Developing a scalable training model in global mental health: pilot study of a video-assisted training Program for Generalist Clinicians in Rural Nepal.

BackgroundIn low- and middle-income countries, mental health training often includes sending few generalist clinicians to specialist-led programs for several weeks. Our objective is to develop and test a video-assisted training model addressing the shortcomings of traditional programs that affect scalability: failing to train all clinicians, disrupting clinical services, and depending on specialists.MethodsWe implemented the program -video lectures and on-site skills training- for all clinicians at a rural Nepali hospital. We used Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to evaluate pre- and post-test change in knowledge (diagnostic criteria, differential diagnosis, and appropriate treatment). We used a series of 'Yes' or 'No' questions to assess attitudes about mental illness, and utilized exact McNemar's test to analyze the proportions of participants who held a specific belief before and after the training. We assessed acceptability and feasibility through key informant interviews and structured feedback.ResultsFor each topic except depression, there was a statistically significant increase (Δ) in median scores on knowledge questionnaires: Acute Stress Reaction (Δ = 20, p = 0.03), Depression (Δ = 11, p = 0.12), Grief (Δ = 40, p < 0.01), Psychosis (Δ = 22, p = 0.01), and post-traumatic stress disorder (Δ = 20, p = 0.01). The training received high ratings; key informants shared examples and views about the training's positive impact and complementary nature of the program's components.ConclusionVideo lectures and on-site skills training can address the limitations of a conventional training model while being acceptable, feasible, and impactful toward improving knowledge and attitudes of the participants

Farmers’ rights and access and benefit sharing mechanisms in community seed banks in Nepal

Farmers’ Rights and access and benefit sharing (ABS) are important and interlinked issues in the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. This chapter aims to assess the current status and policy gaps of implementing farmers’ rights and ABS mechanisms with regard to community seed banks and the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in Nepal. It also explores potential options and strategies to promote community seed banks as local legitimate institutions for formalizing ABS mechanisms and realizing farmers’ rights. The information for this study is generated and synthesized from a review of relevant policies and programs, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with community seed bank members and stakeholder consultation meetings. Recently, community seed banks (CSBs) are emerging as important communitybased institutions for local level access and exchange of genetic resources, strengthening local seed system, realizing farmers’ rights and safeguarding agrobiodiversity. They are also gradually emerging as a local grass-roots institution for crop improvement, variety maintenance and registration of local varieties for increased benefit sharing with farmers and local communities. A well-functioning CSB adopts community biodiversity management (CBM) approaches and tools, such as community biodiversity register, diversity field school, diversity fair, community biodiversity management fund, participatory plant breeding, value addition and marketing to promote local access, exchange, use and conserve crop genetic resources using customary rules and practices. At present, however, there are no formal mechanisms, rules, guidelines and protocols for facilitating access, exchange and use of genetic resources from the CSBs in line with national and international policies and protocols. Considering this situation, we propose a model for developing a community seed bank as a legitimate institution (platform) for prior-informed consent (PIC) and ABS mechanisms and formalizing farmers’ rights to genetic resources. This will, however, require creating incentive mechanisms for custodian farmers and communities and bringing support from formal sector agencies through relevant policies, legislation and programs to promote and sustain community seed banks

Floral anatomy and systematic position of the genus Balanites

A pedicel contains a ring of conjoint vascular bundles. Ten traces diverge out from the ring. Of these, five are sepal dorsals and the other five are compound, each splitting up tangentially to give rise to two marginal traces of adjacent sepals and a petal dorsal. The receptacular stele gives out ten staminal traces in two whorls of five each. Around the base of the ovary the disc is with prominent vascular supply. The receptacular stele finally consists of only five bundles which become completely used up in furnishing the vascular supply of the gynoecium. The placentation is anatomically and topographically axile. There has been an acrimonious debate regarding the systematic position of the genus Balanites. It was originally placed in the Zygophyllaceae then shifted to the Simaroubaceae and finally a separate family Balanitaceae was created. Retention of the genus Balanites in the Zygophyllaceae is supported on the basis of floral anatomy, embryology, taxonomy and pollen morphology

Intra-varietal diversity in landrace and modern variety of rice and buckwheat

The increased intra-varietal diversity has been considered as coping mechanism against unpredictable environmental factors in crop production. Relatively the risk of crop failure is minimum in landraces than in modern variety mainly because of homogenous population in modern variety. The diversity was estimated and compared between landrace and modern variety of rice and common buckwheat in both quantitative and qualitative traits. Three landraces and three modern varieties of rice were used as self-pollinated crop and experiment was conducted in Jumla. Common buckwheat was used as cross pollinated crop in Kabre consisted of nine landraces and one modern variety. These two experiments were unreplicated and variation was measured at population level. Standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Shannon’ diversity index were estimated and variation between landraces and modern varieties was tested using F-test. Dendogram was drawn considering all observed traits for both the crops. In case of rice, variation was higher in landraces than in modern varieties for most of the traits. Variation for majority of the traits was also higher in landraces than in modern varieties of common buckwheat. This higher level of intra-varietal diversity in landraces of both crops might be the major phenomenon to have increased capacity to cope with different environmental stresses. The level of variation in both landraces and modern varieties is trait specific, in some traits, landraces showed higher intra-varietal diversity. The higher level of intra-varietal diversity should be considered for resilient production system and favorable policy environment should be created to promote the use of such diversity

A novel approach for implementing community seed banks in the mountain area of Nepal

Community seed bank (CSB) is one of the approaches successfully applied in Nepal and globally for conservation and use of local crop diversity for food and agriculture. However, there are only a few success examples of CSBs in high mountain areas of Nepal, particularly focusing on traditional underutilized crops. This chapter aims to present the modality and experiences of implementing community seed banks in mountain districts, namely, Humla, Jumla, Lamjung and Dolakha, by the UNEP GEF Local Crop Project (LCP) jointly implemented by Bioversity International, NAGRC, DoA and LI-BIRD. The project was implemented in 2014 in Nepal for providing diversity rich solutions and mainstreaming the conservation and use of local agricultural biodiversity in the mountain agricultural production landscapes. The LCP adopted Diversity Field School (DFS) approach to sensitize and mobilize communities about the importance of local crop genetic resources, paving way in realizing the need of CSB and its institutionalization. DFS approach has been found effective to identify and mobilize custodians of agrobiodiversity, promote good practices such as participatory variety selection, grass-roots breeding, food fairs and promote farmer- to-farmer learning and sharing as a part of local capacity building processes. DFS approach has empowered women farmers to take leadership roles in managing community seed banks. The project engaged local governments (Palikas) from the beginning to make them realize the vital need of CSBs, strengthen local seed systems as a mechanism to increase access to quality seeds of traditional and underutilized crop species. It has resulted a positive outcome to develop ownership on institutionalizing CSB in local agriculture development plans and providing significant amount of financial resources and material support to establish and sustain CSBs in LCP sites. In remote high mountain areas, where seed business opportunity is limited; engagement of and ownership of local government is crucial to sustain CSBs

Rice landrace diversity in Nepal. Socio-economic and ecological factors determining rice landrace diversity in three agro-ecozones of Nepal based on farm surveys

In Nepal, in traditional rice farming systems many diverse landraces are grown in all of the rice agro-ecosystems from low to high altitude. Three case study sites were selected to represent the major rice agro-ecozones: Bara (100–150 m) for the low-altitude terai (plain); Kaski (700–1,206 m) for the mid-hill zone; and Jumla (2,200–3,000 m) for the high-hill zone. The diversity in rice varieties was compared in these three sites and nine survey villages in a series of surveys conducted in 1998, 1999 and 2006. The level and distribution of diversity on farm varied with the physical and socio-economic settings of the farming communities. The mid-hill site (Kaski) had the highest rice landrace diversity. This was adapted to the diverse agro-ecosystems found there and there was equal diversity in Kule khet (irrigated lands by seasonal canals) and Sim khet (marshy wet land). The next most diverse system was Nicha khet (irrigated lowlands) in Bara, the low-altitude site. The high-hill site (Jumla) had the lowest rice diversity. Across all sites many of the landraces were rarely grown and then only in small areas, reflecting the specialized uses to which they were put. At all sites the most common single landrace occupied less than half of the rice area. Resource-rich farmers were the more important custodians of on-farm rice varietal diversity across the sites. There was more rice diversity in favourable environments than in less favourable ones. This was true whether diversity was measured across sites or across rice domains within sites