Policy Problems and Progressive Solutions to Halt Increasing Social Harms on Disadvantaged Rural Communities from Current Neo-Colonial Land grabbing policy in Nepal: Insights and Opinions

Bhubaneswor  Dhakal; Kedar Adhikari

doi:10.3126/nppr.v2i1.48686

Authors

Bhubaneswor Dhakal Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch School, University of Otago
Kedar Adhikari Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/nppr.v2i1.48686

Keywords:

Agriculture, Carbon-Forestry, Exploitations, Foreign Interventions, Indigenous Ethnic Communities, Land Grabbing Strategies, Policy Drivers

Abstract

Many critical problems are intensified in rural Nepal despite the policy advice and financial support from international agencies to alleviate them. This study attempted to explain the causes and policy solutions to the problems based on secondary sources of data and the authors’ insights. It identified that international agencies involved actively in policymaking and guided the land resource management policy to result in the best benefits to the people in privileged regions and other countries. The policies ruined institutions, resource conditions, social-ecological systems, and social environments essential for sustaining mountain farming and the rural economy in the country. The destructions exacerbated emigration, farming land abandonment, indigenous farming practice loss, food insecurity, and cultural heritage degradation. Adverse impacts of the policy interventions are exposed higher in disadvantaged areas and especially in the regions of indigenous ethnic communities. Those policies have institutionally placed the communities suffering for generations and increased risks of out-breaking interethnic conflicts and national security threats on many dimensions. This study explained some pragmatic policy measures to manage the agriculture and forestry resources for community wellbeing and national security. It also demonstrated how the national expert-driven policies would be for addressing the current problems in rural areas and the holistic development of the nation.

Author Biographies

Bhubaneswor Dhakal, Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch School, University of Otago

Bhubaneswor Dhakal (PhD) achieved his Bachelor's degree at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and postgraduate degrees in the field of policies and economics of the forest and natural resources at Lincoln University New Zealand. He worked in the Forestry Sector of Nepal for 10 years. Dhakal also did research on Forest and agricultural management problems at government research institutes in New Zealand and Australia. Currently, he is working as a biostatistical modeler to investigate problems in mental and public health field at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Voluntarily, he is studying approaches that foreign agencies applied to influence on Nepal's forestry and agricultural policies and managed the resources for the benefit of developed countries. This is one of the publications of the work.

Kedar Adhikari, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney

Dr Kedar Adhikari completed his Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar India; Masters degree in plant breeding from the University of Manitoba in Canada and PhD in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Sydney in Australia. Dr Adhikari has more than 25 years of experience as a plant breeder in Australia and over five years in Nepal. He currently leads the grain legume breeding program at the University of Sydney. He has released several varieties of grain legumes in Australia and they are widely adopted by farmers. Apart from breeding varieties, Dr Adhikari is an active academic leader involved in teaching and training post-graduate students in plant breeding. More than ten PhD students and several honours students have graduated under his supervision. Dr Adhikari has published nearly 80 papers in international refereed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters.

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