Kathmandu: Minister of Land Management, Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation Balaram Adhikari has said that the existing problems related to land and agriculture can be resolved. While inaugurating Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA)’s regional workshop and 11th general assembly in Kathmandu, the minister said that food security is the major burning issue of the day and therefore the nation’s prosperity hinges on the hard works of farmers and peasants. He argued that people should be integrated with agriculture and land system and only then famers will feel the change in their lives. He also informed that the government is soon forming a land commission for the same purpose.
Around 150 persons from 18 different countries are participating in the program taking place in Kathmandu. Established in 2002, AFA is an Asian alliance of national farmers organizations composed of small-scale women and men family farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, forest users, herders, and pastoralists. AFA works to promote and secure tenurial rights of small-scale women and men family farmers over natural resources such as lands, waters, forests, seeds, said Jagat Deuja, the member of AFA who is also the executive director of Community Self Reliance Center. The general assembly will also elect new leadership of AFA, according to Anita Kharel, the coordinator of the program.
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