Agriculture Development Journal

Nutrient Management Practice for Conservation and Conventional Agriculture Practices on Rice Based System at Central Terai of Nepal

2023-01-19T15:13:34+00:00

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of inventive nutrient management practices on the system productivity and profitability of rice-wheat and maize in the rice-based cropping system under conservation agriculture and conventional tillage at Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal during 2018 - 2019.The experiment was executed in the field in split-split design (for rice), and split plot design (both for wheat and maize) with three replications which included two cropping system (rice-wheat and rice-maize) as main plot treatments, two establishment methods (conservation agriculture and conventional agriculture) as sub plots and four nutrient management practices (100% Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), Residue (5 t ha^-1) + 75% RDF, Nutrient Expert (NE) dose, brown/green manuring (BM/GM) + 75% RDF) as sub-sub plot treatments. The data on yield and economics were recorded and analyzed by R studio. The yield of wheat and maize were converted into rice equivalent yield (REY) from which system yield was calculated. The research revealed that the rice-maize system had significantly higher REY (12.21 t ha^-1), net returns (163.10 thousand NRs. ha^-1) over rice-wheat system (8.61 t ha^-1 and 68.09 thousand NRs. ha^-1, respectively) whereas the crop establishment methods and nutrient management practices have no influence on the REY of the system. NE dose, Residue +75% RDF and 100% RDF produced similar REY. The rice grain yield was found higher (5.28 t ha^-1) for conventional tillage than under CA (4.52 t h^a-1) however the maize and wheat yield was not affected by the crop establishment methods. Under both establishment methods, NE dose performed better for all crops but NE dose and green manuring produced higher yields under conventional tillage for rice. The residue +75% RDF performed better than 100% RDF for maize and wheat. Rice-maize cropping system was more productive and eventually more profitable than rice-maize cropping system and the under both establishment methods, better yield can be obtained using NE dose, green manuring and residues in the fields with the saving of 25% RDF applied for each crops.

Major Cereal Crops Damage by Wildlife: A Case Study from Chitwan National Park, Nepal

2023-01-19T15:22:18+00:00

Human-wildlife conflict is a major issue for policymakers and conservationists due to economic damage by wild animals, resulting in increasing poverty. This study assesses the wildlife-induced damage to the major food crops viz. rice, wheat, and maize. A total of 434 households from the 10 forest user groups near the Chitwan national parks and buffer zone were randomly selected and interviewed by the use of questionnaires in 2021. A total of 87.86% of rice-growing households reported damage to rice, whereas 90.32% and 87.68% of households reported damage to wheat and maize, respectively. The annual loss of 78 kg of rice per household (NRs. 1776 at prevailing market rates) was reported in the study area. The loss of wheat and maize per household was 86 and 96 kg with the worth of NRs. 2523 and 2019, respectively. The severity of wildlife-induced damage to crops was more near the borders of national parks and buffer zone. Apart from the construction and maintaining permanent fences on the border of the national parks, there should be the provision of conservation education to communities residing along the buffer zone and near the protected areas to practice sustainable agriculture and income-generating programs that are conservation-friendly.

Performance Evaluation of Cauliflower Cultivars in Mid-Hills of Nepal for Winter Season Production

2023-01-19T15:30:34+00:00

Cauliflower (Brassica Oleracea botrytis) is one of the most popular and demanded vegetables in Nepal. Five cultivars: Barkha, Girija, Giewont, Whistler and Snow Mystique were transplanted in the first week of October 2016 and 2017 in the mid-hills (Kathmandu valley, 1300 masl) and grown during the winter season with 60X45 cm spacing. Source seed of Snow Mystique was Takii Seed Japan and the rest were Montsanto Seed, India. Crops were fertilized with 200:120:80N.P.K Kg/ha and 15-ton FYM/ha. Insecticide and fungicide were sprayed one time in the early period for crop establishment. The main objective of this experiment was to find out suitable high yielding and insect pest and disease tolerant hybrid cauliflower cultivars for commercial farming in the mid-hills of Nepal. Crops were evaluated with their vegetative, insect pest and disease, yield and farmers' and consumers' response in two consecutive years. Results showed that among the tested cultivars, Barkha was found to be highly uniform, vigorous, less attacked by insect pests and disease, early harvestable (62.7 days after transplanting), efficient per day yield (487.7 kg/ha), preferable average head weight (1039 g), freshness (4.3) and market preference (4.0) as compared to check variety Snow Mystique. On the other hand, Snow Mystique has only yield efficiency (436.2 kg/ha/day), greater insect damage and leaf spot disease, longer days to harvest (101 days), and freshness (3.8), respectively. Hence, Barkha has been selected and recommended for commercial cultivation in the mid-hills of Nepal.

Relative Cost, Profitability and Efficiency among Different Types of Dairy Farms at Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal

2023-01-19T15:36:22+00:00

Dairy sector is gradually commercializing and modernizing with the use of improved breeds, processed feeds, cultivated grass, fodders, medicines and additives in Nepal. In this context, this study was designed to evaluate the relative cost, return, resource use efficiency, return to scale and profitability of milk production in different type of dairy farms. Primary data were collected through face-to-face interview using semi-structured interview schedule from a sample of 240 dairy farms selected from simple random sampling technique in 8 wards of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cost and profit analysis, linear production function and Cobb-Douglas function. It was found that pure buffalo farms were facing negative profit margin against the profit of Rs. 32565 and Rs. 106627 at cow and mix system of dairy farming, respectively. Average variable cost of per liter milk production was Rs. 93.70, Rs. 54.80 and Rs. 44.73 for buffalo, cow and mix farms, respectively with benefit-cost ratio of 0.99, 1.44 and 1.62 for respective categories of the farms. Green grass, dry fodder, labour, feed, medicines and additives were significantly contributing to milk production in buffalo and cow farms. But, only grass, fodder and labour were contributing to milk production in mix dairy farms. All categories of farms were suffering from decreasing return to scale but they were still profitable over variable cost. Labour was the most contributing factor in all three categories of farms and thus dairy farming seems potential to create productive employment. This is concluded that dairy farming system can be promoted profitably by enhancing the level of use of labour, grass, fodder, medicines and additives.

Profitability and Perception of Nepalese Farmers in Protected Vegetable Farming in Nepal

2023-01-19T15:41:42+00:00

The study was conducted 7 districts of Nepal by selecting 90 respondents to understand profitability of vegetable farming under different type of protected structures namely temporary, semi-permanent and permanent. Descriptive statistics and scaling techniques were used to analyze data. The financial analysis showed significantly higher benefit cost ratio and payback period in temporary structures than that of semi-permanent and permanent structures. The net present value was found statistically similar in all types of protected structures. The age of household head and area under protected farming were found statistically higher among the adopters of temporary structure while the years of farm registration and experience in protected vegetable farming were found statistically higher among the adopters of semi-permanent structures. This shows graduation process of growers from temporary to semi-permanent structure. The productivity of vegetables under protected structure in the study area was found 191.55 mt./ha/year. The yield was found most satisfying factor, whereas the availability of technician was found to be the factor with highest index of difficulty. The findings of the study will have implication for the policy makers, suppliers and farmers regarding the promotion and adoption of different types of protected structures.

Study on Limnology of Thosne River Located in Lalitpur District, Nepal

2023-01-20T16:00:15+00:00

Study on limnology of Thosne River was done to identify the diversity of aquatic insect and fish, and also to determine the water quality parameters for assessing suitability for fish farming. Some water quality parameters were recorded on the spot and others were analyzed in the laboratory. Altogether 14 different limnological parameters (3 physical, 8 chemical, 2 biological and 1 geographical) of Thosne river were studied in winter and spring seasons. During study period, the water temperature at the 1^st (downstream) and the 5^th (upstream) sampling stations ranged from: 15.75±2.81°C and 12.29±2.61°C: the pH 7.59±0.22 and 6.37±0.23; conductivity 194±10.7 μS/cm and 130±12 μS/cm; turbidity 5.91±2.74 NTU and 2.75±1.89 NTU, dissolved oxygen 9.62±0.87 mg/L and 10.58±0.7 mg/L; hardness 86.70±10.86 mg/L and 60.54±8.9 mg/L; chloride 14.25±25 mg/L and 7.79±1.44 mg/L; and flow rate 22.47±3.5 L/Sec and 13.5±2.4 L/Sec respectively. The ammonia nitrogen at the 1^st (downstream), 3^rd (midstream) and 5^th (upstream) sampling stations ranged from 0.19±0.07; mg/L, 0.031±0.0056 mg/L and 0.013±0.003 mg/L whereas nitrate nitrogen ranged from 2.20±0.84 mg/L, 0.50±0.10 mg/L and 0.17±0.060 mg/L respectively. All the parameters were positively correlated with each other except dissolved oxygen and altitude. Three native fish species and aquatic insects from eight different families were identified. All the water quality parameters were within the recommended limit for rainbow trout fish farming up to midstream.

Agro-Morphological Characterization and Diversity Assessment of Rice Landraces in Nepal

2023-01-20T16:14:56+00:00

Plant genetic resources are raw materials and their use in breeding is one of the most sustainable ways to conserve agro-biodiversity. Field research was conducted at National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre (NAGRC) during 2018 & 2019 with the objective of agro-morphological characterization and diversity assessment of rice landraces. Forty-two landraces collected from 21 districts of Nepal were characterized and evaluated by using non replicated row design. The phenotypic diversity was assessed based on fourteen qualitative and thirteen quantitative characters following the descriptors developed by Bioversity International, IRRI and WARDA. Basic statistics were calculated by using Excel 2016 and UPGMA clustering and PCA was done with MINITAB-17. The diversity index (H') and coefficient of variation for different traits ranged from 0.16-0.96 and 8.00-47.77 respectively. Clustering grouped the landraces into four clusters with minimum similarity level of 46.33%. Landraces of cluster three i.e. NGRC01917, NGRC03034, NGRC03395, NGRC03057, NGRC03163 are found to be superior in terms of maturity days and yield. PCA partitioned the total variation into three principal components contributing 75.5% of the cumulative variance. Thus, the present study is the preliminary picture for characterization and diversity analysis in Nepalese rice landraces that can be used by the breeder in rice improvement program.

Factors Affecting Adoption of Home Garden Farming among Disadvantaged Group (DAG) of Jhapa District

2023-01-20T16:26:57+00:00

Home garden provides fruits and vegetables to the household with direct access to important nutrients that may not be readily available or within their economic reach. Therefore, home gardening would be a good means to improve household food security. The study was conducted in the Dharampur, Dangibari and Dhaijan area of Jhapa to assess the factors affecting adoption of home garden farming among disadvantaged group of people. Altogether 120 respondents (40 respondents from each places mentioned above) were randomly chosen for study. The study showed that the home garden contribution on annual household income was 19.23% and livestock component was identified as most profitable component as it contributes 50.92% of home garden incomes followed by vegetable component (25.02%). It was found that the mean annual income from home garden was NRs 37697.24 in practitioner household and was significant (P=0.05). The study revealed that age of household head, years of schooling were negatively related to home garden adoption, whereas trainings, exposure, number of species were positively related to home gardens adoption. In regard to the problems related with production, respondents ranked unavailability of quality seedling or sapling (64.2%) as major problem followed by limited cultivable land (57.5%). Home garden was sustainable approach as it relies on low external input use system and better institutional linkage, socio economic empowerment of women and disadvantaged groups made it further sustainable. This necessitates diversifying home garden approach so as to cover social and economic dimension of household resources for sustainable development and to support in livelihood system.

Economics of Lentil Production under Relay and Conventional Tillage Practice

2023-01-20T16:34:46+00:00

The study was intended to find out the most profitable method between the relay and tillage growing method of lentil production. For primary data collection, a simple random sampling method was followed. Household survey was conducted in two districts Bardiya and Kailali in 2021 AD. A total of 107 lentil farmers (43 farmers following relay and 64 farmers following tillage practices) were randomly selected from two pockets area (relay and tillage method adopters) of each district. Benefit-Cost (BC) ratio analysis was done to find out the most profitable method of lentil cultivation. Multiple regression model was applied to estimate the factors determining the lentil production. The average BC ratio is 2.18 which indicates that lentil cultivation is profitable with average productivity of 0.64 mt/ha. The total cost incurred per ha in relay and tillage method was NRs. 24345 and NRs. 33549 respectively. Similarly, gross income from relay and tillage method was found NRs. 56160 and NRs 69870, per ha respectively. In between the two popular methods (relay and tillage) of lentil cultivation, the BC ratio was found 2.31 in the relay method compared to 2.08 in the tillage method. Among the several socio-economic independent variables used in the model, the age of the household head and fertilizer application significantly influenced the lentil production. However, lentil production is negatively affected by the practice of intermixed cropping. Hence the result indicates that relay cropping with mono-cropping and appropriate management of fertilizer could play a crucial role to boost the profitability of lentil farming

Evaluation of Potato Genotypes for Plant and Yield Traits at Dailekh District, Nepal

2023-01-20T16:43:57+00:00

Field experiments were conducted at on-farm condition of Dailekh during the spring season for two years (2019 and 2020) to study the plant and yield traits of potato genotypes, and to select high yielding and farmers' preferred genotype. Five promising potato genotypes (PRP226567.2, CIP395017.242, PRP136769.1, PRP276264.1 and CIP393617.1) were studied for their plant and yield traits and compared them with 'Kufri Jyoti', a popular check variety. Experiments were laid-out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. Results showed that genotypes exhibited significant differences in all the plant and yield characters. CIP395017.242 gave the highest marketable (23.5 t/ha) and total tuber yield (25.9 t/ha). As compared to Kufri Jyoti, CIP395017.242 gave 12.4% higher marketable tuber yield. Farmer's preferences on plant and tuber of CIP395017.242 were also similar to Kufri Jyoti. Therefore, genotype CIP395017.242 can be recommended to grow at on-farm condition of Dailekh.