Ian Nuberg

• BScAgri(Hons). MScAgri. PhD
• Professor (Associate) adjunct at The University of Adelaide

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...

Agroforestry tree management is essential for minimizing negative tree shading effects in intensive smallholder farming systems. In this study, we hypothesized that tree canopy pruning would positively influence the relative growth performance and productivity of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) growing under Cord...

There are significant changes in rural livelihoods as Nepali society passes through an agrarian transition. Understanding those changes is fundamental to guiding approaches to support communities to generate sustainable development pathways and to adapt to risk. The socio-ecological research examines how community forests are used by different hous...

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...

Tree pruning is an important tree management option for reducing shading effects and altering whole-tree water use in smallholder farming systems. In this study, sap flow meters (SFM1s) were used to monitor whole- tree water use in Cordia africana (Cordia), Albizia coriaria (Albizia) and Coffea arabica (coffee) trees in two farms in Eastern Uganda....

Youth participation in agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship) is vital to the sustainable and inclusive modernisation of agrarian societies. We analysed relationships between demographic factors and motivational antecedents of intention to practise small and medium-scale agripreneurship using survey data collected from undergraduate studen...

Efforts to achieve inclusive and sustainable agricultural-sector growth in developing economies will benefit from agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship) by young farmers. However, challenges that hinder transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture remain. A better understanding of enablers and constraints that young farmers experi...

The participation of youth in agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship) is beneficial for the sustainable development of agrarian societies that are transitioning towards the commercialization of agriculture. Accordingly, we investigated the phenomena that motivate practicing young, small- and medium-scale agripreneurs to pursue their careers...

There are only limited policy levers that governments can use to facilitate sustainable development within remote rural communities. Often marginalised communities are almost uniquely dependent on the exploitation of local natural resources to generate livelihoods. We examine how formal education, both of household heads and more broadly across hou...

Nepal's community forestry is well studied and widely acknowledged, but its experience of Community Forestry Enterprises (CFEs) as a form of community entrepreneurship has not been part of a robust scholarly debate. While CFEs are considered a means to enhance community livelihoods and reduce poverty, a growing body of literature suggests that it i...

This study conducted a series of extension events that were followed by farmer interviews with 394 farmers who had participated in an initial household survey in 2018, involving four farmer categories: 1] those actively participating in the Trees for Food Security (T4FS) project from phase 1 (2014); 2] farmers neighbouring those actively participat...

Multipurpose and ecological forest management frameworks are being increasingly applied across the Global North on public lands. However, the discourse and practice of public forest management in much of the developing world are captured by extreme approaches of single-crop (usually timber) production and strict canopy-cover protection, as exemplif...

It is widely believed that community forest management concurrently improves the social, ecological and economic conditions of local populations. Accordingly, large areas of Nepal's Mid-hills’ forests are used and managed by local Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). The CFUGs plant seedlings as well as thin and prune forest trees at varying inten...

New opportunities and risks are emerging for rural communities in the Nepalese mid-hills. There is a rural transition underway and even though subsistence agricultural production remains vital, local livelihoods are increasingly integrated into a financial economy. Simultaneously, there have been dramatic changes in out-migration and remittances, e...

Understanding farmers’ underlying perceptions and knowledge of the impact of trees on-farm is essential to develop appropriate agroforestry practices that meet farmers’ aspirations. Using the Australian-funded Trees for Food Security (T4FS) project as a case study, we obtained quantitative data from questionnaire interviews with 400 smallholder far...

Operational plans are a key element in community forestry in Nepal. However, the relevance of these plans to forest user groups (FUGs) is under scrutiny. This study investigates the usefulness of operational plans against the backdrop of knowledge, capacity and management practices of FUGs. Data were collected from 13 operational plans, 16 group di...

This study applied the multi-group structural equation modeling technique to identify differences in farmer motivations to adopting agroforestry practices in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda. Data were collected from interviews with 400 smallholder coffee farmers belonging to four categories which included: (1) those actively participating in an Aust...

The socio-ecological monitoring protocol under Activity 1.3 Monitoring and assessment of social, economic and ecological and economic impacts of silvicultural practices outlines the approach that will be undertaken to determine how local Nepali Community Forestry User Group (CFUG) households are valuing and utilising forests for the Australian Cent...

This study applied the multi-group structural equation modeling technique to identify differences in farmer motivations to adopting agroforestry practices in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda. Data were collected from interviews with 400 smallholder coffee farmers belonging to four categories which included: 1] those actively participating in an Austr...

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...

Sub-Saharan Africa needs to produce more food, feed and fibre to support its growing population, and the sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture is a crucial component of any strategy towards achieving this goal. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a means to this, yet African smallholder farmers who have expres...

The biophysical characteristics of the farm and farmers’ socioeconomic factors have been used to explain adoption of technologies in Africa. However, agricultural technology adoption requires that we also understand the psychological factors that can encourage or discourage farmer adoption of technologies. The aim of this article is to assess the p...

Despite an ostensibly conducive policy environment in Nepal, community forest management has stagnated at a suboptimal level in delivery of the benefits stipulated in operational plans. This study assesses the current state of forest management against the backdrop of locally relevant factors that influence management strategies in 13 community for...

Widespread community forestry practices in Nepal's mid-hills catchments involve removal of forest products—including firewood, litter, fodder, and medicinal herbs—by the local communities. Uncertainty is growing about how sustainable the management of these catchments is and whether it can meet traditional needs and maintain ecosystem services, par...

Whether and how science can improve public policy is a highly contested topic in both the scholarly domains and the world of policy and practice. The research community often finds itself frustrated over the continued neglect of research evidence by policy makers. At the same time, policy makers see researchers as addressing their own questions of...

The expansion of community forestry practices since the late 1970s and, recently, outmigration have led forest cover to increase in Nepal's mid-hills catchments (>52% of the 4.3 million ha). The catchments traditionally provide food and income for local communities, and they are increasingly important for ecological functions, particularly downstre...

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...

Nepal is one of the leading countries embracing community forestry with about 45% of households being members of community forest user groups. However, there has been a failure to deliver the full potential of forest wealth because of a lack of proper silvicultural management, a constraining policy environment and a complex socio-institutional cont...

About half of the households in the mid-hills of Nepal are severely food insecure, and the development of agriculture and forestry sectors could hold keys to reduce food insecurity and achieve other sustainable development goals. This paper presents results from a bio-economic model, Enhancing Livelihood from Improved Forest Management in Nepal (En...

Lack of information on water use of key agroforestry species is an obstacle to understanding their influence on crop productivity. Cordia africana and Albizia coriaria are the dominant tree species of smallholder farming systems in the Mt Elgon region of Uganda and have multiple uses in agroforestry systems. This study deployed six sap flow meters...

This paper aims to review empirical studies regarding factors influencing farmers’ adaptation to climate change and document those factors in a systematic manner. Adaptation to climate change is an important research topic, especially in agriculture, a sector reliant on climate-sensitive resources. Several studies have examined the adaptation issue...

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...

p>There is growing interest by forest users, government forest officers and policy makers on maximising forest goods and livelihood provisions from community forestry in a sustainable manner. However, the way several mature community forests are currently managed based on selection, e.g. negative thinning and crown thinning, is questionable as it r...

p>Silviculture trial plots were established in Kavre and Lamjung districts by the EnLiFT Project (Enhancing livelihoods and food security through improved agroforestry and community forestry in Nepal) to examine stand response to selected silviculture systems – uniform shelterwood, selection system, and negative thinning and as a showcase to forest...

p>This paper explains what we term the ‘silvo-institutional model’ for a more productive, sustainable and equitable management of community forests in Nepal. The paper draws on four years of action research in six research sites of Kavre and Lamjung districts, complemented by the review of silviculture-based forest management by Government of Nepal...

There is a recognized need for the participation of local communities in designing and implementing agricultural interventions for the sustainable intensification in smallholder systems. This study examines the perspectives of local community leaders towards the widely promoted, but not widely adopted, practice of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in A...

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a knowledge-intensive set of practices which requires substantial access to functional agricultural extension services to enable utilisation. Despite this importance, the perspectives of those providing extension services to smallholder farmers have not been fully investigated. To address this, we qualitatively expl...

Purpose: The limited uptake of improved agricultural practices in Africa raise questions on the functionality of current agricultural research systems. Our purpose is to explore the capacity for local innovation within the research systems of Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique. Design/methodology/approach: Using Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a case...

If the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved, African smallholder farmers will need to embrace new technologies such as conservation agriculture (CA) in order to increase both their productivity and sustainability. Yet farmers have been slow to embrace CA and when they have, they are inclined to do so at limited intensitie...

Purpose: To explore why substantial agricultural information gaps persist in African smallholder farming communities and how to reduce them. Design/methodology/approach: Using conservation agriculture (CA) as a case study, we deeply explore with 29 smallholder farmers why they are yet to obtain sufficient information to enable practice evaluation....

This study demonstrates a simple method to gather information from old demonstration trials. It was undertaken in the context of a 32-year-old thinning trial in a naturally regenerating stand of Shorea robusta Gaertn. f. in a community forest in the Sindhupalchok district of Nepal. The trial was established by the Nepal–Australia Forestry Project i...

Fuelwood derived from community forests of Nepal is critical for rural livelihoods. Supply of fuelwood is regulated through 5-year operational plans. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of operational plans in addressing the demand and supply of fuelwood in community forests of Nepal. Data was gathered f rom operational plans, househ...

Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a part of the process of sustainable agricultural intensification in several major grain producing regions but in many developing countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, its uptake has been low. Through a broader view of the uptake of CA beyond binary adoption, this review addresses...

Full video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyE2gaxRkms&t=188s or for download below. Despite the large and ongoing investment in the promotion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) to African smallholder farmers, currently available estimates of adoption provide limited insight into the realities of their use. Both the technologies and th...

Despite the large and ongoing investment in the promotion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) to African smallholder farmers, currently available estimates of adoption provide limited insight into the realities of their use. Both the technologies and their adoption tend to be poorly defined, leading to large variation in estimates and validity issues....

Fuelwood is an integral part of the Papua New Guinea domestic economy, with consumption estimated at 1.8 m³ person–1 year–1. Social stress in many districts is evident by high prices for and the conflict generated by competition for fuelwood. This paper describes three related activities designed to develop small businesses based on short-rotation...

Socio-economic diversity can help to bring about innovative development in agroforestry practices. The diversity of households in the mid-Nepal hills was analysed using survey data from 521 randomly selected households in six villages. A cluster analysis derived the following household typology based on socio-economic variables—Type 1: resource-poo...

Why should a parcel of agricultural land be abandoned when there is a scarcity of food? In this paper, we address this question in relation to the hills of Nepal, where agricultural land is being abandoned at an unprecedented rate, despite looming food scarcity. Responding to studies that have highlighted land abandonment trends, we conducted in-de...

There is an increasing recognition of the contribution of forests to food security of poor and marginalized people. However, empirical findings remain limited on how forests contribute to food security. Drawing on four case studies of community forestry in Nepal, this paper discusses pathways through which forests are contributing to food security...

This Policy Brief investigates and elaborates on the following three key points: 1) Planning of community forestry (CF) and local governments (LG), currently in silo, should be integrated for food security, livelihoods and sustainable development. 2) Lack of institutional mandate, comparmentalized thinking, reluctance in resource sharing, and the a...

Despite more than three decades of promotion, conservation agriculture (CA) has not been widely adopted by smallholder farmer in sub-Saharan Africa. This low rate of adoption reflects substantial negative evaluation of CA by many smallholder farmers, the causes of which have not been adequately explored in an in-depth, qualitative manner. Hence, we...

Despite the large and ongoing investment in the promotion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) to African smallholder farmers, currently available estimates of adoption provide little insight into the realities of their use. Both the technologies and their adoption tend to be poorly defined, leading to large variation in estimates and validity issues....

This study investigates how factors that influence farmers’ intentions to adapt to climate change differ from each other in regions with different levels of vulnerability to climate change. Data were collected from interviews with 598 rice farmers in Dong Thap, Soc Trang and Long An provinces in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. These provinces were ident...

The Nepal government has in the past made several attempts to manage its forests through employing silviculture based interventions. However, most of these initiatives were either not implemented at all, or when implemented, failed to achieve stated objectives mainly because of weak political will, low institutional capacity and poor governance. Cu...

The present paper quantifies the variation in selection direction and genetic merit for the 10 Angus seedstock herds that contributed the majority of the data to the industry herd component of the Beef CRC Maternal Productivity Project. Differences in multi-trait selection direction for 17 BREEDPLAN estimated breeding values (EBVs) ranged between 1...

Ambiguity in the methodologies used to classify adoption of agricultural technologies have made comparisons across studies difficult. This is further compounded but weak methodological frameworks that limit our understanding by framing adoption as a binary outcome. We propose a new standard for the quantification of the 'how' of adoption via the 'P...

Seedstock breeders’ perspectives on topics associated with maternal productivity in beef cattle were investigated through the use of qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. Given the complexity of maternal productivity, it is possible that some issues may not be fully captured by recording performance and data analysis. This paper discusse...

Community forestry in Nepal is an example of a successful participatory forest management program. Developments in community forestry in four decades have focused on the social and governance aspects with little focus on the technical management of forests. This paper presents a silviculture description of community forests and provides silvicultur...

This paper describes the fuelwood economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) based on a survey of domestic users (n= 3,994), commercial and industrial users (n=66) and fuelwood vendors (n=157). The survey period (2009) covered urban and rural, coastal and highland districts of known fuelwood-stress. The survey region represents 11% of the national populatio...

Purpose: This paper examines extension practises of agricultural workers within the Egyptian government and the perceived barriers they face in implementing participatory approaches, identifying improvements required in research and extension processes to meet the real needs of Egyptian farming communities.Design/Methodology/Approach: Key barriers...

Poor soil aeration restricts the establishment of plants, yet some species used in revegetation programs are more tolerant of waterlogging than others. This study evaluated the sensitivity to poor soil aeration of young seedlings of Acacia salicina, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. leucoxylon, and E. kochii. A reference cereal crop, barley (Hordeum vul...

Abstract Text: Seedstock breeders involved in the Beef CRC Maternal Productivity Project detailed varying perspectives on the importance of genetic fatness for on-farm productivity. This paper quantifies differences in genetic merit for 10 Angus herds that contributed the majority of the data to the project. Overall differences in genetic merit as...

Many countries are confronting climate change that threatens agricultural production and farmers’ lives. Farmers’ perceived risks of climate change and factors influencing those perceived risks are critical to their adaptive behavior and well-planned adaptation strategies. However, there is limited understanding of these issues. In this paper, we a...

Southeast Asian countries are confronting climate variability, challenging agricultural sustainability and rural livelihoods. However, little research effort has been devoted to exploring how farmers in those countries perceive climate variability and how the perceptions link to adaptive responses. This paper deploys information from three focus gr...

Southeast Asian countries are confronting climate variability, challenging agricultural sustainability and rural livelihoods. However, little research effort has been devoted to exploring how farmers in those countries perceive climate variability and how the perceptions link to adaptive responses. This paper deploys information from three focus gr...

Adaptation to climate change in agricultural settings depends on understanding farmers’ perceptions of the nature of climate change, their agency in adapting and the efficacy of adaptive measures themselves. Such knowledge can improve mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study addresses the limited understanding of how farmers appraise their...

Fuelwood is an integral part of the Papua New Guinea domestic economy with consumption estimated at 1.8m3 /person/year. Fuelwood stress in many districts is evident by high prices and conflict generated by competition for gathered fuelwood. This paper describes 3 related activities to develop small businesses based on short-rotation coppicing (SRC)...

Establishment and survival of tree seedlings in hard soils depends on production of deep root systems. This study evaluated the primary and lateral roots of an annual crop and several tree species growing in soils of varying strength. We grew peas and acacias by direct seeding, plus three eucalypts by direct seeding and transplanting, and measured...

Background and Aims As part of a study on growth of tree roots in hostile soil, we envisaged that establishment and survival of trees on hard, dry soil may depend on their ability to exert axial root growth pressures of similar magnitude to those of the roots of agricultural plants (with significant root thickening when roots grow across an air gap...

Background and aims Woody perennials can be difficult to establish on harsh soils in arid and semi-arid regions. Historically, technological advances have focussed on methods to improve transplanting and direct-seeding but the available information on these advances remains fragmented and the edaphic factors have been largely ignored. This review e...

It is essential to understand the patterns of pollen dispersal in remnant vegetation occupying highly disturbed landscapes in order to provide sustainable management options and to inform restoration programs. Direct and indirect methods of paternity analysis were used to detect genetic contamination via inter-subspecific pollen dispersal from a pl...

Subspecific taxa of species complexes can display cryptic morphological variation, and individuals and populations can often be difficult to identify with certainty. However, accurate population identification is required for comprehensive conservation and breeding strategies and for studies of invasiveness and gene flow. Using five informative mic...

Heat-pulse techniques are routinely used to estimate transpiration from canopies of woody plants typically without any local calibration, mainly because of the difficulty of doing so in the field and, frequently, lack of detailed weather data. This is despite concerns that the techniques may produce erroneous values under certain conditions, such a...

The mating system, patterns of pollen mediated gene flow and levels of genetic contamination were investigated in a planted stand of Acacia saligna subsp. saligna via paternity analysis using microsatellite markers. High levels of outcrossing were detected within the stand (t m = 0.98), and the average pollen dispersal distance was 37m with the maj...

This study was undertaken to obtain an increased understanding of how current water management practices affect fruit yield in olives (Olea europaea L.) in Australian groves, in order to identify opportunities for improvement. We assessed the relationships between seasonal water supply and fruit yield on a range of olive groves that were either irr...

The clearing of natural vegetation for agriculture in southern Australia has increased deep drainage, led to increased groundwater recharge and, hence, the salinisation of land and streams. Alley farming systems, comprising alternate belts of trees and crops, have been proposed for reducing deep drainage but their effectiveness is unknown. This pap...

This overview paper presents a description of the National Windbreaks Program (NWP) — its objectives, the main methods used to achieve these objectives and a summary of the key results. It draws these from the individual papers appearing in this special issue, which provide detailed descriptions and discussion about the specific research sites and...

This paper presents the results of 3 years (1994–96) work on the effect of shelter created by a 9 m high Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) windbreak in the Mediterranean environment of South Australia on the productivity of wheat, canola, faba beans and oats. Elements of the classic windbreak signature could be detected in the yield responses of 6 of...

Wheat was grown in the field and lysimeters under 3 experimental regimes — full exposure to wind, full shelter within an enclosure, and partial shelter behind an artificial windbreak — to test the hypothesis that a crop in a sheltered environment will be more conservative in its water use and more efficient in using that water to grow biomass. The...

In Australia, tree planting has been widely promoted to alleviate dryland salinity and one proposed planting configuration is that of strategically placed interception belts. We conducted an experiment to determine the effect of tree position in a belt on transpiration rate. We also assessed how much the effect of tree position can be explained by...