December 10: Agricultural Census 2078 has shown that the share of women who own agricultural land in Nepal is 34.4 percent. This is the first study in Nepal about women's ownership of agricultural land.

The National Statistics Office announced the results of the National Agricultural Census 2078 regarding indicators of sustainable development goals and published data on women's ownership of agricultural land.

According to the data, women in Gandaki Province own most of the agricultural land, while Karnali Province has the least amount of women’s ownership. The share of women having agricultural land in their name is 38.5 percent in Gandaki Province and 28.7 percent in Karnali.

Director of the NSO, Badri Kumar Karki, said that Gandaki Province announced large amount of tax exemption while keeping agricultural land in name of women and therefore more women in the province have ownership of agricultural.

The results of the National Agricultural Census 2078 shows that the percentage of adult agricultural population (18 years and above) who have secured ownership of agricultural land is 31.4. Looking at the state wise data, this percentage is the highest in Gandaki at 34.6 and the lowest in Karnali at 29 percent.

From the point of view of gender analysis, 42.9 percent of the total adult males involved in farming families have secure ownership of agricultural land. In case of women, this percentage is 20.8 percent. Province-wise, the percentage of adult males is the highest at 47.6 in Bagmati Province and the lowest at 40.1 in Madhesh Province.

Similarly, in the case of adult women having ownership of agricultural land, it has been found that the highest percentage is 24.2 in Gandaki Province and the lowest is 16.3 in Karnali Province.

In Nepal, out of 62 percent of the households involved in agricultural work, 32 percent of the households are headed by women.

Agricultural land has an important contribution to the livelihood in Nepal. Therefore, the ownership of agricultural land can make a significant contribution to the overall upliftment of the agricultural population as well as women's empowerment in particular.

The data shows that a total of 1,32,11,349 are involved in agriculture in Nepal including 68,63,412 women and 63,47,936 men.