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Eastern hill region is one of the high potato producing areas of potato in Nepal. There are many traditional potato production systems existing in the region. Among them, 'Bung' and 'Lhose' are very popular systems. There are some under-proven views of naming to this unique cultivation practice. Field observations, key informants' interview, and group discussion were carried out at three sites of Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu districts in July 2019 to explore the basic information on the bung system. The results of this investigation revealed that the century-old practice utilized marginal sloppy lands of mountains for cultivation of potatoes. Farmers left land fallow for 4-5 years to grow weeds and herbs. Thereafter, they slashed them with a thin layer of soil, stacked them over winter, burned and mixed with the soil making a raised pit. They planted 15-25 potato seed tubers into these pits depending upon the pit size. No additional fertilizer is added to these pits. No intercultural operations are carried out until harvesting. It was explained that the yield of potato from the bung was significantly higher   15-20 kg)  than that of general local practice called lhose system (5-7 kg) from the area equivalent to Bung . Some interventions such as high yielding varieties, easy-to-handle equipment for bung preparation and introduction of fast-growing non-hazardous weeds, etc. were the demands of the farmers to increase profit from the bung system.

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<p>Soil fertility evaluation has been considered as a most effective tool for sustainable planning of a particular region. This study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status of the Agricultural Research Station, Pakhribas, Dhankuta, Nepal. The total 60 soil samples were collected randomly at a depth of 0-20 cm by using the soil sampling auger. For identification of soil sampling points A GPS device was used. The collected samples were analyzed for their texture, pH, OM, N, P₂O₅, K₂O, Ca, Mg, S, B, Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn status following standard methods in the laboratory of Soil Science Division, Khumaltar. The Arc-GIS 10.1 software was used for soil fertility maps preparation. The observed data revealed that soil was dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) in colour, and single grained, granular and sub-angular blocky in structure. The sand, silt and clay content were 56.61±0.97%, 27.62±0.56% and 15.77±0.58%, respectively and categorized as loam, sandy loam and sandy clay loam in texture. The soil was very acidic in pH (4.66±0.07) and very low in available sulphur (0.53±0.11mg/kg), available boron (0.24±0.07mg/kg). The organic matter (1.34±0.07%), total nitrogen (0.09±0.003mg/kg), available calcium (605.70±31.40mg/kg), available magnesium (55.96±4.67mg/kg) and available zinc (0.54±0.22mg/kg) were low in status. Similarly, available potassium (115.98±9.19 mg/kg) and available copper (1.13±0.09 mg/kg) were medium in status. Furthermore, available manganese (36.31±2.82mg/kg) was high, whereas available phosphorus (105.07±9.89 mg/kg) and available iron (55.80±8.89 mg/kg) were very high in status. The soil fertility management practice should be adopted based on the determined status in the field for the sustainable production of crops. The future research strategy should be built based on the soil fertility status of the research farm.</p>

An experiment was conducted in order to identify the productive genotype of turmeric for the plains of Nepal. In 2017 and 2018, seven promising turmeric genotypes (CI 0207, CI 0205, CI 9102, CI 1312, CI 0503, CI 0507, and CI 0201) were compared with KKH-1 in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications at the Directorate of Agricultural Research, Tarahara, Nepal. The plants were 30 cm x 30 cm apart, with 40 plants per 3.6 m2 plot area. Cultural practices were followed in accordance with the recommendations. Analysis of variance, correlation, cluster, and GGEbiplot analysis were performed on the observed data. From the pooled analysis of two years of data, the results showed significant differences in plant height and fresh rhizome yield among genotypes. The rhizome yield of KKH-1 was found significantly higher (19.36 t ha-1) than CI 0205 and CI 9102 and at par with other genotypes. Weight of mother rhizome had significant positive correlation (r = 0.602**) with yield of fresh rhizome. Though KKH-1 yielded the highest fresh rhizome, the cluster and GGEbiplot analysis identified CI0207 as one of the potential turmeric clones next to KKH-1.