No pension to farmers keeping land barren

Kathmandu, May 31: Minister for Agriculture Haribol Gajurel has said landowners keeping land barren will not be entitled to pension. Talking to RSS about the implementation of new budget the government unveiled last Saturday, Minister Gajurel said pension facility for farmers as mentioned in the budget for upcoming fiscal will come into effect within the end of this year (2073 BS) after going through necessary preparations.
The government for the first time has announced the pension facility for those farmers involved in agriculture for a long time and making notable contributions to increased productivity. During the budget speech, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel said farmers keeping arable land uncultivated would deserve punishment.
As per the statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Development, one million 30 thousand hectares of arable land is barren while the latest data of the Department of Foreign Employment shows that five million youth are toiling hard in 80 different countries of the world. Such huge human resources could be used in farming. Country’s farmers are categorised into four groups–landless, small, middle and professional. As per the government announcement, farmers over 60 years and involved in agriculture for continuous 20 years will be entitled to the pension facility, but the pension amount has not been mentioned. The Agricultural Census-2068 BS projects that some 116,000 population have no land of their own for farming.