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Nepalese community forests are globally recognized for sustainable forest management and improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities, but their contribution to carbon sequestration in trees and soil is rarely studied. This study was performed to understand the effect of management practices on carbon stock of two community forests (CFs) - Taldanda (managed) and Dangdunge (unmanaged) - dominated by Sal (Shorea robusta) in the mid-hills of Nepal. Twenty-one concentric sample plots, each of 250 m2, were laid out in each forest to estimate different carbon pools and a stratified random sampling intensity of 0.5% used to collect data. Results showed significant (p<0.05) differences in above and below-ground biomass and carbon sequestration potential between the two CFs. The managed and unmanaged forests had total carbon stock of 269.3±27.4 and 150.0±22.7 ton/ha, respectively, demonstrating 1.79 times higher carbon stock in the former than the latter. The managed forest had significantly (p<0.05) greater mean soil organic carbon (SOC) stock than the unmanaged forest. The SOC was highest in the upper soil layer (0-10 cm), with a steady decrease as the soil depth increased. All other measured carbon pools values were higher in managed compared to unmanaged forest. The difference in carbon stock was due to the manipulation of different forest management activities, including thinning, timber extraction, fire control, grazing, and fuel wood/fodder extraction. The study suggests that the implementation of proper forest management would be necessary for enhancing carbon stock in forest trees and soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With economies heavily dependent on agriculture, South Asia is the world's most poverty-dense region. Nepal--a country of considerable geographic variability ranging from population-dense low-elevation Terai region to the sparsely inhabited, poorly accessible Himalayan hills and mountains--has enormous environmental and socio-economic challenges to agricultural development. Runoff from the hills and mountains feed networks of rivers that are crucial for supply of surface and groundwater for the Terai and northern India and Bangladesh, benefitting approximately one-fifth of the world's population. Nepal's farming systems are complex, with insufficient documentation of research evidence on the challenges and opportunities facing them. This review documents the key environmental, socio-economic and agronomic issues affecting cereal-based farming systems in Nepal. Evidences suggest farmers in the hills and mountains primarily practice integrated crop-livestock-tree based agroforestry systems with local varieties of crop and livestock species, and use farm-derived organic amendments and limited external inputs, resulting in low but stable yields. The Terai's cropping systems are predominantly rice-based, with wheat, maize and pulses grown in rotation with low to moderate use of inputs, although high yielding varieties are increasingly common. Major environmental challenges in the high and mid-hills include erosion and soil degradation, while in the Terai, reduced soil fertility and sub-optimal management of water resources are important constraints. Climate variability and extremes are cross-regional challenges. Socioeconomic issues include land use policy, labor out-migration and agricultural feminization. Large gaps between potential and farmers' yields are consistent concerns. While summarizing past and current agronomic research findings, this review suggests new research needs and agricultural development pathways that could address these environmental, socioeconomic and agronomic issues and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepal is a major rice producer of South Asia, feeding more than 20 million people of the country and abroad. However, productivity and profitability of rice are low in Nepal compared to other regional countries. Large yield gaps exist between attainable and farmers' yields and nutrient management is identified as one of the major reasons. Nutrient Expert® (NE), a decision-support tool based on site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) principles has been validated and applied in many countries of Asia and Africa as new recommendation protocol for nutrient management in selected crops, including rice. Present study used NE® Rice as nutrient management protocol in farmers' fields across Terai and mid-hills regions of Nepal during 2014–2018. The study revealed that NE-based fertilizer recommendations resulted in increase in yield over 2.0 t.ha−1 (p ≤ 0.05) and double the profits compared to existing blanket fertilizer recommendation, and farmers' fertilizer practice. Due to large variations in slope, altitude, soil, and management, performance of NE® varied across locations. Its performance was better in Terai due to flat lands and less variations in soil types, compared to sloping lands and varied soils of mid-hills. NE tool provided adequate guidance to apply the required rate of fertilizer that matched the crop requirement and soil nutrient supply of each farmer fields. The novelty of the study is introduction of a dynamic fertilizer recommendation approach that can supplement the existing static blanket recommendation system. We conclude that Nutrient Expert® - Rice can be considered as an effective tool for nutrient recommendation for rice in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP) of South Asia rely mainly on cereal-based cropping systems to meet the food and nutritional demand and support their livelihood. Yet the productivity of the major cereals - rice, wheat, and maize - in the region are far lower than their potential. Nutrient management plays a crucial role in improving cereal yields and economic return, and continued improvement in nutrient management practices and their on-farm implementation is required to develop locally relevant solutions that are site-specific, easy-to-develop and geared towards system resilience. The objective of the study was to conduct the comparative assessment of three nutrient management strategies for the three major cereals considering productivity, profitability and nutrient use efficiencies (NUE); estimate their potential yields and yield gaps; and explain the causes of yield variability across farmer-participatory on-farm trials in the EIGP of Nepal. We compared three nutrient management strategies (farmer's fertilizer practice- FP, government recommendation -GR, and Nutrient Expert®- NE-based recommendation), in 600 on-farm trials. We used the NE DSS tool, APSIM – a cropping system simulation model, and machine learning (ML) approaches (Linear Mixed Effect model -LME; and Random Forest model - RF) for the three cereals using data from those trials. The NE and APSIM were chosen due to simplicity in use and their wider evaluation and application in fertilizer recommendation yield prediction; RF was chosen due to its robustness in predictive ability and identifying and ranking factors determining yield or other variables of interest. The NE-based fertilizer recommendations for maize, wheat and rice increased yield by about 3.5, 1.4, and 1.3 t ha−1 respectively, increased profits, and improved NUE over FP or GR. The risk analysis showed that at a given probability level, NE always resulted in higher yields of all cereals than GR or FP. APSIM identified 25th June as optimum transplanting date for rice and 10th December as optimum sowing date for maize and wheat and simulated long-term average potential yield of 7–7.5, 5–5.5 and 13–13.3 t ha−1 respectively for rice, wheat and maize. There were larger yield gaps between PY and FP (2.6–8.5 t ha−1) than PY and NE (2.0–3.7 t ha−1) across crops and villages. The LME model showed highly significant treatment and location effects for grain yield of all cereals. The point estimate of the difference for grain yield as estimated by Tukey's HSD test was highest for NE-FP and lowest for GR-FP for all crops. The RF model identified grain N uptake for rice and grain P and K uptakes for wheat and maize as most influential factors contributing to their grain yield under each nutrient management strategy. The NE-based nutrient management had significant effects over FP and GR leading to positive changes on yield and economic performance under varied growing environments. These findings based on novel tools and approaches have important policy implications for increasing food security and profits from the major cereals by refining or improving the GR or FP and increasing their NUE in Nepal. Studies with larger sample size across varied agro-climatic zones in the EIGP and much of South Asia would help policy makers consider DSS tools and ML approaches suitable for upscaling and large-scale adoption by smallholder farmers. [Display omitted] • Factors influencing the low and variable grain yields of rice, wheat, and maize in the eastern Gangetic Plains are not fully understood • Study assessed nutrient management options, estimation of yield potential and yield gaps, and causes of yield variability in 600 on-farm trials • APSIM Model estimated potential yield and yield gaps and identified optimum planting dates. • Random Forest identified nutrient uptake as important variable explaining yield variability. • Nutrient Expert® recommendation can increase yield, gross returns and nutrient use efficiency over farmers' practice and government recommendation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to understand the impacts of COVID-19 crisis in agriculture and food systems in Nepal and assess the effectiveness of measures to deal with this crisis. The study draws policy implications, especially for farming systems resilience and the achievement of SDGs 1 and 2. The findings are based on (i) three panel discussions over six months with policy makers and experts working at grassroots to understand and manage the crisis, (ii) key informants' interviews, and (iii) an extensive literature review. Results revealed that the lockdown and transport restrictions have had severe consequences, raising questions on the achievement of SDGs 1 and 2, especially in the already vulnerable regions dependent on food-aid. This crisis has also exposed the strengths and limitations of both subsistence and commercial farming systems in terms of resiliency, offering important lessons for policy makers. Traditional subsistence farming appears to be somewhat resilient, with a potential to contribute to key pillars of food security, especially access and stability, though with limited contributions to food availability because of low productivity. On the other hand, commercial farming - limited to the periphery of market centres, cities, and emerging towns and in the accessible areas - was more impacted due to the lack of resilient supply networks to reach even the local market. Lower resiliency of commercial farming was also evident because of its growing dependence on inputs (mainly seeds and fertilizer) on distant markets located in foreign countries. The observation of crisis over eight months unleashed by the pandemic clearly revealed that wage labourers, indigenous people, and women from marginalized groups and regions already vulnerable in food security and malnutrition suffered more due to COVID-19 as they lost both external support and the coping mechanisms. The findings have implications for policies to improve both subsistence and commercial farming systems – in particular the former by improving the productivity through quality inputs and by diversifying, promoting and protecting the indigenous food system, while the latter through sustainable intensification by building reliant supply network linking farming with markets and guarantying the supply of inputs. • Family-based subsistence farming systems were less affected than the market-based commercial farming systems. • Need for greater food self-sufficiency was realized because of ban on food export from other countries. • Lockdown had severe consequences on achievement of SDGs 1 and 2. • Absence of policies to support food production and food security during crises was exposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]