Zoning In Nepal

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2012/04/09/money/zoning-to-be-done-as-concrete-overruns-farmland/233633.html

The government in Nepal is proposing a policy that will implant zones of land use. The major zones will be agriculture, forest, residential, urban, and industrial. The policy is being implanted because of declining food supplies. The Nepal government want to make sure that land that is fertile enough for farming is used for farming and that land that is fertile is also not left unused. The own of the farmland can ask for special permission to use the land in special cases. The policy also gives the government the right to level heavy taxes if farmland is not used. The reason for the policy is that housing projects are taking farm land and the massive lost of farm land in the past years.

How countries handle food shortages is an important issues that the world is facing. Nepal use of zoning areas is a way that use other countries policies in a different way. The US which does not have a food shortage use zoning laws. These laws are more used to keep business under control. In Nepal if this policy is enforced than this could be a positive step in stopping hunger. The policy allows the government to make sure that the land is being used for farming and not homes. The other thing this law does is prevent land that should be used as left unused if the owner is not there. With this law Nepal can maximize there land so there is more farming and there for more food.

The other interesting part of this policy is the about of power that the government took and passed up. The government used this to get it so that the land has to be zoned and the government decides the zones. This gives the government the power to decide if some land is now farmland and force people to farm or face huge taxes. The government does not take all of the power in that the zones will be set and then not changed. Also all of the zones are set around farming which is less profitable than industry meaning the government is passing up money. The most important part of the policy is that the government does not take over the land. This is important when governments take over parts of the economy the economy goes down. Overall I feel this policy is a go idea for the country of Nepal to prevent hunger.

Kevin Whaley