book1

the distribu� on of this valuable produc� ve resource is highly skewed. More
than fi � y fi ve percent of the farm families are either landless or hold less
than 0.5 ha of cul� vable land in Nepal (table 1). Over 70 % of peasants
operate on less than one hectare of land 11 . A majority of the fer� le land in
the country is held by absentee landlords who principally derive their means
of living other than farming.
Table 8.1: Distribu� on of land in Nepal 12
Farm families types Number Land holding size/family percentage
Landless 287100 0-0.1 ha 10.13
Marginal cul� vators 6,70,000 0.1-0.3 ha 23.63
Small farmers 6,48,000 0.3-0.5 ha 22.86
Medium farmers 1131560 0.5-3.0ha 39.92
Big farmers 93700 3.0-10.0ha 3.33
Very Big farmers 3800 >10 ha of land holding 0.13
Nepali society is highly diversifi ed in terms of caste, class, gender,
ethnicity, language and cultural pa� erns. Gender-bias against women is
a well established historical and socio-cultural legacy of Nepalese society
governed by patriarchal Hindu ideology that largely limits their access to
land, income and employment opportuni� es making them more vulnerable
to food insecurity 13 . Extreme forms of discrimina� on are found against
women at household and community level though the law has given equal
opportunity.
Nepali society is comprised of 37% of the indigenous popula� on
belonging to 59 diff erent na� onali� es with more than 100 diff erent
dialects 14 . Unfortunately, majority of the indigenous people of Nepal were
systema� cally discriminated in na� onal unifi ca� on process. The so-called
high caste Hindus hailed from Nepal's western hills controlled the state
poli� cs since the 18 th century and gradually Hinduized the en� re indigenous
popula� on (who are not the Hindus by origin) of the country. In more than
238 years long rule of Gorkha kings, the indigenous communi� es were forced
not only to lose their iden� ty but also the tradi� onal means of livelihoods
and were pushed into the margins.
Indigenous people's food system cannot be understood outside the
context of their cultural prac� ces. For them the means of livelihoods such
as land tradi� onally tend to have a collec� ve dimension with the ownership
rights largely vested on the community as such, for example Kipat system
among Limbus of eastern Nepal. This tradi� onal system of land ownership
11. Central Bureau of Sta� s� cs (2009). Report on the Nepal Labour Force Survey
12. Report of the High Level Commission of Scien� fi c Land Reforms, Nepal (2010).
13. Pandey, Devendra Raj (2000) Nepal’s Failed Development: Refl ec� ons on the Mission and
the Maladies. Kathmandu: Nepal South Asia Centre.
14. h� p://nefi n.org.np
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Changing paradigms of aid eff ec� veness in Nepal