Comparative Study of Growth Statistics of Two Species of Paulownia and Optimization of Rooting Methods

Paulownia is a fast-growing woody tree, native to the forests of China. It belongs to the family Scrophulariaceae and is mainly used as a source of wood for furniture and musical instruments. Due to its fast-growing nature and high-quality of wood, there has been growing interest in cultivation and research of Paulownia in Nepal. Growth comparison was performed by measuring shoot length in in vitro condition. Among two species of Paulownia - Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud and Paulownia fortuneii (Seem.) Hemsl., the growth rate of P. tomentosa was found to be 0.355 cm/week while that of P. fortuneii was found to be 0.637 cm/week in in-vitro conditions in MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/l NAA and 1mg/l BAP. Optimization of rooting methods was also performed, in which, sand rooting was found to be easier and more effective than in-vitro rooting. Dipping the plantlets in 1 mg/l of NAA was found to produce longer and denser roots than lower or higher concentrations during sand rooting

Germplasm rescue and repatriation

Due to many factors such as increase access and availability of modern varieties, change in market preferences, low productivity of native landraces and climate change, crop landraces are threatened and are at the risk of losing from the fields. Still there are many rare and unique landraces conserved by farmers in different parts of the country. Native agricultural genetic resources that are being grown in red zone areas are all endangered. Unique and rare landraces as well as landraces grown in small areas by few farmers are also endangered. Different natural calamities also make native landraces endangered. Such landraces are lost if further conservation action did not take place. Exploration and collection of such endangered landraces is called germplasm rescue. National gene bank started rescue since 2014 for buckwheat diversity in Dolpa district

Phenotypic characterization and diversity of Nepalese garlic (Allium sativum L.) landraces

A total 37 garlic landraces collection from Nepal Genebank were characterized using phenotypic trait maps or agro morphological markers at National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre (Genebank), Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal during 2017 using quantitative and qualitative traits. Shannon and Weaver diversity index (H’) analysis revealed significant intra landrace diversity for both quantitative and qualitative traits. Nine principal components contributed 100 % to the cumulative variance and the first three principle components with Eigen value >1 accounted for 69.9 % of the entire variability.The cluster analysis grouped the 37 accessions into five distinct group. The Accession CO4816 from cluster 5 were superior in terms of yield attributing characters such as number of cloves/bulb, weight of cloves and yield but found to be shorter is plant height.  Pearson correlation analysis among eight quantitative traits showed highly significant positive correlation between leaf length and leaf width, leaf length and shaft length, leaf length and yield, weight of cloves and yield. The high yield is associated with leaf length, leaf width, weight of cloves and number of cloves. The frequency distribution for disease (Cercospora leafspot and Alternaria porii) occurrence were very low in 78 % of the accessions

Germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed systems in red zone areas

Native agrobiodiversity become endangered and even lost due to natural disasters in red zone area such as earthquake that hit Nepal on April and May 2015. Endangered agricultural genetic resources should be rescued and revival of disrupted local seed system was essential for sustainable and productive agriculture in earthquake affected areas. The objectives of this paper are to document methods employed to rescue germplasm and rebuild local seed systems in earthquake affected areas to restore lost crop diversity and strengthen local seed systems. Among 14 severely hit districts by April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, 10 districts were selected for germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed system. We surveyed households and sensitized relevant stakeholders. Earthquake affected areas were declared as red zones and status of crop landraces were assessed through survey, five cell analysis and focus group discussion. Three germplasm rescue techniques, namely direct rescue, diversity fair and indirect rescue were applied. Local seed systems were rebuilt through diversity fair, diversity block, seed exchange, repatriation and diversity kits. Collected accessions were characterized, multiplied and conserved in National Genebank and community seed banks. About 5-10% of total local crop diversity (based on the landraces) were lost due to earthquake in these districts. A total of 921 accessions of 61 crops along with 284 rare and endangered crop landraces were collected and rescued from 35 VDCs of 10 severely earthquake affected districts. Climate analogue sites and climate smart germplasm were identified for some of earthquake affected areas, and five landraces of four crops were repatriated. Participatory seed exchange, diversity fairs and 200 diversity kits (containing 3 to 5 varieties) were employed to revive the local seed systems. Farmers’ preferred landraces were conserved in Community Seed Bank in Lamjung and Dolakha and all collections were conserved in Naional Genebank, Khumaltar, Nepal. The study concludes that multiple approaches and tools are necessary for germplasm rescue and rebuilding local seed systems from red zone area &nbsp

On-farm agrobiodiversity measurement and conservation

Total agrobiodiversity of any area is necessary to plan the implementation of agricultural and environmental projects and activities. Diversity is most for advancing agriculture development, however, modern agriculture has accelerated the replacement of old age crop diversity. Agrobiodiversity index and measures are commonly used and estimated for crop and animal species, landraces and sites. These are useful for locating sites, crops and custodians of agrobiodiversity. Agrobiodiversity includes crop and plant; livestock and fish, insect and microbial genetic resources that are cultivated, semi domesticated or wild. Diversity are ated properly that leads to choose the conservation approaches effectively

Intellectual Property Right on Basmati Rice: Current Scenario and Evidences of Origin, Diversity, Cultivation and Use Values of Basmati Rice in Nepal

Basmati rice, also called the king/prince of rice landraces has very special values in Nepalese society as well as in other countries of Indian Subcontinent. With the objectives of collecting, analyzing and documenting Basmati related information in Nepal, we visited different sites; carried out key informant surveys; organized focus group discussions, online interaction and discussion meetings; requested all relevant offices/ persons/ stakeholders through phone, website, and letter to share information; organized high level official meeting, and Basmati rice expert meeting; documented video documentary and did online as well as library search. Because of its high market value at global level, many countries and organizations have been attempting to get intellectual property rights (mainly patent and geographical indication tag) on Basmati rice. India applied for GI tag to Basmati rice in the European Union (EU) in July 2018, and Nepal submitted opposition letter along with proofs and evidences of origin, diversity, cultivation and use values of Basmati rice on 9 December 2020. A total 133 Basmati type rice landraces are grown in 60 districts of Nepal. Basmati rice is traditionally grown, sold, and consumed in geographically localized areas of Nepal since ancient time. International and national scientists have defined lower altitude of Nepal as one of the centers of origin of Basmati rice. Many Nepalese basmati rice landraces have been characterized and evaluated using morphological traits, isozymes and DNA markers. Four basmati type of rice landraces have been registered in National Seed Board. Many community seed banks have maintained different types of Basmati rice landraces. National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center and International genebanks have collected more than 80 and conserved 68 basmati landraces. Basmati rice landraces have geo-linked traits. The historical culture of production, consumption and marketing of native basmati rice in Nepal should always be favored by both national and international rules and regulations. Nepal has ample and valid evidences to get geographical indication (GI) right on Basmati rice

Approaches and advantages of increased crop genetic diversity in the fields

Field trials of rice and bean dynamic mixtures were carried out in low input and hill farming systems of Nepal from 2019 to 2021 to improve productivity and resilience. The rice trials were conducted in two locations (Jumla and Lamjung) and those on bean in Jumla, using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Dynamic mixtures were constructed from landraces, improved varieties and breeding lines for both crops. A total of 48 bean entries were used in Jumla, whereas 56 and 66 rice entries were used to make location-specific dynamic mixtures in Lamjung and Jumla, respectively. They were formed by mixing diverse varieties as a strategy to maintain a broad genetic base. Farmers (men and women) and technicians selected from the most complex mixture and the selections were added to the trials starting from second year. In rice, some mixtures and selections from the mixtures gave grain yield comparable to the improved check and higher than the local checks. In the case of bean, differences between entries were not significant but some of the selections received a high preference score. Overall, the dynamic mixtures appear as a reliable material for sustainable increase in yield in the low input and hill farming system of Nepal

Participatory seed exchange (PSE): A community based mechanism for promoting access to seeds

Participatory Seed Exchange (PSE) is a low cost, simple and effective community-based mechanism for improving farmers' access to locally adapted seeds and planting materials which promotes farmer led on-farm conservation and utilization of the agrobiodiversity by exchanging available Agricultural Plant Genetic Resource (APGR) within the community (Shrestha et al 2013, Gautam et al 2017, Sthapit et al 2019). In Nepal, PSE was first piloted by the Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) in 2008 (Shrestha et al 2013). PSE is being utilized as a multi-propose tool to identify, exchange and document available APGR along with associated traditional knowledge by mobilizing local community and their networks. Though PSE is a one-day event, it takes an approximately a month-long time period to plan, prepare and practice

On-farm Diversity Assessment and Evaluation of Finger Millet Genotypes in the Mid Hills of Nepal

The objective of the study is to assess the phenotypic diversity among the finger millet genotypes and evaluate overall performance for the recommendation of genotypes to the farming community of mid hills of Nepal. The overall performance of 8 candidate genotypes selected  from diversity block of 46 varieties in 2015, were assessed in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates under on-farm conditions in Lamjung district during 2016. Highly significant (p?0.01) variability among the selected 8 genotypes for agro-morphological traits viz., plant height, number of fingers per head, grain yield, 1000 grain weight, straw yield, days to heading and maturity was revealed. Strong inter-correlation among grain yield, plant height, time to flowering and straw yield was detected. The traits viz., plant height, grain yield, straw yield, days to heading and days to maturity were the most important traits contributing to the overall variability and thus, provide options for selection