High atmospheric temperatures can reduce maize production in different parts of Asia. Heat stress is the major driving force behind the need for varietal development that confers a heat tolerance trait (drought + heat tolerant) to maize hybrids. CIMMYT has developed heat-tolerant maize hybrids and deployed them in the market in collaboration with NARS partners. This study was conducted to estimate farmers’ willingness to pay for heat-tolerant maize hybrids in the Terai region of Nepal. A socioeconomic survey of 404 randomly selected maize-growing households was conducted to estimate farmers’ willingness to pay using the contingent valuation method. Given the economic importance of heat-tolerant maize hybrids in maize cultivation, the survey showed that the average WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids was 71% more than that for the current varieties in the market, including overall seed sources and subsidized seed. Without a subsidy, the farmers’ WTP price was at a 19% premium compared to the average price paid for conventional hybrids. Factors such as education, owning land, the interaction of hybrid adopters and owning land, soil depth, the number of goats/sheep, and the semi-pucca homes of households influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Heterogeneous demand was observed with respect to years of hybrid maize cultivation, farmers’ association with the network group, and the gender of the head of the household. In the context of climate change and global warming scenarios, Nepal’s agriculture policy should prioritize increasing domestic seed production and the distribution of heat-tolerant maize hybrids through a public–private partnership model.

Abiotic stresses (drought, heat) are one of the major impediments to enhancing the maize productivity of marginal farmers in the facet of climate change. The present study attempts to investigate the impact of heat-tolerant maize hybrid on yield and income in the Terai region of Nepal. This study uses cross-sectional farm household-level data collected in August 2021 from a randomly selected sample of 404 rural households. We used a doubly robust inverse probability weighted regression adjustment method to obtain reliable impact estimates. Adoption of heat-tolerant hybrid increases yields by 16% and income by 44% in the spring season (a stress condition). Overall, yield increases by 12%, net income by 31%, saving of 40% in seed costs, and per capita food expenditure increases by 8.50%. Hence a conducive environment must be created for scaling up heat-tolerant maize varieties to increase productivity, minimize risk, and transform of the maize sector.

Journal of Agricultural Sciencewww.agrivita.ub.ac.id 199 Agriculture Development, 2018). The yearly stout crop is mostly cultivated in the tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Nepal has an abundant number of varieties of finger millet residing up to 3150 m.a.s.l. There are about 790 fingermillet accessions that are assembled from different parts of Nepal (Gairhe, Gauchan, & Timsina, 2021)production, productivity, and trade for the year 2009-2019. The study used a combination of exploratory survey and secondary data for assessing the production system, compound growth rate, coefficient of variation (CV. Eleusine coracana having maximum diversity with two wild species viz E. indica and E. aegyptica was also reported by Hunsigi & Krishna (1998) andKandel, Dhami, Subedi, Shrestha, & Bastola (2019. Finger

No abstract

Identification of genotypes with a high potential for yield and stability across environments is an essential task in plant breeding. The experiments were conducted in three consecutive years viz 2017, 2018 and 2019 during spring seasons across two locations viz Dolakha; and Jumla using 13 proso millet genotypes in Nepal. Proso millet genotypes were evaluated in randomized complete block design with three replications. The objectives of this study were to analyze yield stability and adaptability of proso millets genotypes and to evaluate the discrimination and representativeness of locations by genotype and genotype by environment interaction (GGE) biplot method. The significant genotypes and genotypes and their interaction (P<0.05) were observed for day to maturity, plant height and grain yield which indicated the presence of difference among the genotypes. The combined analysis over environments showed that the average values of days to maturity was 118 days, plant height of 112 cm and grain yield of 0.429 t/ha. The genotypes CO4656 had mean yield 0.495 t/ha which was higher than the overall mean (0.429 t/ha), parameter of response (b)=1.16 and parameter of stability (S 2 di)=0.05. This genotypes could be represented as stable and widely adapted across tested environments. The genotype CO3149 was specifically adapted to favourable environment of Jumla because its regression coefficient was significantly more than unity (b=1.25) mean yield is higher (0.478 t/ha) than the average (0.429 t/ha) and S 2 di was nearly zero (0.101). Similarly genotype HUMLA-312 was specifically adapted to Dolakha environment because its regression coefficient was significantly more than unity (b=1.14), mean yield was higher (0.451 t/ha) than the average (0.429 t/ha) and S 2 d was nearly zero (0.140). GGE biplot showed genotype CO4656 was stable genotype under tested environments.