Land Reform: Need of the hour for Food Sovereignty of all!

The Praja Abilasha land coalition which work for reform land policies and work against the land grabbing in many parts of the country is one of the main campaigns which NAFSO is engaged in this period. We, highly focus on various displacements due to land grabbing at many parts of the country.
One side it is war and tsunami displaced people, development displaced people due to various development schemes in tourism zones, mega construction schemes such as harbours, power plants, high ways etc. At the same time, number of natural disasters caused to displace people in many parts of the country, including people who are displaced and landless due to land slides, floods etc.
Some people are landless as land tenure issues are heavily pressurising them.Plantation workers who are living in their small shelters more than 6 generatons are still landless and homeless as they can not do any kind of renovation to their shelters.
In Sri Lanka, various districts affected due to Human/Elephant co-existence issues are emerging as national issues.
Our main focus is to;

> to establish land reform commission,
> to formulate a national land policy with the participation of all the stake holders,
> to recognize the land right as a fundamental right by the constitution,
> to take necessary steps to achive in collaboration with the executive and legislature bodies of the country,

We see the necessity of such reform process to eradicate poverty and to ensure the food security of the people in the country, specifically the landless poor and displaced communities and plantation poor people in the country.

There will be foeld campaign carried out by NAFSO policy studies team together with the Praja Abilasha net work members in the east coast of Sri Lanka, where government claim there is a big development taking place due to Awakening the East program from 21-23rd April, which is the coming week.
We want to meet those landless people due to war and tsunami as well as development displaced communities due to harbour construction, super high way construction etc.
DIFSO, the east coast partner organization at Ampara district organize the work and we do hope this will be a good opportunity to raise the issues emerging from the communities to draw the attention by relevent authorities, politicians etc.
For more information, contact
or
the policy studies coordinator of NAFSO and the Coordinator, Praja Abilasha network.

Simillar story is coming up from the South Asian region and I would like to add the same to my blog for focus the depth of the issue.

Herman Kumara,
17.04.10

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/19-land-reform-640-hh-06

Speakers at a seminar have pointed out that Pakistan’s food crisis
will not be resolved until ‘true’ land reforms are introduced and food
security is provided to peasants. The truth of this assertion is
supported by evidence from countries that have adopted a policy of
equitable land distribution.


The problem in Pakistan has been of a historical nature. The pattern
of landholdings in this country that is rooted in the feudal structure
was inherited from the colonial era, and allowed the rulers to exploit
the system to their own advantage. This system also empowered the big
landholders who ensured that land reforms were never introduced. That
is why the three land reforms announced in the country — by Gen Ayub
in 1959 and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972 and 1977 —have been flawed and
have not changed the power equation. The concentration of land in the
hands of a few has meant low crop yields. Thus according to the
International Fund for Agricultural Development over 10 per cent of
cultivable land in Pakistan is owned by 0.3 per cent of landlords with
farms of over 150 acres. They lack the motivation of the small farmer
who depends on land for his livelihood.


Land reform is no more on the government’s agenda. The closest it has
come to providing land to tillers is by distributing state-owned land
under Programme for Grant of Land to Poor Landless Haris in Sindh.
However, of the 212,000 acres earmarked for distribution only 41,000
acres have been distributed in the last two years. But possession
could not be taken in many cases because the feudals had encroached on
it or the land was waterlogged. If the government agreed with the view
that a peasant who owns his own land produces higher yields it would
seriously consider land reforms and a change in tenancy laws.