Small forests, big ambitions and a hard reality - Community Forestry in Nepal

Community forestry in Nepal is intended to reduce poverty by sustainable management of forests. Timber is one of the most high-value forest products, especially in the case of Sal (Shorea robusta) forests in the Terai region of Nepal. Despite having several advantages, including high value forests on fertile land, connection with transportation networks, and being close to regional markets, community forests in the Terai region produce little or no timber from their Sal forests. This research looks at what is affecting the production of Sal timber from community forests. Three aspects of community forest user groups (CFUG) are examined using institutional economics, transaction cost economics and micro-economics. First, the scale of CFUG operations is examined in terms of their ability to profitably carry out logging and organise market sales. Second, the capacity of CFUGs to carry out logging in terms of internal physical and human resources, and property rights is examined. Finally, barriers to vertical integration with the market in terms of contracting and cooperation with other CFUGs are investigated. To answer these questions, data was collected from 85 CFUGs and interviews were carried out with 39 key respondents from CFUGs, government agencies, and private firms. The results show that the size of the forest was not an issue for harvesting and marketing logs. However, the organisational capacity of CFUGs was found to be weak because of a lack of financial resources, limited property rights over timber, control over decisions by the District Forest Office, policy constraints, and corruption. In terms of vertical integration, a lack of legal rights to enter into contracts, a high degree of uncertainty about policy and property rights, small and irregular amounts timber harvest, and the interpretation of CFUG rules by the District Forest Office were found to be barriers for the formation of long-term contracts between CFUGs and private firms, and of cooperative developments between CFUGs.Community forest user group, institutional economics, transaction cost economics, cooperatives, contractual arrangement, Nepal, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

The Mediating Role of NIM on Market Structure and Bank Performance: Empirical Confirmation from Listed Nepalese CBs

This study examined the mediating role of net interest margin (NIM) on the nexus between market structure and banks’ performance. Two ordinary least-squares models with a path analysis model were applied to analyze the data. The first regression model measured the indirect effects of market structure, total assets, geographic expansion, and specialization on ROA through NIM and revealed that the higher market share of loans positively effects on bank’s performance and statistically insignificant. Similarly, the geographic expansion was observed to hurt the bank’s ROA, but statistically insignificant. On the other hand, the indirect effect of total asset size and specialization was negative, but the first one was statistically significant, and the second was statistically insignificant. The result of the second regression model measured the direct effect of antecedent variables on the ROA and revealed that the market structure, geographic expansion, and specialization were negatively related to performance measure ROA. However, the direct effect of total assets size was positively related to ROA and statistically significant. The results of the two regression models based on total effects revealed that a higher bank size appeared favorable to Nepalese CBs and was found to have positive effects on ROA but the geographic expansion was a negative effect on ROA, and statistically significant. The results of the study might be helpful to Nepalese bankers, regularity authorities, and other concerned stakeholders to take an effective decision about the direct, indirect, and total effects of chosen antecedent variables on consequent variables through the mediating role of NIM

Nursing Students’ Perception of Online Learning Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: The declaration of COVID-19 pandemic on 11th March 2020 by World Health Organization forced many countries including Nepal to choose online mode of nursing education. Hence, it is essential for the educators to find out students’ perception that ensures their readiness to learn in this new environment. This study sought to examine the perception of online learning among nursing students. Methods: After obtaining ethical clearance, a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 211 nursing students using enumerative sampling method. Self-administered structured online questionnaire was used. Calculated Cronbach's alpha value was 0.828. Descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean etc.) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test) were used to analyze data. Results: The mean age of the participants was 19.80±1.87 years. All (100%) had mobile phone. Most (93.8%) had internet facility at home. More than half (59.7%) strongly agreed that face-to-face learning was more effective. Less than half (44.6%) strongly agreed that interrupted internet connection was an obstacle. More than half (56.9%) participants had positive perception of online learning. Age, enrolled nursing program and device used were statistically significant with perception of online learning. Conclusion: The perception of nursing students towards online learning is positive. Students are satisfied with their learning opportunities amidst COVID-19 through online education. However, interrupted internet connection, unfeasible practical natured courses, load-shedding etc. were perceived as obstacles to online learning. Age, enrolled nursing program, academic year, and devices used had an impact on positive perception

Process Optimization and Characterization of Enhanced Vanillin Yield Using Bacillus aryabhattai NCIM 5503

Background and Objective: Vanillin is a strong flavor used widely in food industries, but the quantity of this compound from plant sources is minimal. In the present study, vanillin was produced as bio-vanillin using biotechnological techniques and effects of the process parameters (carbon-source, nitrogen-source and pH) on ferulic acid bioconversion to vanillin for enhancing vanillin concentration were studied using Bacillus aryabhattai NCIM 5503. Material and Methods: Briefly, culture media included 5 g l-1 each carbon (glucose, sucrose, fructose, sorbitol, lactose, xylitol and mannitol) and nitrogen (ammonium sulphate, peptone, beef extract, yeast extract and urea) sources in distilled water supplemented with 5% (w v‑1) of ferulic acid and 1% (v v-1) of Bacillus aryabhattai NCIM 5503 as inoculum at a pH range of 4.5-12. Fermentation broth was extracted using centrifuge and further analyzed for the presence of vanillin using spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. Results and conclusion: This study revealed that a maximum vanillin concentration of 0.87 g l-1 was achieved under optimum conditions (culture media with fructose and beef extract at pH 9) of 30 ºC and 150 rpm. Furthermore, vanillin in the extracted fermented broth was characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography and spectrophotometric analysis with thiobarbituric acid assay at 55 ºC for 10 min followed by 20 min of incubation at room temperature