Aquaculture is an important agriculture sector in Dhanusha district with the involvement of large number of farming community. An interview-based questionnaire survey of 45 randomly selected fish farmers and 13 fish traders in fish block area of Dhanusha district, Nepal was carried out to appraise current situation of Production and marketing system of fish farming during the period of February to April, 2020. Majority of the farmers (86.76%) had done fish farming as main occupation and was found to be profitable with the average productivity of 5.53 Mt/ha/year and B/C ratio of 1.37. Most of the farmers were practicing carp polyculture however, monoculture and integrated fish farming was also found to be done by few respondents. Fish produced were sold in local market, adjacent districts and also to distant markets. The findings showed that traders were involved in marketing system of fish of which 59.65% of the total was sold to the wholesalers, 30.49% to the retailers and 9.87% was sold directly to the consumers. Commonly used means of transportation were bicycle, motorbike and pickup vans. The study also revealed that farmers were facing several problems like lack of technical knowhow, untimely availability of feed and other inputs, disease and water quality problem, lack of well managed commodity market, poor storage facilities etc. which needs to be addressed to enhance the fish production and marketing efficiency in the study area.

A study was carried out in Dailekh, Nepal with an objective to assess the mandarin orchard management practices and their level of adoption by mandarin growers of Dullu municipality. All together 60 respondents were selected for the household survey in major citrus-producing wards of Dullu by following the simple random sampling technique. Primary data were collected by administering the pretested questionnaire and; descriptive and inferential statistics were computed using Ms-Excel and SPSS. The result showed that the majority of the respondents were from Brahmin ethnicity (43.3%), middle-age group i.e. 35-49 years (53.3%), and male (70.0%). Furthermore, most of them belonged to medium size family of 5-8 members (60.0%) and were earning most of their income through agriculture (80.0%). The result of the study revealed the variation in the scale of adoption of different management practices. Most of the households had adopted pruning and applied farmyard manure (FYM) while the least of them had adopted mulching and applied chemical fertilizer. Chi-square test revealed that the factors such as age (p=0.042), education level (p=0.007), family size (p=0.029), and training exposure (p=0.001) were significantly associated with the level of adoption of these practices. Incidence of insect-pests and diseases (I=0.88), frequent occurrence of climatic hazards such as hailstorms (I=0.71), and limited irrigation facility (I=0.70) were the major problems of mandarin growing households. It is recommended that improving access to irrigation facilities, use of certified planting material, mulching application and use of appropriate dose of manure and fertilizer must be prioritized in the study area.

Potato germination is highly sensitive to ecological conditions. High altitude and low annual average temperature result in tuber dormancy and poor sprouting. Dormancy has become a significant constraint for lowering potato production, which hinders the possibility of growing two crop cycles per year. An experiment was conducted from February to April 2020. Two major potato varieties (Desiree and Cardinal) were treated with four Thiourea concentrations (0, 1, 2, and 3%) in a two factorial, completely randomized block design with three replications. Tubers were soaked for 2 hours in different Thiourea solution as per treatments, air dried until excess solution was removed and kept in a dark room on plastic trays. With the progress of experiment dormancy breaking and sprouting parameters like early sprouting, dormancy breaking, sprout length and sprout density were recorded. It was found that Thiourea has a significant effect on all observed attributes as per varieties of potato. For Desiree variety, Thiourea (1%) decreased dormancy period by 22 days compared to control (Desiree*Thiourea 0%) and produced the longest average sprout of 7.36cm at 49 days after treatment (DAT). On the other hand, for the Cardinal variety, Thiourea (3%) decreased tuber dormancy by 27 days compared to control (Cardinal*Thiourea 0%) and produced sprout of 7.75 cm at 49 DAT. In case of sprouts/tuber 1% and 3% Thiourea produced 4.13 and 1.91 sprouts/tubers in Desiree and Cardinal, respectively. The overall mean finding indicate that, 1% and 3% Thiourea concentration was significantly superior for breaking dormancy and enhancing sprouting of potato varieties of Desiree and Cardinal respectively.

Potato germination is highly sensitive to ecological conditions. High altitude and low annual average temperature results in tuber dormancy and poor sprouting. Dormancy has become a significant constraint for lowering potato production that hinders the possibility of growing two crops per year. An experiment was conducted from February to April 2020, where two major potato varieties (Desiree and Cardinal) were treated with four concentrations of Thiourea (0, 1, 2, and 3%) in a two factorial completely randomized block design with three replications. Results showed that Thiourea has a significant effect on all observed attributes as per varieties of potato. For Desiree variety, Thiourea (1%) decreased breaking of dormancy by 22 days compared to control (Desiree*Thiourea 0%) and produced the longest average sprout of 7.36cm at 49 days after treatment (DAT). On the other hand, for the Cardinal variety, Thiourea (3%) decreased tuber dormancy by 27 days compared to control (Cardinal*Thiourea 0%) and produced a sprout of 7.75 cm at 49 DAT. In conclusion, for breaking dormancy and enhancing sprouting of potato varieties Desiree and Cardinal, Thiourea concentration of 1% and 3% is recommended, respectively.