Land bank: Why should Nepal reject this idea?

The Nepal government’s announcement to establish a ‘land bank’ in 300 local units in FY 2020/21 was a matter of shock than a surprise for many as it was out when the newly formed Land Commission was preparing to “resolve” ages-old land-related problems. The debate surfaced for and against it in tandem with the effort to provide land to landless without substantive efforts to dissect inherent problems or stitch opportunities about the need and appropriateness of the land bank.

The government believes that the proposed ‘land bank’ programme will reduce the trend of abandoning arable land and substantively increase production. However, the contribution of the policy towards equity and efficiency remains unknown as the government did not pilot the project to examine its applicability in the existing local realities. It has become urgent to debunk the myths used for the programme and to show how secured land access is critical to protect livelihoods by first addressing the question of landlessness, informalities, guthis , the land beyond ceiling sand tenancy land separation.