4 research outputs found
Impact of climate change on rice production: an empirical study in Kaski and Nawalparasi, Nepal
This study explores the relationship between climate variables to rice production in Kaski and Nawalparasi district of Nepal. The study was conducted in the year 2016. This study captured the time series data ranging from 1995 to 2014 on rice production, temperature and rainfall of two different districts and analyzed through panel data regression. Regarding primary data collection, a total of 120 sampled households were surveyed by using simple random sampling to understand the perception of farmers to change in climatic parameters using a semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire and Focus Group Discussions. The secondary information was collected from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and Centre Bureau of Statistics. The regression model revealed that seasonal rainfall had a linear relation on rice production (p<0.05). Respondents from both districts perceived that temperature, rainfall and hailstone had increased or varied than before. The major problems faced by the farmers of the study area due to climate change were prioritized as drought, flood hailstone, extreme hot and extreme cold. This necessitates the promotion and use of climate-smart technologies for better rice adaptation to climate change
Agrobiodiversity and Its Conservation in Nepal
Nepal is a part of the world\u27s biodiversity hotspot and ranks the 49th in the world for biodiversity. Agrobiodiversity and its conservation status were studied through literature review, field survey, key informant survey and focus group discussion. Results of field implementation of some good practices and action research were also documented. Among 24,300 total species in the country, 28% are agricultural genetic resources (AGRs), termed as agrobiodiversity. Agrobiodiversity has six components (crops, forages, livestock, aquatic, insects and microorganisms) and four sub-components (domesticated, semi-domesticated, wild relatives and wild edible) in Nepal. Agrobiodiversity on each component exists at agroecosystem, species, variety/breed/biotype/race/strain, genotype and allele levels, within an altitude range from 60 to 5,000 masl. There are 12 agroecosystems supporting 1026 species under crop component, 510 under forage, 35 under livestock, 250 under the aquatic animal, 17 under aquatic plant, 3,500 under insect and 800 under microorganism. An estimated loss of agrobiodiversity is 40%, however, farmers have reported up to 100% loss of AGRs in some areas for a particular species. Conservation of agrobiodiversity has been initiated since 1986. Four strategies namely ex-situ, on-farm, in-situ and breeding have been adopted for conservation and sustainable utilization of AGRs. Eighty good practices including process, methods and actions for managing agrobiodiversity have been in practice and these practices come under five conservation components (sensitization, method and approach, accelerator, value and enabling environment). Within the country, 18,765 accessions of AGRs have been conserved in different kinds of banks. A total of 24,683 accessions of Nepalese crops, forages and microbes have been conserved in different International and foreign genebanks. Some collections are conserved as safety duplication and safety backup in different CGIARs\u27 banks and World Seed Vault, Korea. Two global databases (GENESYS and EURISCO) have maintained 19,200 Nepalese accessions. Geographical Information System, Climate Analog Tool and biotechnological tools have been applied for better managing AGRs. Many stakeholders need to further concentrate on the conservation and utilization of AGRs. Global marketing of some native AGRs is necessary for sustaining agriculture and attracting young generations as well as conserving them through use
Collaborative exploration and collection of native plant genetic resources as assisted by agrobiodiversity fair
This article describes the agrobiodiversity fair aided exploration and collection expedition of native plant genetic resources in southern Lalitpur, jointly organized by the National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre (NAGRC) and Group of Helping Hands (SAHAS) Nepal. In-district one-day agrobiodiversity fairs were organized in February and December month of 2019, altogether two times, and these agrobiodiversity fairs were used as a tool to explore plant genetic resources found in Bagmati and Mahankal Rural Municipalities of Lalitpur district. To collect these explored genetic resources during agrobiodiversity fairs, the joint field expedition, key informant survey, diversity rich farmers discussion was used as a collection tool. The present study explored, inventoried, collected and conserved 148 accessions of 44 crop species, the highest number (18 accessions) was of chayote followed by 10 accessions each of soybean, cowpea and maize and 9 accessions of common bean. Collections are generally new and unique. Many landraces, mostly from rice (13 landraces) were identified as extinct from the surveyed areas and few are under extinction mainly due to attraction of farmers to new high yielding varieties. The collected species with orthodox seeds were tested for germination ability and those that passed a minimum of 85% germination, were preserved in seedbank of NAGRC. NAGRC plans to characterize these accessions in the coming seasons depending upon the season of crop growing. The current expedition collected eight species for which mode of propagation is vegetative or those for which seed storage behavior falls under intermediate mode. NAGRC has been started expanding field genebank coverage using these accessions
Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: A Synopsis of Coordinated National Crop Wild Relative Seed Collecting Programs across Five Continents
The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity,
quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and
2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed
collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global significance for agriculture. Here, we
describe the implementation of the 25 national collecting programs and present the key results. A total
of 4587 unique seed samples from at least 355 CWR taxa were collected, conserved ex situ, safety
duplicated in national and international genebanks, and made available through the Multilateral
System (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant
Treaty). Collections of CWR were made for all 28 targeted crops. Potato and eggplant were the most
collected genepools, although the greatest number of primary genepool collections were made for
rice. Overall, alfalfa, Bambara groundnut, grass pea and wheat were the genepools for which targets
were best achieved. Several of the newly collected samples have already been used in pre-breeding
programs to adapt crops to future challenges.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio