A review on history of organic farming in the current changing context in Nepal

Worldwide, with the increase in awareness of health and environmental concerns, demand for organic agricultural products is increasing, however, its adoption in Nepal at the field level is minimal (0.30% of the total agricultural land area). Exploring the history of organic agriculture could answer, “why its growth, despite the increasing demand, is minimal?” The history of organic agriculture for commerce in Nepal is little known. This study thus explores the scope and history of commercial organic agriculture in Nepal. The paper identifies a few historical landmarks of organic agriculture; and while doing so, it describes the world history of organic agriculture. The study observed that a ‘pure’ form of organic agriculture in Nepal started in 1987, when an American research scholar established a commercial farm. Since then, it advanced until 1992, and then ‘merged’ with permaculture. The organic agriculture movement rejuvenated again in 2002 into the 10th five years plan. Much of the national policy documents on organic agriculture favored ‘income’ and perceived organic products as luxurious goods. As a result, much of the innovation in organic agriculture, government priorities, and people’s perception inclined towards earning dollars rather than environmental conservation and sustainability of the farming system. The movement of organic agriculture in Nepal deviated from its philosophical grounds and the government's priority increased on earnings, resulting in some myths in the Nepalese society on organic agriculture. All these factors caused minimal growth of organic agriculture, despite its great scope at national and international levels

The sustainability of trade in wild plants—A data-integration approach tested on critically endangered Nardostachys jatamansi

While the demand for many products from wild-harvested plants is growing rapidly, the sustainability of the associated plant trade remains poorly understood and understudied. We integrate ecological and trade data to advance sustainability assessments, using the critically endangered Nardostachys jatamansi in Nepal to exemplify the approach and illustrate the conservation policy gains. Through spatial distribution modeling and structured interviews with traders, wholesalers, and processors, we upscale district-level trade data to provincial and national levels and compare traded amounts to three sustainable harvest scenarios derived from stock and yield data in published inventories and population ecology studies. We find increased trade levels and unsustainable harvesting focused in specific subnational geographical locations. Data reported in government records and to CITES did not reflect estimated trade levels and could not be used to assess sustainability. Our results suggest that changing harvesting practices to promote regeneration would allow country-wide higher levels of sustainable harvests, simultaneously promoting species conservation and continued trade of substantial economic importance to harvesters and downstream actors in the production network. The approach can be applied to other plant species, with indication that quick and low-cost proxies to species distribution modeling may provide acceptable sustainability estimates at aggregated spatial levels

Nudging children toward healthier food choices: An experiment combining school and home gardens

School gardens have become a widely used approach to influence children's food knowledge, preferences and choices in low- and high-income countries alike. However, evidence indicates that such programs are more effective at influencing food knowledge and preferences than actual food choices. Such finding may occur because school gardens insufficiently influence the food behavior of parents and because healthy food items are not always available in children's homes. We tested this hypothesis using a one-year cluster randomized controlled trial in Nepal with 15 treatment and 15 control schools and a matched sample of 779 schoolchildren (aged 8–12) and their caregivers. Data were collected before and after the intervention during the 2018–2019 school year. In addition, children's food consumption was monitored using a monthly food logbook. Average treatment effects were quantified with a double-difference estimator. For caregivers, the intervention led to a 26% increase in their food and nutrition knowledge (p < 0.001), a 5% increase in their agricultural knowledge (p = 0.022), a 10% increase in their liking for vegetables (p < 0.001), and a 15% increase in home garden productivity (p = 0.073). For children, the intervention had no discernible effect on food and nutrition knowledge (p = 0.666) but led to a 6% increase in their liking for vegetables (p = 0.070), healthy food practices (p < 0.001), and vegetable consumption (October–December +15%; p = 0.084; January–March +26%; p = 0.017; April–June +26%; p = 0.088). The results therefore indicate both schools and parents matter for nudging children toward healthier food choices

Drivers of food choice among children and caregivers in post-earthquake Nepal

Food systems in many countries are experiencing a shift from traditional foods towards processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt, but low in dietary fiber and micronutrients. There is an urgent need to better understand drivers of changing food behavior, particularly for lower-income countries. This study analyzes drivers of food choice among children and parents in rural Nepal. It uses qualitative data collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions with school children, parents and teachers. The study reveals substantial changes in food behavior during the past decade with increased consumption of rice, meat, and highly processed snack foods while an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables is not evident. It identifies cash availability is the main driver of increased rice, meat and snack food consumption. The second driver is the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which accelerated the transition from home-grown food to purchased food as people got habituated to eating more meat and snack foods while reconstruction tripled local wages and changed the food environment. This shows how humanitarian assistance in the wake of extreme shocks can unintentionally contribute to unhealthy eating habits. An integrated school and home garden intervention appears to contribute to healthier diets

Trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated socioeconomic and household environmental factors among women in Nepal : findings from the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys

This study aimed to examine the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to determine the associated socioeconomic and household environmental factors among women in Nepal. Using nationally representative data from the 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 cross-sectional Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHSs) (n = 33,507), the prevalence of overweight–obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) among women aged 15–49 years were examined. From the latest NDHS 2016, non-pregnant women with recorded anthropometric measurements (n = 6165) were included in the final analyses. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the socioeconomic and household environmental factors associated with BMI ≥ 25 and BMI ≥ 30. Between 1996 and 2016, the prevalence of overweight–obesity increased from 1.8% to 19.7%, while the prevalence of obesity increased from 0.2% to 4.1%. Age, marital status, wealth index, province of residence, type of cooking fuel, and household possessions—refrigerator and bicycle were significantly associated with having overweight–obesity and obesity. Similarly, educational status, religion, type of toilet facility, and household possessions—television and mobile phone were significantly associated with having overweight–obesity. Given the alarming increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Nepalese women, there is an urgent need for interventions addressing these critical socioeconomic and household environmental factors

Studies on Functionalization of Apple Waste for Heavy Metal Treatment Abstract

The present investigation is to investigate the potential and effectiveness of two types of biosorbents as cation exchanger, functionalized with carboxylic acid and xanthated groups onto apple waste. Both the adsorbent materials exhibited highly selective behavior for heavy metal treatment and followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity evaluated for iron, cadmium, zinc and lead onto them have shown their potential ability in the treatment of heavy metals from aqueous medium. Dominant sorption mechanisms are revealed to be ionexchange process

Adsorptive Removal of Methyl Red from Aqueous Solution onto Charred and Aminated Sugarcane Waste

Abstract: Adsorptive removal of Methyl Red (MR) from aqueous solution onto chemically modified charred sugarcane waste (CSW) and aminated sugarcane waste (ASW) has been investigated. The surface modification was characterized by FTIR, SEM, elemental analysis and Boehm titration. The effect of pH, contact time and MR concentrations were studied by batch equilibrium method. Maximum dye removal was observed at pH 2 onto CSW while that for ASW at pH 7. The dye can be quantitatively removed onto the surface of these adsorbents at a contact time of 3 h. Maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) for the CSW and ASW were found to be 125.0 mg/g and 142.85 mg/g, respectively. Adsorption kinetic data were tested using pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intra-particle diffusion models. Kinetic studies revealed that the adsorptive removal of the dye onto the adsorbents followed pseudo-second order kinetics model. The obtained results indicated an excellent alternative for the treatment of dye contaminated wastewater using such chemically modified sugarcane waste at low cost with better efficiency

Agroforestry for mountain development: Prospects, challenges and ways forward in Nepal

Most of the agroforestry systems (AFS) in Nepal are traditional, and deliberate management of trees, crops and livestock as an integrated and interactive agroecosystem, albeit its enormous socio-economic and ecological benefits, is limited. The objective of this review paper is to understand the prospects, analyze challenges and suggest practical solution for promoting agroforestry as a viable system balancing economic, social and environmental concerns. We develop this paper based on practical experience on the ground and an in-depth review of relevant literature and highlights the prospects, challenges and ways forward of AFS, both farm-based and forest-based, in Nepal. Nepal has enormous agroecological diversity, suitable land availability for agroforestry, traditional knowledge, skill and labor forces, and huge prospects of adapting new technologies and developing market systems, especially considering emerging markets for developing remunerative and environment friendly value chains. However, the prospective value chains of the mountain agroforestry products face many challenges, including i) socio-economic constraints of the farmers mainly because of high initial adoption costs, limited information on benefit-cost of agroforestry practices, limited knowledge on full benefits of agroforestry, and limited markets and marketing information; ii) institutional constraints because of unclear policy to support agroforestry, the lack of extension services and undefined administrative boundaries; and iii) inadequate scientific knowledge, expertise and technologies to address management complexity of agroforestry system. We therefore suggest having a scan of those challenges and find out solutions, especially for promoting growth and competitiveness of the sector with poverty reduction strategy ensuring availability of food, fuel, fodder and employment opportunity for local communities. The paper provides a few successful cases of AFS and finally suggests ways forward to promote AFS and a business model which could help achieve the untapped potentials for enhancing income and employment opportunity, achieving food and nutrition security, and building sustainable land use systems

Adsorption of Cd (II), Cu (II), and Zn (II) from Aqueous Solution onto Nitrogen-Functionalized Desmostachya bipinnata

A very simple means of nitrogen functional group grafting onto the backbone of Desmostachya bipinnata is investigated, which is a sacrificial herb in the south Asian region particular toHindu religion. This natural biomaterial is found to be very effective formetal binding, after treatment with hydrazine monohydrate. The present study explores a comparison of amination processes by considering several options.The maximum metal loading capacities for Cd, Cu, and Zn were found to be 76.80mg/g, 72.10mg/g, and 58.16mg/g, respectively.The kinetic evaluation indicated that the adsorption of Cd, Cu, and Zn onto the biomaterials followed the pseudo second-order rate equation

Gender budget audit in Nepal

An appraisal of the budgetary process, budget allocation, implementation and its outcomes in Nepal in a gender perspective. For in-depth analysis, agriculture, education, and health sectors have been selected as examples. Except for the field level information, the analysis is based on available macro-level secondary information and interviews with related officials. A field study was conducted at the grass-root level in three districts with the main objectives of evaluating the budgetary process in a gender perspective. For expenditure analysis, the budgetary programs are classified in three main categories: exclusively women focused programs, pro-women programs and other programs. The first category includes those budgetary allocations that are specifically targeted to women while the second category includes those that may not be exclusively targeted to women but contain components so as to benefit women more than other programs. The third category includes the rest of the allocations denoted as other programs. This, however, does not mean that such expenditure does not have any exclusively women targeted or pro-women components at all. But many of these programs may have both positive and/or negative impacts on gender relations. A detailed analysis of these programs was not possible within the given terms of reference, which focuses primarily on budgetary processes. This gender budget audit has assessed through gender perspective macro-economic, fiscal, subsidy and expenditure policies, and revenue measures like import and excise duties, value added tax (VAT), and income taxes on the basis of available secondary materials