Bishnu Hari Pandit

Farmers in the middle hills of Nepal have been abandoning agricultural land over the last three decades due to complex socio-ecological drivers and dynamics. A consequence of this shift is the succession of forest. Naturally regenerating tree species, and farmers’ opinions of species benefits, were assessed with field measurements and interviews to...

The rewilding of landscapes through the promotion of natural ecological processes is a contemporary approach to nature restoration and conservation. In Nepal and elsewhere globally, forest is also regenerating naturally on abandoned agricultural land, effectively rewilding the landscape by default. We investigate factors that lead to reforestation...

Various forest products such as nuts, mangoes, bananas, lime, silk from mulberry leaves,essential oil, timber, animal food, perfume from tree blossoms, mulch and biochar, possess high potential to increase rural income. However, farming families in Nepal can hardly afford the investment to create such productive ecosystems. Connecting to the global...

Out-migration from small-scale agricultural holdings in Nepal’s middle hills is resulting in forest succession on abandoned land. Such early landscape transitions are often guided by policy to maintain a productivist path. However, farming households in rural Nepal are themselves transitioning from their dependence and attachment to the land. The w...

The carbon assessment and monitoring in small scale forests like agroforests are difficult tasks but it creates enormous opportunity as carbon credit. This study aims to assess carbon sequestration potential in agroforestry including soil carbon using google earth imageries. Agroforestry of Ratanpur village in Tanahun district Nepal was selected as...

A project entitled, “Building village economies through climate farming & forest gardening” (BeChange) was implemented in four municipality areas of the Tanahun and Lamjung districts of Nepal from May 2015. In order to assess changes in the social-ecological system that result from this project targeting abandoned agricultural lands, this case stud...

The use of biochar in agroforestry practices is a new concept in Nepal. The soil application of biochar is a promising alternative to increase productivity and reduce chemical fertilizers. To test this concept, an action research project was implemented in two villages of Lamjung district in the middle hills of Nepal. This study aimed at assessing...

Despite agriculture being a major source of livelihood of more than 65 per cent of rural population in Nepal, the agriculture sector is facing a significant challenge in recent years due to increasing trend of agricultural land abandonment. A number of studies and assessments have indicated that more than 37 per cent of arable land in Nepal is aban...

In recent years, there has been a growing realization that improving market access for smallholders will lead to improvement in income and food security. However, market failure often limit smallholders’ fair access to market opportunities. To address this problem, a market-oriented agroforestry action research program was implemented in six sites...

p>This paper focuses on the participatory market chain analysis of agroforestry products in six sites of two districts (Kavre and Lamjung) of Nepal. In total, 93 market actors were involved in the study, in which 80 persons were purposively selected from Local Resource Person (LRP) and Local Resource Group (LRG) members and 13 persons were randomly...

Farmers in Nepal mid-hills have practiced agroforestry for generations as main source or supplement of timber, firewood and fodder from government forests. The nature and extent of agroforestry practice is being challenged by rapid social and economic change particularly in the recent rise of labour out-migration and remittance income. Understandin...

Poor water and nutrient retention are the major soil fertility limitations in the low productivity agricultural soils of Nepal. The addition of biochar to these soils is one way these hindrances can be overcome. In the present study, six different biochar doses (control, 5 t ha⁻¹, 10 t ha⁻¹, 15 t ha⁻¹, 25 t ha⁻¹ and 40 t ha⁻¹) were applied to a mod...

p class="Els-Abstract-text">Green growth and flood resilient value chain development have been foremost in the minds of vegetable growers in six villages of Udayapur District when they agreed to join pea field trials for a self-made biochar based organic fertilizer. Like so many Nepalese women and men who depend on farming for their livelihoods the...

Biochar produced in cost-efficient flame curtain kilns (Kon-Tiki) was nutrient enriched either with cow urine or with dissolved mineral (NPK) fertilizer to produce biochar-based fertilizers containing between 60-100 kg N, 5-60 kg P2O5 and 60-100 kg K2O, respectively, per ton of biochar. In 21 field trials nutrient-enriched biochars were applied at...

Flame Curtain Biochar Kilns Pyrolysis of organic waste or woody materials yields charcoal, a stable carbonaceous product that can be used for cooking or mixed into soil, in the latter case often termed "biochar". Traditional kiln technologies for charcoal production are slow and without treatment of the pyrolysis gases, resulting in emissions of ga...

Carbon balance and emission factors. Carbon balance and emission factors: accurate description of the calculation of carbon balance and gas emission factors. (DOCX)

Gas Analyses. Experimental details of gas emission analyses. (DOCX)

Kiln types. Overview of kiln types tested in this paper. (DOCX)

TGA analyses. TGA analyses of two representative biochars (BCE-soil and BCE-wood). Temperature was ramped from 25 to 950°C in 2 hours. "Gewichtsverlust" is loss of weight (both rate and overall loss), "Zeit" is time. (DOCX)

A widely abundant and invasive forest shrub, Eupatorium adenophorum, was pyrolyzed in a cost-efficient flame curtain kiln to produce biochar. The resulting biochar fulfilled all the requirements for premium quality, according to the European Biochar Certificate. The biochar was either applied alone or mixed with fresh cow urine (1:1 volume) to test...

This article highlights the results of an action research to upgrade mountain farmers of bay leaf (Cinnamomum tamala Nees and Eberm) in Udayapur district of Nepal. Farmers received low prices, lacked market information, capacities, and institutional mechanisms, and were exploited by traders. To address these constraints, three independent but inter...

Despite recognition of forests’ roles in rural livelihoods, there has been relatively little empirical exploration of community forestry's contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, there has been little study of the interaction of social learning-based approaches to forest governance with poverty alleviation. This article draws on 6 years of...

In view of the heavy people’s dependence (80 %) on various forms of land-based resources, carbon sequestration should not only be targeted in forests, but also on private land agroforestry. A survey was conducted in 2011 to investigate the gap in contribution of agroforestry carbon to the household economy in the middle hills region of Rasuwa distr...

A medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) project was implemented in Nepal and parts of India from 2005 to 2009 by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development to enhance the livelihood options and reduce the poverty of poor rural households. The present study assesses the impact of the project on poverty and livelihood security using...

This study examines the constraining factors for sustainable management of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in both community and private forests in Dang, Rolpa and Pyuthan Districts of mid-western Nepal. Four CFUGs were selected from each of the study districts, and NTFP inventory was done. A total of 259 households were randomly sampled for hou...

This article examines the feasibility of integrating five non-timber forest product (NTFP) species into field crop cultivation in eastern Nepal. Cost-benefit analyses including Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) show that all the NTFP species are more profitable than field crops. This profitability relationship holds true even und...

This paper examines the profitability of selected NTFPs (13 out of 21) traded to India, China, and overseas via Kathmandu, from Eastern Hills of Nepal. The results of this examination reveal that collectors receive much less of a profit margin compared to road-head and wholesale traders. With the increasing level of processing inputs and trading ch...

This article considers recent trends in federalism, with particular attention to revenue sharing of natural resources in the new federal system of Nepal. It begins with a general description of the federal system prevailing in other countries, revenue sharing pattern and possible ways that can be implemented in Nepal. The article concludes with an...

This paper examines the effective practices and constraints of community-based forest management enterprises (CBFEs) in Nepal in providing income benefits to the poor. The tenure reform clarity and strengthening of tenure rights at community level through various CBFM programs in Nepal in the last few decades has enhanced opportunities for the rura...

Different types of forest management systems in the study area are analyzed, followed by an assessment of nontimber forest products (NTFPs) use systems and collection practices under the government and community-managed systems, and their implications for the status of forests and NTFPs. Confronted with severe poverty arising from small landholding...

There is increasing degradation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in the mountains of Nepal. It has been proposed that different components of a common property resource (CPR) do not undergo degradation at the same rate, as they are not managed in the same way under different types of property rights regimes. To examine this, information was co...

Trees, crops, and livestock are integral parts of the complex farming systems on Nepalese hillsides. Any strategy for soil fertility improvement will take account of the interactions between these components, both on private farmland and common property and in public access forest and grazing areas. This requires a less restricted definition of the...

This paper examines the performance of an adaptive collaborative management approach (ACM) to increasing poor people's access to, rights and benefits from a community-based nonwood forest product (NWFP) network enterprise in the Eastern Hills of Nepal. This network has rights over some 2,000 hectares of community forests and more than 1,346 member...

"This paper examines the performance of the ACM based planning process for increasing benefits to poorest of the poor households in eastern hills of Nepal. This research is part of on-going CIFOR led project funded by IDRC during March 2004 to September 2005. Ten Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs, with rights over some two thousand hectares of Co...