A research was conducted at Pyuthan district in order to access the profitability of rice production in Pyuthan during the summer season of 2018-2019. Altogether of 70 respondents were selected randomly and surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the average land holding was 0.45 hectare, and the average rice cultivation area was 0.34 hectare. On the basis of average rice cultivation area, farmers were categorized as small (39) and large (31). The cost and return was calculated among both the category. t- test was used to compare the mean costs of inputs between small and large farmers. Cost for agronomic operations was found far higher (more than 70%) in both the category in compared to the cost of inputs. Contribution of rice grains and straw to overall return was 72.65% and 27.35% respectively. Benefit Cost ratio was found greater among large farmers. The average B:C ratio was 1.51, which was fairly higher than 1.14 in Dang district indicating the investment of rice production is expected to deliver a positive net return to the farmers of the study area. In a nutshell, rice cultivation is an important enterprise that should be encouraged, considering the fact that it is a major staple crop.

Thirty International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) elite lines and Nepalese commercial wheat varieties were grown at Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan in Alpha-lattice design to identify high yielding genotypes, yield attributing parameters and correlations between them. Observations were taken for different morpho-physiological and yield attributing traits i.e., days to booting, heading, anthesis, maturity, flag leaf senescence, flag leaf duration, grain filling duration, plant height, spike length, number of grains per spike, thousand kernel weight, hectoliter weight, grain yield and biomass yield. Significant genotypic differences were observed for all the traits studied indicating considerable amount of variation among genotypes for each character. The mean grain yield was 2148 kg/ha and it ranged from 1000 to 3425 kg/ha.

This study was conducted to determine the cost contribution of pesticide to total cost of vegetable production along with criteria for the choice of pesticides, its handling and application pattern. It also includes the amount of pesticides imported in 2020 in Palpa district. Fifty farmers and 15 agro-vets were selected for a pretested questionnaire schedule. Microsoft-Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences were used to analyze the data. Mean and standard deviation was used to categorize the age of respondents. Contribution of pesticides was 3% to the total cost of vegetable production. Farmers were rarely aware of safe application procedures, 64% used different pesticides based on their efficacy alone and 54% didn’t adopt any safe disposal mechanism. Among different chemical classes of pesticide used for vegetable production, organophosphates constitute the highest i.e. 80%. Highest annual consumption of organophosphate pesticide was malathion dust (2287 kg) and carbamate was mancozeb (196 kg). Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 8, Issue-1: 292-298

A set of twenty wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes was evaluated to assess morpho-physiological, yield and yield attributing traits related to post-anthesis drought in wheat genotypes under rainfed condition in a Randomized completely block design with three replications at research farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Rampur, Chitwan, during winter season of 2016/2017. The result revealed highly significant genotypic effects for number of tillers per m2 area, plant height, spike length, number of grains per spike, weight of grains per spike, 1000 kernels weight, days to booting, days to heading, days to anthesis, days to flag leaf senescence, days to maturity, SPAD meter reading, peduncle length, grain filling duration and reproductive growth period. Significant genotypic effects were found for grain yield, biological yield and harvest index and an array of variation was found among the genotypes for each trait. But non-significant genotypic effect was found for canopy temperature depression. WK2373 gave highest grain yield kg/ha (3035 kg/ha) and biomass yield kg/ha (8080 kg/ha). This study presented WK2373, WK2379, WK2380, WK2386, WK2388, WK2383, WK 2378 and WK1481 the best genotypes governing different valuable traits. These potential genotypes for valuable traits found in different clusters. Crossing genotypes belonging to different clusters could maximize the opportunities for transgressive segregation as there is a higher probability that unrelated genotypes would contribute unique desirable alleles at different loci.  Therefore, this study can help breeders to increase genetic diversity by selecting materials of divergent parentage for crosses, thereby reducing vulnerability to diseases and climate changes.  Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 8(3): 323-335

Rice shares about 20% of the agriculture gross domestic product (AGDP) and nearly 50% of the total calorie requirements of Nepalese people. The study was conducted to assess the different supply chain actors involved in the rice subsector in Kanchanpur district during April- August 2020. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect the information by selecting 110 respondents including 75 rice producers, 10 agro-vet, 5 millers, 5 wholesalers, and 15 retailers. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that there was a dominance of males (62%) over females (38%). The mean allocated area and productivity were 0.99 ha and 4.26 Mt/ha respectively. Cooperatives (33.33%) hold a major possession in the case of seed producers whereas their own seed (40.6%) and agro-vet (35.7%) hold a major source of seed in the case of grain producers for home consumption and marketed surplus. The average B: C ratio of the paddy growers was found to be 1.40 in the study area. The market margin and producer's share was higher in seeds supply chain NRs 29 per kg and 47.2% as compared to the grain supply chain as NRs 27 per kg and 46% respectively. About 77% of the paddy growers preferred to sell their produce to house and the remaining 23% sold to market. This research reflects the production constraints along with the establishment of an effective supply chain to assure the reliability of supply at an economic price. Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 7, Issue-4: 224-233