It is very evident that there is lack of well accepted and verified mechanisms as well as institutional set up for the realization of farmers' rights, including the effective implementation of International Regime on Access to and Benefit Sharing (IRABS). Community Biodiversity Management (CBM) embed good practices, proven to be effective in in-situ conservation of biodiversity through conservation through use, they also provide a base for a range of practices which serve the basis for IRABS to be affable and affordable to local communities.

Local knowledge of crop diversity linked to food traditions, local practices and social norms is documented acquired through interaction with farmers and focus group discussion. Cooking quality of different rice varieties was assessed to see the effects of the environment factors. Different food dishes were assessed by trained cook, urban and rural consumers to identify dishes for market promotion. Diversified food traditions show close links to richness of crop landrace diversity. Crop landraces have substance, symbolic and sign values.

A field study was conducted to evaluate knowledge, practice and use of pesticides among thirty commercial vegetable growers of Dhading district of Nepal. More than four in five were using pesticides and more than one third were using it for more than six years. Nearly half of them spray pesticides five to six times. More than one-sixth pesticides used were extremely hazardous, which were barred for general agriculture use. Waiting period is less than four days for nearly two-third growers.

This article reviewed on agricultural intensification from livelihood and environment perspectives in mid-hills of Nepal. Agricultural intensification has provided improved economy, food security, employment opportunities, decision-making, labor division, local institutions and leaderships. But soil degradation has been accelerated along with greenhouse gases emission. Additionally, the potential linkages of agricultural intensification to degradation and pathways for marginalization in the long run are addressed.

The relation between climate and maize production in Nepal was studied for the period 1970/71-2007/08. Due to the topographical differences within north-south span of the country, Nepal has wide variety of climatic condition. About 70 to 90% of the rainfall occurs during summer monsoon (June to September) and the rest of the months are almost dry. Maize is cultivated from March to May depending on the rainfall distribution.

An experiment was conducted at Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal during March-July 2008 to explore the impact of ambient ozone on crop growth and yield. Mungbean cultivar "Pratikshya" was used as a test crop for the study.

Original Source

Spatial location of the farm households shapes farming practices and livelihoods of the farmers. Many socio-economic variables have strong spatial relations that would otherwise be missed by data aggregation at household level. Geographic Information System (GIS) provides display and analysis of socio-economic data that may be fundamental for many social scientists to understand socio-economic reality influenced by geographical position of the farm households.

In vein of exploring vegetable production and marketing related problems that could have hindered farmers from getting potential benefit, the study evaluates farm performances in selective vegetable pockets of Kabhrepalanchok, Sindhupalchok and Kaski districts. It describes farm strategies on pre and post harvest crop management, explores marketing channels and mechanisms of commodity transfer and price formation and assesses farm benefits of selective crops.

The study compares gross revenues from modern rice varieties and landraces and valuates different useful traits of rice landraces to demonstrate an empirical methodology for biodiversity valuation. A sample of 200 rice growers in hills and plain area was surveyed for commercialization of agro-biodiversity project. For estimating the value put by the consumers on different rice traits a hedonic pricing model was used that disaggregates the prices paid by the consumers for different useful traits of rice.