical model which provides an objective
basis for deriving a population pressure index based on the relationship between population
and available natural resources. The population pressure index was computed for each of
the 75 districts of Nepal and then a map of population pressure was compared with that
of simple population density. The most important contribution that this model makes to
this spatial economic analysis is its use of production figures as the nucleus of a population
pressure index. Spatial patterns indicate that almost all the mountain and Hill districts are
overpopulated with very high population pressure indices. The population in these districts
exceeds the carrying capacity of the presently available land resources. Under population
was apparent in the Tarai District. Results of the spatial analysis indicate that there are
regional disparities with regard to spatial distribution of human and land resources. This very
spatial disparity is one of the main problems of Nepal's economy. The analysis also indicates
that simple population density does not provide an adequate index of population pressure.
Population pressure is not the same thing as simple population density. Clearly, however,
there are areas where population exerts a mounting pressure on land resources in certain
areas. Population pressure in Nepal is actually a local problem aecting a significant portion
of the population with little or no access to the means of production. A small proportion of
the population controls the majority of land, a situation which leads to population pressure
among the population with little or no control over the means of production.
Shrestha NR. 1989. Frontier settlement and landlessness among hill migrants in Nepal Tarai.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 79(3):370-389.
Frontier migration has emerged as a major demographic and development issue

in many developing nations and is directly tied to their state policy of frontier settlement.
While some scholars see frontier migration and settlement as a vehicle for migrants to
improve their socioeconomic lot, others argue that such is not the case for the majority
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of poor migrants. This study examines the question of how frontier migration aects
Nepal's hill migrants in the Tarai region. The present analysis is conducted from a structural
perspective in conjunction with field survey data collected in 1979-80. The field data are
supplemented with personal (participant) observations performed in 1979-80 and in 1988.
The findings clearly support the proposed theoretical framework and proposition: that
the ability of frontier migration and settlement to serve as a channel of upward mobility is
selective and largely determined by migrants' previous socio-economic positions. For the
majority of poor and dispossessed migrants, frontier migration has simply become a form of
spatial mobility without much upward mobility. The current trend points toward increasing
landlessness and spontaneous settlement (or near-landlessness) among hill migrants in the
Tarai, due to the combination of corruptive land distribution to settlers, diminishing land
availability, increasing migration, and high natural population growth. Such a trend does not
do little to improve poor migrants' conditions; nor does it contribute to local and national
development.
Shrestha NR. 2001. The Political Economy of Land, Landlessness and Migration in Nepal.
New Delhi: Nirala Publications.
Migration in Nepal is a brilliant example of ingenious research based on varied

frontier migration experiences and migrants' adaptations in Nepal. Nanda Shrestha here
aspires to describe, understand and explain the various facets of frontier migration, focusing
on landlessness, near landlessness and spontaneous settlement among hill migrants in
the Terai of Nepal. Shrestha discusses how land forms the axis of Nepalese local as well
as national development. The book begins with a general introduction to the Nepalese
agrarian economy and a theoretical treatment of migration in relation to social relations
of production and uneven development. Shrestha then provides a historical analysis of the
external migration and underdevelopment in Nepal, focusing on various state policies and
the policy of the British Gurkha recruitment. He then presents a theory of landlessness and
near landlessness in agrarian societies along with a macro-scale investigation of landless and
near landlessness in Nepal. Exploring the origin and changes in the frontier land colonization
policy, Dr. Shrestha emphasises role played by the patrimonial state in the formation of this
policy under the pretext of land distribution to the landless and disadvantaged peasants and
economic planning. Here Dr. Shrestha also traces the evolution of land settlement in the
Terai on the basis of his field survey and at length discusses hill residents' frontier migration
to this region in the contemporary context. The book ends with an exhaustive analysis of
how Nepal's patrimonial state has played the politics with the Terai land, leading to a rapid
spread of spontaneous settlement throughout the region. He also speculates the prospects
of migrant peasant-based agrarian revolution in Nepal and asserts that growing spontaneous
settlement is a hindrance to such a revolution.
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Shrestha NR, Conway D. 1985. Issues in population pressure, land resettlement, and
development: The case of Nepal. Studies in Comparative International Development
20(1):55-82.
This analysis considers the question of whether resettlement schemes really relieve
population pressure or help achieve a better regional balance between population and
resource distribution in a manner consistent with Nepal's national objective of agricultural
growth with social justice. The first part of the analysis discusses population pressure,
followed by the conceptualization of ecodemographic relations and sociodemographic
relations. The second part of the analysis considers Nepal's agrarian economy along with a
case-study examination of its contemporary resettlement project in Chitwan district. Finally,
information is presented from a field survey conducted in Chitwan in 1979, which support
the assertions that: the sociodemographic relations not population pressure as such are the
primary roots of agrarian development problems in a country like Nepal; and resettlement
schemes, when implemented without due consideration of the pervasive sociodemographic
relations, are a deficient technical fix to imbalances in ecodemographic relations. Nepal
provides a typical example of ecodemographic imbalances in the regional distribution of
population and resources. Although the Hill and Mountain regions make up almost 60% of
Nepal's total population, they share less than 30% of the total land under cultivation. The
Tarai region, which is the northern extension of the Gangetic Plain in India, occupies over
70% of the cultivated land and supports only slightly over 40% of the population. As the case
study illustrates, development strategies such as land resettlement are invariably formulated
and implemented as a technical solution within the framework of ecodemographic relations.
Little attention is directed to addressing the social dimension of these programmes, i.e.,
the structural problems directly associated with the existing sociodemographic relations.
Development, or land resettlement in the present case, is not simply a technical issue
concerned with land reclamation and its management. It is also a social issue, because
the sociodemographic relations determine significantly the direction (or directions) that
resettlement programmes take. When development policies make little eort to tackle the
underlying forces of these relations, resettlement schemes result in the reconstitution of
class divisions and disparity in the ownership of resources in newly resettled areas.
Shrestha VP. 1983. Land use pattern and ecology in the Madi valley. Contributions to
Nepalese Studies 11(1):89-100.
The Madi valley is the biggest and most important land unit in the Tinau watershed
area of Palpa district. Recent population growth of about 2.6 % per annum and lack
of alternative job opportunities to agriculture, compels individuals to extend cropland
towards the marginal and ecologically sensitive areas which for reasons of structure, slope
and soil quality are not suitable to agriculture. The overgrazing of animals in woodland
and cutting down of trees for fuel and timber, in combination with the practice of slash
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and burn cultivation, has meant that the area under forest along the slope of the hills is
fast diminishing. This has led to soil and gulley erosion, landslides and flood hazards. The
eects are a permanent lowering of soil fertility, frequent crop failure and a change in the
hydrological cycle by increasing silt load along river beds. The incident of flood hazards by
swollen rivers flowing from the surrounding hill slopes is increasing every year. The process
of siltation has had adverse eects on land use because fertile agricultural land is being
converted to unproductive deserted land every year. Because of increasing problems
of soil erosion, landslides and flood hazards, double or triple cropping agricultural lands
are gradually being converted into single cropping agricultural land. Thus, soil and gulley
erosion and landslides have resulted in the conversion of the valley into a semi-desert land,
thus having a negative impact on proper land use patterns. Traditional cropping patterns
followed in the Madi valley needs adjustment in view of the basic demands of the people,
and, at the same time appropriate land use measures based on conservation policies should
be adopted to protect the valley from ecological disaster.
Silpakar S. 2008. Implications of Land Tenure on Food Suciency in Dang District [Master
dissertation]. Biratnagar, Nepal: Purbanchal University.
As land is a prime factor of production for the agricultural country like Nepal,
access to it has been the major source for the livelihoods of small and medium farmers. But
access to land is governed by the tenure arrangements which in turn aect the production
and productivity of the farm. Gaining access through renting in of land has had various
implications with some studies indicating a positive outcome while others indicating a
negative outcome. In Nepal, renting in of land in the form sharecropping is widely practiced
in Mid Western Region, but there is a gap in the academic study as to whether this benefits
the farmers and makes them food sucient. In this context, this study attempts to find
out the implications of land tenure concerning agricultural households on food suciency.
The sampled area of study was one ward each from two VDCs, one from the Tarai, where
sharecropping is practiced, and the other from the hills, where there is prevalence of owner
cultivation, of Dang District. The research was designed basically following a qualitative
approach in which respondents from proportionate samples from each representative
area were interviewed using schedules constituting a total sample size of 50. The major
findings of the study were that even though secure land tenure aects the household food
suciency in a number of ways, unless the secured land is productive enough or sucient
environment to make it productive is created, land tenure issue alone would address the
issue of food security to a much lesser degree. Family size, land size, type of land and type of
tenure were the major factors governing land tenure such that these were found to have a
tremendous impact in household food suciency. Bigger family size with less economically
active population working in big rented in land without irrigation would not result in better
yield. For increased productivity and production, all of the major factors governing land
tenure system must be balanced such that this study concluded that bigger family size alone
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does not lead to food suciency nor does bigger land size alone. In addition, type of tenancy
and type of land also does determine the household food suciency in a more generic way.
The findings from this research led to the calculation of per capita requirement of land
which would ultimately lead to food suciency.
Singh S. 2008. Socio-Economic Study and Livelihood Conditions of Dalits of Geta VDC in
Kailali District [Master dissertation]. Kathmandu, Nepal: Kathmandu University.
Dalits are considered as one of the most disadvantaged groups because the
processes of social stratification and job distribution in the past have resulted in their
present socio-economic plight and their entire and perpetual backwardness. Hence, most
of the Dalits even today remain poorest of the poor. Even though many of the Dalits carry
on with their caste based and service oriented traditional occupation as well as agricultural
work, the significant return to the service they render and landlessness have made them
face appalling poverty. Therefore, the main object of this study was to examine the socio-
economic and livelihood conditions of Dalits, their household level food security with
respect to land holding size and their living standard. Socio-economic condition of Dalits in
all dimensions, such as sources of livelihoods, size of land holding, food security and other is
at lower level. Moreover, due to the smaller land holding size and also because the land they
own are also either near river or non-irrigated, it results into lesser production of the crops.
Therefore, majority of their own production lacked food security. Hence, they used others'
land under dierent tenancy mode and also worked as labors in both on farm as well as o-
farm and also involved in their traditional occupation. There are number of socioeconomic
constraints for modernization of Dalits caste based occupation since they cannot compete
in global market and also not considered as a prestigious, profitable, dignified occupation.
The wages they earned were also not regular. Therefore, they were unable to fulfill their
basic needs such as education, health, food, clothing and other facilities. This can reveal that
their condition was very pitiable. Hence, due to their limited source of income and higher
expenditure, only few numbers were able to save some of money which showed that their
financial capital was also low. This shows that they had access to only a minimal physical
capital, natural capital, financial capital and human capital which did not show their good
living standard as well. But due to their access to education, there were chances of gaining
social capital.
Socio economic and Ethno-Political Research and Training Consultancy (P) Ltd. 1998. Land
Policies, Land Management and Land Degradation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Nepal
Study Report. Kathmandu: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.
This is a study about government land policies and their impact on land utilisation
and management and on land degradation. Land policies in Nepal were, in general, found to
have a negative impact on the majority of the population and cause land degradation. It is a
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mutually reinforcing process in which degradation has aggravated poverty and poverty has
further exacerbated degradation. A review is first made of the overall national framework for
guiding development eorts with due regard given to sustainability and maintenance of the
environment. The various perspectives on land degradation are discussed and five key areas
of concern selected for this study (agriculture, property and entitlement, forestry, national
parks and wildlife, and decentralization are analysed). Performance in the country's leading
economic sector, agriculture, is found to be unsatisfactory, while achievements in forestry
and protected area management are mixed. Land ownership and tenure entitlements
are unfavourable from both equity and eciency perspectives. Finally, while there has
been considerable rhetoric regarding participatory and bottom-up processes of resource
management and decision-making, empowerment of local bodies through decentralization
remains inadequate.
T
Tiejun W, Kinchi L. 2008. Land reform and national development in Nepal.
www.landaction.org/spip/IMG/rtf/Land_reform_Nepal-english.rtf; accessed on 5 July

2010.
The paper argues that in South Asia, there has not been any successful model of
land reform conducted legally and scientifically in the name of the state, whereas in East
Asia, there has not been any unsuccessful case of land reform, whatever ideologies or
institutions the governments claimed to be. The authors are of the view that although land
reform acts had been promulgated in Nepal since 1957, and there were stipulations on
government recovery of fallow land of landowners and of excess land above the ceilings on
land holdings, and although such legal land reforms had been implemented, still, similar
to land reforms in other South Asian countries, there has not been any successful case.
This is precisely why the extra-legal land revolution by force promoted by the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN(M)) under the leadership of Prachanda could spread in the
decade of peasant armed struggle which started in 1996. CPN(M) gave up armed struggle
and participated in the elections to the Constituent Assembly, and came out as the biggest
political party in April 2008. One of the political conditions that CPN(M) reached with the
Seven Party Alliance (SPA) for joining force in overthrowing the monarchy and for CPN(M) to
participate in the elections as a legal political party was to ask peasants having seized land
during the land revolution to return the land and resume paying rent to the landowners,
pending a legal scientific land reform to be launched by the new government. This line is
not quite congruent with CPN(M)s former commitment to Maoist New Democratic theory
and instigation of peasants to take up the path of land revolution; this has also met with
resistance from the peasants with seized land and the local party organizations. In August
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2008, CPN (M) managed to lead a coalition government. This paper draws from the land
reform experience in East Asia, and makes policy recommendations as reference for avoiding
another failure of the South Asian model of legal scientific land reform in Nepal.
Thapa GB. 1996. Land use, land management and environment in a subsistence mountain
economy in Nepal. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 57(1):57-71.
In view of the growing concern about the eects of human activities on the
mountain environment of Nepal, this study examined the land use and management systems
and their environmental eects with reference to a small watershed. It was shown that
farmers had used cropping diversification, mixed cropping, cropping intensification and agro
forestry to cope with the problem of food shortage arising from their marginal landholdings.
They had terraced virtually all of their farm plots and applied compost/manure regularly,
though in inadequate amounts, to control soil erosion and maintain land productivity.
Nevertheless, farm lands on the ridges were undergoing unsustainable rates of soil erosion
and soil nutrients depletion due to frequent hoeing and ploughing of lands, application of
inadequate amounts of organic fertilizers, lack of mulching, and fallowing of lands for too
short a period and without any vegetation cover. Soil erosion was not an acute problem in
river valleys, as lands were flat and terraced, but lands were undergoing degradation owing
to an unsustainable rate of removal of soil nutrients. Non-arable agriculture using biological
soil fertilization, including legume cultivation and compost application, could conserve soil
in suitable locations and sustain the mountain environment.
Thapa S. 2000. Historical Study of Agrarian Relations in Nepal (1846-1951). Delhi: Adroit
Publishers.
The book deals with the agrarian relations in Nepal. Agriculture as such remained
dominant in the Nepalese politics. Both the landlords as well as peasant cultivators played
political roles of immense significance. For understanding of such roles, the understanding
of agrarian relations is overwhelmingly necessary.
This book is written on the theme by a native historian. All possible relations
between the state as an ultimate proprietor and land owner, landlord and peasant, land
holding intermediary and peasant cultivators and lease holding peasants and the actual
cultivators have been described. The dominance of the aristocracy and bare subsistence
conditions of the toiling peasantry is described in a lucid style. The peasant cultivators
produced capital and a portion of that produce was regularly paid as rent, taxes and levies.
But this group of poor people was never considered to be important for the government.
This situation is also exactly described in the book. Beside all these situations, the agrarian
relation between various agrarian communities in Nepal in the given period is conceptually
analyzed.
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Thapa S. 2007. The Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity: Empirical Evidence
from the Nepalese Mid-hills. Unpublished paper, CIFREM, Faculty of Economics, University
of Trento.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7638/; accessed on 25 June 2010.
This paper examines the farm size and productivity relationship using data from
Nepalese mid hills. The analysis uses models both allowing for and not allowing for village
dummies (as cluster controls), the ratio of irrigated land (as proxy for land quality), and
other socio-economic variables such as households, belonging to caste groups, and family
size (as proxy for access to resources). The result supported the almost stylized fact of
inverse relationship (IR) between farm size and output per hectare. Total cash input use and
labour hours per hectare were found to be higher on small farms. The findings of regression
equations allowing for village dummies and other socio-economic variables do not support
the explanation that the IR between farm size and productivity is due to variation in regions
as well as access to resources. Nevertheless, family size and caste dummies show some
eects on farm value added. The paper further investigates returns to scale in Nepalese
agriculture, applying the Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function. The result shows constant
returns to scale. Labour input seems more influential in farm production, followed by
manure, in the sample farms. The overall result shows that the IR between farm size and
output per hectare is perhaps due to the result more of other inputs used by small farms
rather than diseconomies of scale.
Tiwary M. 2005. Marginal farmers, agricultural practices, and rural poverty in Nepal.
Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Gesellschaft fr Agrarkonomie 12:123-147.
This paper discusses the situation of poor farmers in three ecological zones in
Nepal - mountains, hills, and Terai (plains) - each with unique agricultural practices linked
to soil quality, crop calendar, yields, crop diversity, and dierent cultural environments. The
marginal farmers are divided into three subgroups: sharecroppers and landless agricultural
labourers, marginal farmers of western districts with <0.5 h. land, and marginal farmers of
central and eastern districts with <0.5 ha land. For each subgroup, the paper discusses the
main characteristics of the livelihood strategies pursued, and the sources of poverty and
food insecurity. It is argued that, although all marginal farmers suer from unsustainably
small landholdings, the marginal farmers in western regions are worse o than those in
the east and those in the mountains (north) worse o than those in the southern plains.
The paper identifies areas of opportunities for marginal farmers, and makes a few policy
recommendations.
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U
Upreti BR. Undated. Understanding land conflict: Some basic issues in Nepal.
www.friendsforpeace.org.np/images/.../Land%20conflict-overview.pdf; accessed on 16
June 2010
Land is a means to alleviate poverty and symbol of power and prestige but legal
and policy measures are not successful to ensure rights of tenants and security of peasants
in Nepal. Land has been a constant source of potential conflict and symbol of feudalism.
However, land based local power structure has been changing over time with political
changes and increased level of organisation of peasant farmers to establish their rights.
Legally regulated land management system should have lead to socially benefited eects to
peasant farmers. It should also have prevented absentee landlordism, ensure tenural security
and increase productivity of lands. However, these expectations remain only distance hope.
Given the economically and socially highly stratified Nepalese society, extremely skewed
land distribution and ambiguous role of bureaucracy it is very dicult for the poor people
to get benefit from land reform programme. Legally regulated land reform measures are not
eective and heavily manipulated by powerful land hungers by influencing bureaucratic and
judiciary decision making process.
Upreti BR. 2002. Management of Social and Natural Resources Conflict in Nepal: Realities
and Alternatives. Delhi: Adroit Publishers.
Nepal is in the midst of conflict for the past seven years, which has several economic,
political, social and developmental implications in Nepal. This book, based on the analysis of
social and natural resource conflicts (including land), examines the causes of conflict such as
failure to meet social, political, and economic needs of people due to scarcity of resources,
corruption, bad governance and changing economic conditions.
This book critically looks on the fundamental structural causes of conflict and
assessment of performance of existing conflict resolution apparatus available in Nepal.
Responding constructively to social and natural resource conflicts requires more ingenuity,
creativity, commitment and alternative methodology. This book provides alternative
methodology to address over growing social and natural resource conflict in community to
transform conflict into a means for positive non-coercive social change. The book argues
that establishment of democratic ideals in governance system and equitable distribution of
resources can positively contribute to conflict.
COLARP
This book has demonstrated that existing legally engineered conflict resolution
systems are expensive, pro-elite, and inaccessible to general mass of population and are
heavily influenced by power and position. This book also challenges the dominant thinking
and prevalent belief that social conflicts are always pathological, dysfunctional and should
be suppressed through legal engineering to harmonise and homogenise the heterogeneous
society.
Upreti BR. 2004. Land conflict in Nepal: Peasant's struggle to change unequal agrarian social
relations. Community, Work & Family 7(3):371-393.
This paper examines the agrarian and social relationships between peasant farmers
and local feudal landlords. Using land conflict as a basis of analysis the paper explores the basic
characteristics of Nepalese power skewed rural society and its relation with land. The paper
highlights that reformative rules and regulations alone do not always govern the behavior
of powerful people in rural communities. Rather, context and time-specific, persistent local
resistance movements force changes to their behavior and associated power relations. The
paper concludes that organized peasant movements could non-coercively change existing
patron-clients relations in agrarian society. Rural families and tenant farmers are able to
establish their identity when they realize their strengths.
Upreti BR. 2010. Management of Natural Resources Conflict in Nepal: Conflicts over Land,
Water and Forest Resources and their Resolution Systems. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic
Publishing.
Natural Resources are not only basis of livelihood of Nepalese people but also
part of identity, symbol of recognition and prestige, safety net for insecurity and means
for accessing to state services. Hence, natural resource conflicts are deeply embedded
into Nepal's socio-economic and demographic characteristics, state's resource governance
systems and political structures. Formal conflict management mechanisms, institutional
arrangements, legal frameworks and operational procedures in Nepal are methodologically
inadequate, financially expensive, administratively dicult, elite-biased and inaccessible to
the poor and marginalized sections of society and therefore demand fundamental change.
Addressing the dynamics and complications of resource conflict in Nepal and contribution to
social change and economic transformation need interactive conflict management system
that include a people-centred, learning-based and action-oriented, methodology, flexible
institutional arrangement, supportive legal arrangements and adaptive approach.
COLARP
Upreti BR, Sharma SR, Basnet J, editors. 2008. Land Politics and Conflict in Nepal: Realities
and Potentials for Agrarian Transformation. Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC), South
Asia Regional Coordination Oce of NCCR North-South and Human and Natural Resources
Studies Centre-Kathmandu University (HNRSC-KU).
Land has always been one of the major causes of armed conflict and structural
violence in Nepal. Land is also a source of feudal socio-economic structure in the country.
Hence, examining land issues from these perspectives is crucially important to initiate
fresh debates on the potential contribution of land reform in the transformation process
and addressing the problems of landlessness in the changing political context. This book
particularly focuses on conflict and exclusion of marginalized people in access to and control
of land resources and associated power dynamics in Nepal. It attempts to bring perspectives
and experiences of the Haliyas, Haruwas, Charuwas and the semi-bonded labourers,
discusses the causes of land conflict, land-based theoretical and conceptual issue, land
related experiences of dierent countries, and possible ways for future direction towards
progressive (transformative) land reform.
W
Wily LA, Chapagain D, Sharma S. 2008. Land Reform in Nepal: Where is It Coming from and
Where is It Going?. Kathmandu: Liz Alden Wily, Devendra Chapagain, Shiva Sharma.
Nepal has attempted to reform skewed land ownership through redistributive

land reforms since the 1950s with less success. Alden Wily et al show that a focus on who
owns the farm is not going to be enough to make a dierence to land-based inequities. The
authors argue for a new approach to land reform, one which begins in the village with each
community determining and managing its own ceilings and redistribution plan, focusing
on the abundant idle lands owned by absentee landlords and formalising the occupancy of
thousands of low-caste and indigenous households on so-called public lands. They argue
that after half a century of failed top-down initiatives this is now the only way forward.
COLARP
Z
Zaman MA. 1978. The role of land administration in agricultural development. Agricultural
Administration 5(3): 219-230.
Drawing on evidence from Bangladesh and Nepal, this paper demonstrates

that inadequacies in land administration are largely responsible for the very limited
implementation of land reform accomplished in those two countries. It proposes that an
ecient land administration organisation, possessing terms of reference directly related to
local conditions, is virtually a prerequisite for agricultural development in possibly a majority
of developing countries. Organisational structure and functional procedures to remedy
existing administrative approaches are described.
Zurick DN. 1988. Resource needs and land stress in Rapti Zone, Nepal. The Professional
Geographer 40(4):428-443.
Regional and village land resource issues and environmental conditions in the
Rapti zone, western Nepal are discussed in the context of the Himalaya Environmental
Degradation theory (Ives 1987). Ecological stress is indicated in agriculture to forest land
ratios, farmland capability, and land use change. Intra-regional dierences and specific local
conditions indicate the complex dimensions of environmental and development issues in
the Rapti zone.
COLARP

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An Introduction to

To contribute to addressing land related issues by systematically engaging the consortium in

To promote informed policy debate on land issues;

To develop COLARP as an independent 'think tank' on land resources.

www.nepjol.info/index.php/AEJ/article/viewArticle/2138; accessed on 26 April 2009.

Land degradation is a major challenge of Nepal. The paper focuses mainly on

www.fig.net/pub/fig2008/papers/ts07b/ts07b_02_acharya_2747.pdf; accessed on 21 June

www.fig.net/pub/fig2009/papers/ts05a/ts05a_acharya_3352.pdf; accessed on 23 June

Dalits are considered as synonymous to landlessness. They do not have enough

www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/isco/isco13/PAPERS%20A-E/ARYAL.pdf ; accessed on 16 June 2010

In smallholder farming, women play an important role and their contribution to

To take the advantage of the advancement of information and communication

Burton S, Kennedy G, Schreier H. 1990. An analysis of land-use options in Chitwan, Nepal.

www.socialinclusion.org.np/download.php?p=researchReport&f; accessed on 21 June.

Nepal has been experiencing a permanent rural-to-rural migration of households

Through a close reading of a land dispute in northeastern Nepal, the author

This critical analysis of the performance of land reform programmes on a world-

Historically, Nepal has demonstrated a "great turnabout" trend, in which initial

http://www.sasnet.lu.se/EASASpapers/15KrishnaKarkee.pdf; accessed on 16 June, 2010.

This paper examines the extent, causes, and consequences of abandonment of

This research explains the relationship of women's landownership with that

resulting in an eco-crisis. Manandhar Gurung, a native Nepalese, believes otherwise.

Land is indicator of broader socioeconomic status in agrarian society like Nepal. It

Land based livelihood options overwhelmingly predominate in an agrarian society

Neupane M. 2008. Access to Land Resources: Livelihood Strategy of Ex-Kamaiya of Kailali

Kamayia is an agriculture-based bonded labour system, practiced in the Terai belt of

Amidst the growing concern about agricultural underdevelopment in developing

www.fig.net/pub/proceedings/nairobi/oli-TS10-4.pdf; accessed on 23 June 2010.

Regmi MC. 1977. Land Ownership in Nepal. Delhi: Adroit Publishers.

Land is a very strategic socio-economic asset in an agrarian economy where wealth

Frontier migration has emerged as a major demographic and development issue

Migration in Nepal is a brilliant example of ingenious research based on varied

www.landaction.org/spip/IMG/rtf/Land_reform_Nepal-english.rtf; accessed on 5 July

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7638/; accessed on 25 June 2010.

Nepal has attempted to reform skewed land ownership through redistributive

Drawing on evidence from Bangladesh and Nepal, this paper demonstrates

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