Increasing livestock production to meet growing demands has resulted in greater interactions at the livestock-wildlife-human interface and more opportunities for zoonotic disease spread. Zoonoses impose enormous burdens on low-income countries like Nepal, where populations are largely dependent on livestock production and access to shared grazing lands, often near protected areas, due to population pressures. Several livestock-associated zoonoses have been reported in Nepal; however, little is known regarding Nepali farmers' knowledge of zoonoses and opportunities for disease management. We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate Nepali farmers' awareness of zoonoses, assess current health challenges, and evaluate disease prevention and control practices. We found that awareness of zoonotic pathogens was limited, especially in informally educated and illiterate farmers; the majority of which were women. Further, farmers' preventive herd health, food safety, and sanitation practices were not associated with their awareness. Several farmers reported high-risk practices despite being aware of zoonotic diseases, suggesting a disconnect between the farmers' awareness and practice. Our study highlights the need for improving Nepali farmers' knowledge of zoonoses and disease prevention measures. Closing these awareness-practice gaps will require an improved understanding of risk and effective drivers of behavior change, alongside engagement of farmers in development of zoonotic disease prevention programs that encourage participation of both male and female farmers across all levels of education.
Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60-8850 m with heterogeneous topography and distinct climatic zones. The country is considered a biodiversity hotspot, with nearly a quarter of the land area located in protected areas. Nepal and the surrounding Himalayan region are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their abrupt ecological and climatic transitions. Tens of millions of people rely on the region's ecosystem services, and observed and modeled warming trends predict increased climate extremes in the Himalayas. To study the ecological impacts of climate change in Nepal and inform adaptation planning, we review the literature on past, present, and predicted future climatic changes and their impacts on ecological diversity in Nepal. We found few studies focusing on organisms, while research on species and communities was more common. Most studies document or predict species range shifts and changes in community composition. Results of these few investigations highlight major lacunae in research regarding the effects of changing climate on species comprising the Himalayan biota. Further empirical work is needed at all levels of biological organization to build on information regarding direct ecological impacts of climatic changes in the region. Countries face an ever-increasing threat of climate change, and Nepal has strong physiographic, elevational, and climatic gradients that could provide a useful model for studying the effects of climate change on a mountainous, and highly biodiverse, area.
The survey research entitled 'Socioeconomic analysis of ginger production in surkhet district' was conducted during March 2019 to May 2019. The Gurwakot, Bheriganga and Awalching was selected purposefully and sample HHs was selected randomly. A total of 30 HHs were selected as sample from Bheriganga and each 25 from Gurwakot and Awalching. The data was collected through household survey (80HHs), 3 focus group discussion (FGD) and key informant survey (KII). In the sampled HHs, the percentage of male and female respondents was equal. Unavailability of enough and quality seed, Rhizome rot, Rhizome fly and trader's dominance in price determination has limited the success of ginger cultivation in the area. Out of the total landholding of 881 ropani, 46.31% was used in ginger cultivation. The average landholding of the respondents was 12.31 ropani and an average of 2.31 ropani land was used by them in ginger cultivation. Majority of the farmers used seed rhizome reserved from own production for planting materials (66.25%) in the next cycle. All the respondents used organic manure as source of nutrients. Most of the farmers practiced family labour and exchanged labour as source of labour for ginger cultivation. Only 8.75% of the respondents sold their product directly to the consumers, 38.75% sold their product to the Organic Mountain Flavour industry. 48.8% respondents got price information from collectors and 42.5% respondents were unsatisfied with price they received for their product, only 16.25% were satisfied with price. Most of the farmers did not perform Bruni extraction. The total cost of production was found to be NRs. 3,48,500 per hectare out of which cost of seed and human labour found to contribute major part i.e. NRs.1,69,860 (48.74%) and NRs. 1,25,460 (36.0%) respectively. Benefit cost analysis revealed that the B/C ratio was 1.88 on average. Thus, the ginger farming could be preferable and profitable, that could SocioEconomic Analysis of Ginger Production in Surkhet District of Nepal
In many cases, sustainability of renewable energy systems (RES) is being analyzed by identifying certain criteria and sub-criteria considering equal weightage among the respective groups. However in reality, relative weightage of criteria and sub-criteria vary due to many reasons. Thus, this paper tries to prioritize the weightage of criteria and sub-criteria of decentralized micro-hydropower projects for rural electrification by analyzing sustainability indicators related to four dimensions-technical, social, economic, and environmental. An Analytical Hierarchy Process-Online Software (AHP-OS) model is used to prioritize the weightage of respective criteria and subcriteria through expert opinion. Suitable goal, criteria and sub-criteria are developed after reviewing pertinent literature and consultation of the experts. The results reveal that technical criteria (0.362) is the most crucial sustainability criteria followed by economic (0.290) and social (0.226). Environmental criteria (0.122) is found to be the least preferred criteria. The results reveal that 'energy availability' (10.8%) is observed to be the most preferred and 'GSI inclusion' (2.4%) is ranked to be the least preferred sub-criteria among the 19 sub-criteria. Nepal, being a developing country, shows a trend of people preferring the development of energy services first at a relatively low cost without considering the environment and gender/social inclusion. As a result, technical and economic criteria and sub-criteria are preferred more than that of environmental and social. The outcome of the research can help decision-makers and policy-makers in shaping energy policies, plans, and programs, and foster future pathways for providing sustainable rural electrification in the country.
A study was conducted during 1998 covering three Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Chitwan district, Nepal, to examine the consistency of results if carried out independently using formal and informal methods of information collection. Gender analysis (access and control profiles), and a face-to-face household survey (n = 123 households) were employed for this purpose. Gender differences in access to and control over household resources was studied. Results showed a consistent response from both household survey and gender analysis for most of the parameters studied, such as access to agriculture extension and veterinary services, participation in training, and community work. Gender response for control over resources, such as income from small animals was also similar from both methods. However, some of the parameters were not consistent in response. For example, there was no participation of women in control over income from cash crops and cereal crops and large animals as strongly indicated by gender analysis, which was not visible in the case of household survey. This raises a question about the reliability of using only one approach of information collection for rural development research. On the basis of these results, we suggest a combine approach of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, which could be more reliable, informative and appropriate. The use of multiple methods also allows the researcher to cross-reference in order to validate the trustworthiness of information.
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