| Introduction
NARC is an autonomous apex body at the national level
to undertake appropriate agro-technologies suitable
to various Agro-ecological Zones (AEZs) for the country's
diversified crops, livestock, fisheries, etc. The Nepal
Agricultural Research Council (NARC) was established
in 1991 under the authority of Article No. 19 of the
Nepal Agricultural Research Council Act, 2048 (1991).
Agriculture Environment Unit, which is under the Planning
and Co-ordination Directorate of NARC, is a newly established
institution to work support the agricultural environment
related researchable issues.
Objective
- To raise awareness and seek solutions of agriculture
related environmental issues for ensuring a safe (minimizing
the use of environment prone chemicals, pesticides,
etc) and sustainable agricultural development.
- To prepare policy guidelines for NARC in conformity
with the national environmental policy of Nepal.
- To promote the use of renewable natural resources
to sustain agricultural growth and economic activity.
- To assess and predict climate change and its impacts
on agriculture and vis-à-vis.
- To introduce system analysis in agriculture research
and development using information technology tools
like GIS, Simulation modeling, etc.
Current
Research Activities
- Regional collaborative research on the application
of CO
2 enrichment
technology in rice.
- Application of EM technology to increase efficiency
of nutrient management on field crops.
- Enabling activities for the preparation of initial
national communication related to UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- To prepare the inventory of meteorological database
of different ecological belts of Nepal and analyze
in relation to agriculture production system.
- System approach to address the Rice-Wheat production
system using simulation models.
1. Global Warming or Climate Change
Global warming is gradually becoming a concern to
mankind. It is due to the atmospheric emission of several
gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,
chlorofluro-carbons, etc. There has been much concern
on its impact on the environment related to human health,
agriculture, land, water and sea. This has resulted
in the changes in concentration of atmospheric constituents
such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and
land surface cover and desertification and bio-diversity,
etc. These have direct and indirect impact on human
beings and the resources critical to their survival.
Relationship between climate changes and agriculture
is a particular importance as the world population and
world food production showing imbalance and under pressure.
The present research under way are attempted to study
the impact of elevated CO2 on rice production system
with varying affected temperature regimes in south Asia
region. This will attempt the future prediction crop
production at different elevation with projected CO2
elevation over time.
2. Natural Resources Management:
Our farming system constitutes major components of
natural resources namely crops, livestock, forestry
and water together. Agriculture is an intricate component
of our rich natural resources. This can be renewable
and can be made sustainable without taking from that
share our future generation would need to use. But our
natural resources are constantly threatened due to their
indiscriminate mining. Sustainability can survive if
these natural resources are managed properly and become
renewable. If this mining becomes indiscriminate beyond
the carrying capacity of the earth, that becomes prone
to environment and will not make the agriculture sustainable.
Promotion of nature farming will be the primary objective
of the natural resource management.
3) Chemical Pollution
In the last decades the environmental problems in the
farming system have received an increasing attention.
It is argued that in the sustainable farming system,
use of external inputs particularly the chemical components
has to be reduced drastically and that these system
have to integrate economic, environmental, ecological
and landscape goals in a well balanced way, using the
most appropriate production methods. Major agriculture
related chemicals are pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Pesticide use in Nepal is heavily concentrated in areas
that have greater access to market, such as Terai and
the Kathmandu valley. There are as many indicators that
pesticide use has been increasing in the past several
years. This trend is likely to continue in future. The
pesticides that tend to persist in the environment can
cause serious impact on environment and ecology. Pesticide
use is supposed to increase the agriculture production.
But negative impacts do occur, especially if they are
not used properly and judiciously. This has brought
the chance to seriously endanger life and pollute the
environment. Similarly, the excessive use of chemical
fertilizers results in losses and environmental problems.
There are several other factors for chemical pollution
such as industrial waste, vehicles emission, domestic
garbage's, nuclear sites etc. These factors contain
chemicals like lead, mercury, platinum, etc. are harmful
to the agricultural production as well as human health.
Therefore it is necessary to control these pollutants
by using the best method such as neutralization methods
or by replacing the toxic chemical pollutants by less
or non-toxic substance. The potential replacing substances
could be bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. The study
on EM technology at NARC advocates the use of different
naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms. These
help to act as a promoter of beneficial microflora in
the soils acting as biofertilizer. They either enhance
of the decomposition process or suppress the population
of harmful micro-oganisms in the soil. They ultimately
help to supplement the chemical fertilizers and will
reduce the economic burden. They are low-cost, environment
friendly and compatible with the nature.
4. Modeling and Simulation
Crop modeling enables researchers to integrate knowledge
from different disciplines in a quantitative way. That,
in turn, helps researchers to understand the underlying
process that determine the behavior of complex agricultural
systems. Mathematical models are caricatures of system
made from mathematical equations. Integrating and solving
the equations enables a numerical description of the
system to be produced. During the first phase of a modeling
exercise, the modeler seeks to give names, magnitudes
and units to the component parts of the problem. In
the second phase of modeling a problem is described
as mathematical functions. In the final phase, 'what
if' questions can be asked about the functioning of
a system and numerical answers provided. Mathematical
models that contain no clear logical link with the basic
processes governing the relationship between the system
inputs and outputs are unlikely to contribute much of
significance to any debate concerning strategic decision
in relation to research management. Agriculture Environment
of NARC is using a computer software program called
DSSAT v3.5 (Decision Support System for Agro-techology
Transfer). The DSSAT v3.5 shell is also linked with
Geographic Information System (GIS) to overlay the outputs
of the model for graphic representation and analysis.
Researchers
Contact Address
Agriculture Environment Unit,
Nepal Agricultural Research Council,
Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal.
PO Box 3605, Kathmandu
Tel: +977-1-5535981 Fax:
+977-1-5527695
Email: env@narc.gov.np
Website: www.narc.org.np
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