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Rice is a staple food to over half of the world population. It is an economically important crop throughout South Asia. Rice in this region is susceptible to insect pests such as Planthoppers, Leafhoppers, Stem borers, Hispa and many others. Several management practices have been adopted in the region since historic times. The management practices include cultural, biological and chemical methods in addition to integrated and miscellaneous approaches. Rice farmers in the region rely heavily on the conventional cultural practices. However, the trend is shifting slowly to the chemical approaches with gradual increase in availability and affordability of synthetic insecticides. Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which focuses on sustainable crop production, has shown promising results. Modern management techniques such as genetic modification, use of digital technology, resistant cultivars, fungal entomopathogens etc. are more effective and eco-friendly. The focus at present should be the adoption of modified cultural methods, judicious application of chemicals, use of resistant cultivars and exploitation of biological resources.

Community forests of Nepal's midhills have high potentiality to sequester carbon. This paper tries to analyze the biomass carbon stock in Schima-Castanopsis forest of Jaisikuna community forests of Kaski district, Nepal. Forest area was divided into two blocks and 18 sample plots (9 in each block) which were laid randomly. Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) and height of trees (DBH≥5cm) were measured using the DBH tape and clinometer. Leaf litter, herbs, grasses and seedlings were collected from 1*1m 2 plot and fresh weight was taken. For calculating carbon biomass is multiplied by default value 0.47. The AGTB carbon content of Chilaune, Katus and other species were found 19.56 t/ha, 18.66 t/ha and 3.59 t/ha respectively. The AGTB of Chilaune dominated, Katus dominated and whole forest was found 43.78 t/ha, 39.83 t/ha and 41.81 t/ha respectively. Carbon content at leaf litter, herbs, grasses and seedlings was found 2.73 t/ha. Below ground biomass carbon at whole forest was found 6.27 t/ha. Total biomass and carbon of the forest was found 108.09 t/ha and 50.80 t/ha respectively. Difference in biomass and carbon content at Chilaune dominated block and Katus dominated block was found insignificant. This study record very low biomass carbon content than average of Nepal's forest but this variation in carbon stock is not necessarily due to dominant species present in the forest. Carbon estimation at forest of different elevation, aspect and location are recommended for further research.

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) is an alternative cultivation technique to the conventional Transplanted Rice (TPR). In this method, seeds are directly sown to the field without the necessity of nursery raising and transplanting. DSR can generally be divided into dry-DSR (sowing dry seeds in dry soil), wet-DSR (sowing pre-germinated seeds in moist soil) and water-seeding (sowing dry or pre-germinated seeds in standing water). This helps in saving water alongside the labour and results in early harvest due to quick crop establishment. DSR is proved to be sustainable and eco-friendly since it emits less methane than in TPR. However, there are few constraints associated with DSR such as weed infestation, crop lodging and nutrient loss. If these major issues are fixed, DSR can result in greater economic returns as compared to TPR. In absence of puddling, the soil structure can be maintained which leads to greater yields of succeeding crops. This technique has been successfully practiced in many countries like Srilanka, Malaysia and USA. In developing nations like Nepal, irrigation and labour constraints can be tackled by adopting direct-seeding for rice cultivation.

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