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Rice is a major food crop for the people of the world. The role of rice is inevitable in the current and future global food security. It is the number one staple food crop in Nepal and contributes significantly to livelihood of majority of people and to the national economy. This article reviews global rice production scenarios; figures out global Mega Rice Environments (MREs) and based on these analyses, the authors developed Nepal's Rice Production Environments (RPEs). The Asian countries dominate the global rice production. India has the largest area of rice cultivation. China is the world's largest producer of rice. Rice productivity is highest in Japan. Rice is cultivated in diverse agro-ecosystems. Rice environments are classified mainly based on land types (upland vs. lowland) and water regimes (irrigated and rainfed). The MREs of the world are classified into seven categories (Four irrigated, two rainfed and one for deep water rice). A total of nine RPEs were identified for Nepal-six under irrigated and three under rainfed conditions. The findings of this study are useful for rice researchers, producers and policy makers.

Nepal’s community forestry (CF) programme, which has been in place for over four decades and has rich lessons to offer beyond the national border, is the largest tenure reform initiative in Nepal. Tenure security is one of the primary requirements to unlock the ecological and economic potential of CF through the conservation, management, and utilisation of forest resources. Despite some gaps and issues in policy and practice, positive outcomes of CF have so far been reported. In this paper, we analyse CF tenure reform policy and practice. We find that forest-managing communities have been enjoying access, use, management, and exclusion rights over forest resources. However, communities are not able to tap the economic potential of local forests, partly due to limited opportunities available for commercial harvesting of forest resources and forest-based enterprise development. There is still a lack of institutional capacity among forestry stakeholders to harness the potential offered by changing policy at national and international levels, primarily due to ambiguities in forest carbon ownership and unclear cost and benefit sharing arrangements among different levels of government and community forest user groups (CFUGs). Addressing such issues to secure forest tenure and thereby realise the full potential of forest resources, both ecologically and economically, could be an area of future intervention, particularly in the context of changing national development policies and international environmental initiatives.

This paper demonstrates that community forests have high potential to make a significant contribution to rural income and employment through non-timber forest products enterprises particularly to the poor. The paper highlights a practical experience of the pro-poor entrepreneurship approach, its process, steps and outcomes through examination of a recently-developed enterprise in Jiri, Dolakha district of the central hills region of Nepal. The paper concludes that there are five key aspects which need additional attention for a successful pro-poor enterprise: the scale of the enterprise; pro-poor governance of community groups; necessary skills and capacity to empower the poor producers, both socially and economically; partnership building among private, community groups and poor households; and specialized services to tap competitive markets and conducive policy environment.