| dc.description.abstract | Rapid urbanization in the Kathmandu Valley is converting agriculture land in
urban fringes to housing needs. The conversion is taking place mostly in
haphazard manner in a self grown way and some in regulated way by land
development scheme implemented by the government. Land development
schemes as land pooling are seen in dual way; one as promoting regularised
land development contributing to housing needs and the other as threat to
arable land in the urban fringes of the Kathmandu Valley. The main stakeholder
in the land pooling process, landowners, mostly farmers are the most affected
one and it is supposed that most of the conflicts are generated during the
process due to opposition of farmers. But it is necessary to understand their
perception towards land pooling to arrive to its affect which compelled them for
taking actions. So, the research departed with the Research Question:
What are farmers’ diverse interests, objectives and actions in land development
schemes in the urban fringes of the Kathmandu Valley?
The research paper is divided into six chapters; Chapter 1: Introduction about
the problem and the cases and the research perspective. Chapter 2: Research
Methods, the chapter describes about the process of case study method
applied during field study and the analysis framework. Chapter 3: Theoretical
Framework related to the case. Chapter 4: Context, background characteristics
of the case study area. Chapter 5: Case presentation and Case Analysis
including findings and Chapter 6: Conclusions
Sinamangal land pooling project area and Dibyeswori land pooling project area
were chosen as cases. The two cases supplemented each other, Dibyeswori
case was dealt as primary case and Sinamangal case as secondary case.
Sinamangal land pooling project is already completed so the analysis in that
case was related to the impact of land pooling to the initial landowners, farmers
and the perception of new landowners/ house owners of the area towards land
pooling. The analysis was done using SWOT Analysis framework, the
government officials who were involved in the land pooling process were also
interviewed so two SWOT analyses were done based on interviewees;
i) original landowners- farmers and the new residents of the area and ii)
government officials.
The primary case, Dibyswori land pooling project is in stalled condition due to
opposition from majority of farmers considering it as threat to their arable land.
The project work halted due to conflict situation. The conflict has various
dimensions so the Conflict Analysis Framework (CAF) was used to understand
the various dimensions of conflict and the conflict generating factors. The
analysis was carried out to contribute in making recommendations for mitigating
conflict situation in Dibyeswori land pooling area and the possibility of land
development schemes for fulfilling housing needs to be taken positively by the
farmers so that the case shall be presented as model for urban fringes
development and conservation of arable land.
The study revealed the underlying reasons and the involvement / role of
different interest groups, actors in the conflict generation in the project. The
issue was not related to only landowners/ farmers and government agencies; it
unfolded its link up to political situation, power relations and the inability of land
development initiatives to fulfil the long term vision of the area. The discrepancy
between the development vision of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality and the
proposed plan of Dibyeswori illustrated the current development practice which
is incapable to address the local needs, context, tradition and culture of the area
which would lead to unsustainable form of development. | nb_NO |
