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The blanket prescription of nitrogen (N) fertilizer often results in irrational fertilization. To address this issue and align the application of nitrogen fertilizers with the crop-specific demand, it is imperative to save nitrogen resources, maximize the uptake and net income, and subside environmental pollution. In this context, a field experiment was carried out in Kumroj, Chitwan, Nepal during 2022 to assess the growth, yield, and profitability of rice production by comparing different precision nitrogen management practices. The study was carried out in a randomized complete block design with seven treatments and three replications. The treatments included decision support tools for nitrogen management such as the Green Seeker (GS), the Soil plant analysis development Development (SPAD) meter, and the Leaf Color Chart (LCC) combined with basal application of nitrogen at 30 kg ha–1 and the Urea briquette Deep Placement (UDP), the Polymer Coated Urea (PCU), and the Recommended Dose of Fertilizers (RDF, 120 kg N ha–1). The growth, yield, yield attributes, and financial data were taken. Precision nitrogen management techniques significantly enhanced rice growth and yield parameters. GS–guided application required the highest nitrogen demand (155 kg ha–1), while SPAD (80 kg ha–1) and UDP (78 kg ha–1) resulted in lower usage. PCU and UDP enhanced plant height, leaf area index, and above–ground dry matter. Higher grain yield (6.64 t ha–1) was attained with LCC, SPAD (6.44 t ha–1), and UDP (6.41 t ha–1) treatments. GS application exhibited the highest straw yield (11.17 t ha–1), while LCC demonstrated the highest benefit–cost ratio (1.96). This study concluded that SPAD and UDP demonstrated the potential to save nitrogen resources, while LCC and UDP were found profitable.

Seed priming is a crucial technique for enhancing the seedling performance. An experiment was conducted at Rampur, Chitwan, during the winter season of 2019 and 2020, to determine the effects of different seed priming agents on Rampur Hybrid 16 maize variety. The treatments included hydropriming, cow urine (10 ml/L), gibberellic acid (100 ppm), calcium chloride (20 g/L), zinc sulphate (10 g/L), potassium nitrate (10 g/L), and unprimed seeds (controls). The experiment was conducted in both field and laboratory conditions. A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates and a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replicates were used in field and laboratory conditions respectively. Seeds were soaked for 16 hours under different treatments, shade-dried, and planted. The study evaluated germination percentage, root and shoot lengths, and Seedling Vigor Index in treated seeds using the towel method, finding cow urine and GA3 seed priming treatments most effective. Similarly, in the field hydropriming, cow urine, and GA3 seed priming treatments significantly increased the number of cobs harvested, and grain production in both years. Hydropriming and cow urine treatments obtained grain yields 7.63 t/ha and 7.54 t/ha in 2019, and 8.55 t/ha and 8.31 t/ha in 2020, respectively. Hydropriming and cow urine seed priming treatments enhanced days to 80% emergence, which is practical and affordable compared to GA3.

ABSTRACT The study was based on primary data from 473 lentil farmers selected randomly to analyze productivity, profitability, efficiency, and sensitivity of lentil farms in Nepal. Methods like benefit–cost, break‐even, margin safety, and sensitivity analysis, scaling technique, Cobb–Douglas type of production function, and stochastic frontier were adopted to derive farm economics, allocative, and cost efficiency levels. With average productivity of 672 kg/ha, lentil farmers in the study area were earning about 41% profit as of gross return with a profitability index of 0.78. About 45% margin of safety and estimates of benefit–cost ratio above one on all sensitivity measures is indicative of low risk and robust enterprise. Resources allocated in lentil production were found inefficient, and to achieve maximum return, expenses on land preparation, seed, nutrient, and plant protection cum irrigation should be increased by 27.6%, 80%, 33.1%, and 97%, respectively. Similarly, expenses on labor and harvesting activities need to be decreased by 30.1% and 23.6%. Labor cost and seed cost were the most important variables, and a 1% increase would surge the total production costs by 0.42% and 0.19%, respectively. The cost efficiency was estimated as 1.137 mean value, meaning that over 13.7% of the costs in lentil farms is wasted while comparing best‐practiced farm. Only about 48% of farms is fairly efficient at efficiency levels 1.0 to 1.09, but the majority is inefficient, which needs to minimize the waste of resources. Although suffering from climatic risks and production‐related problems, lentil enterprise is profitable, less risky, less sensitive, and fairly to inefficient in resource use. Wise attention is need on the part of farm management and resource utilization. Farmers are suggested to maintain farm size around 0.5 ha or below 1 ha, use only improved varietal seed, cut labor expenses with the use of machinery, and perform adequate tillage during sowing followed by effective disease management practices.

Field experiment was conducted in three factorial strip split plot design to evaluate the effect of two establishment methods (EM) i.e. transplanted in puddled soil (Pu-TPR) and direct seeded in zero tillage (ZT-DSR), two residue levels i.e. residue kept at 3 t ha -1 (RK) and no residue (RR) with two nitrogen doses i.e. recommended dose (100 kg N ha -1) (RD) and farmers' dose (50 kg N ha-1) (FD) with six replications with individual plot size of 5.4 m × 6.3 m on rice variety Ram-Dhan during the year 2016. Nitrogen uptake, nitrogen use efficiencies and yield of rice were recorded. Straw nitrogen uptake was significantly higher in ZT-DSR than Pu-TPR. Similarly, grain straw and total nitrogen uptake were significantly higher in residue applied and recommended dose of nitrogen than no-residue applied and farmers-nitrogen dose treatments respectively. Nitrogen efficiency ratio and physiological efficiency index were significantly higher in Pu-TPR and no-residue applied treatments while partial factor productivity was higher in residue applied treatment. All nitrogen use efficiencies like partial factor productivity, nitrogen efficiency ratio and physiological efficiency index were significantly influenced by nitrogen dose and seen higher in recommended dose of nitrogen. Establishment methods had no significant effect on grain yield but straw yield was significantly higher in ZT-DSR but harvest index was seen higher in Pu-TPR. Grain yield and straw yield were significantly higher in residue applied treatment and recommended nitrogen but harvest index was higher in farmers-nitrogen dose.

Agro-morphological traits serve as an indirect selection criteria for developing new cultivars with superior performance ability. In order to study variability of agro-morphological traits of exotic barley genotypes under normal and late sown conditions, a field experiment was conducted at the research field of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Chitwan, Nepal in 2015. Altogether, 13 genotypes of barley were sown under two factor factorial RCBD with three replications in two dates. Normal sowing was done on 29 Nov 2014 while late sowing was done on 1 Jan 2015. Agro-morphological traits were found to be varying significantly in late sowing condition as compared to normal one. The mean number of days to booting and heading reduced by 15.19% and 9.64%, respectively in late sown condition. Similarly, plant height reduced by 19.53%, peduncle length by 16.62%, flag leaf width by 42.87%, flag leaf area by 36.44% and FL-1 leaf area by 36.51% in late sown condition. Biomass, grain yield and harvest index were also found to be reduced by 39.66%, 69.77% and 46.48%, respectively for late sowing condition. Nepalese landrace Soluwa performed better in normal sown condition while exotic genotype SBYT 14-1 performed better in late sown condition. SBYT 14-27 and SBYT 14-38 genotypes exhibited stable yield in both sowing conditions. Stability attribute provides an avenue for further study of such promising genotypes from agronomic and breeding perspectives under varying edaphic and agronomic conditions, and also open up the possibility of developing best performing cultivar of barley for lower plain region of the country.

Teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana L.) is a popular herbage crop in Nepal. Although farmers produce teosinte seeds, management for maximizing seed yield is unknown. A study was undertaken to investigate teosinte seed yield in order to explore the seed production potential of teosinte for maximizing herbage yield. There were four different sowing dates (30 March, 30 April, 30 May and 30 June), four seed rates (20, 40, 60 and 80 kgha−1) and three herbage cuttings (nil, once at 45 days after sowing (DAS), twice at 45 and 75 DAS) arranged in a split-split plot design. In both years, the highest seed yield was obtained from the two earliest sowings because they had taller plants, more tillers, a higher leaf area index (LAI) and more cobs per plant, ears per cob and seeds per ear than later sown plants. In 2017, seed yield did not differ among the seed rates because of adverse climatic conditions; however, in 2018 the two lower seed rates out yielded the two highest seed rates. Cutting twice significantly reduced seed yield in both years; one cut did not reduce seed yield in 2017 but it did so in 2018. These results suggest teosinte seed crops should be sown early at a seed rate between 20 to 40 kgha−1. An economic analysis indicated that the traditional farmer practice of taking one herbage cut from their seed crop would not affect the gross margin.

Irrigation is the most important input to Nepalese agriculture as most of the irrigation system here is rainfed. Farmers managed irrigation systems are a more efficient way of providing irrigation facilities to the farmers. Irrigation System is an essential proactive for farming in the Kaski district of Nepal. This study analyzed the factors affecting the farmers’ strength of access to the irrigation system in the command area of the system. The study adopted a simple random sampling procedure. The study was conducted in the Shardikhola Puranchaur Irrigation System of the Kaski district of Nepal. The data for the study were collected in 2019. Cross-sectional data of 184 farmers were collected using a simple random sampling method. This included the users of the Shardikhola Puranchaur Irrigation System. Logit regression and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The result showed that the insufficiency of irrigation water is not a major problem for the user group of this irrigation system but there is some level of dissatisfaction among the user group which affected their strength of access to the irrigation system. Gender of household head, the physical condition of the canal, agricultural knowledge of the farmers, the gradient of the canal, and location of the household with respect to the canal significantly influenced the farmers’ strength of access to the irrigation system. Governing rules of the irrigation system, level of trust among farmers, the caste of the farm family, years of schooling of the household head, and farm size did not significantly affect the farmers’ strength of access to the irrigation system. The study concluded that, while the irrigation system is of immense importance to the farmers in its command area, farmers’ strength of access to the irrigation system is significantly influenced by a mix of different factors. Therefore, more equitable distribution of water at different regions of the canal, proper maintenance of the canal, and transparent use of funds of the irrigation system should be ensured to realize the required results.

Forty seed sample of wheat (Triticum aestivum) were collected from four locations viz. Chitwan, Kaski, Banke and Lalitpur and tested by blotter method at laboratory during 2013 for determining fungal pathogens associated with wheat seeds in Nepal. Eighteen species representing thirteen genera of fungi were recovered from the seed. Alternaria alternata and Bipolaris sorokiniana were predominant in all the varieties/genotypes from all the locations, where B. sorokiniana was strongly pathogenic in wheat crop. Percentage frequency and type of fungi detected varied with variety and locations. Bipolaris sorokiniana was highest (64.40%) in Banke than remaining three locations. Seeds of Chitwan had lowest percentage (5.50%) of seed infection as compared to other locations. Relative abundance of Alternaria alternata (55.10%) was highest as it was the most prevalent component of seed borne mycoflora, followed by Bipolaris sorokiniana (34.69%) and Cladosporium herbarum (7.19%). Differences in quantity of precipitation and relative humidity might be the possible reason for variation in frequency and type of fungi detected in wheat seeds of four locations.