This study was conducted to understand perception of farmers about climate change; how it affects rice production and what are the local adaptation strategies adopted by farmers to maintain rice yield in Chitwan district of Nepal. A total of 90 rainy season rice farming household were surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS and MS Excel. Majority of the respondents (91.20%) perceived deviation in weather parameters in last 10 years. Most of the farmers had perceived drought as the major impact of climate change and nursery stage of rice to be highly prone to climate impact. Higher proportion of farmers had experienced delay in transplanting and harvesting time of paddy in last 10 years. Many farmers had already replaced local varieties by either improved or hybrid rice variety resilient to climate change. Increased insects infestation and weed menace along with outbreak of new types were found to be major production problem perceived by farmers at study area. Most of the respondents (50%) were expecting technical supports followed by infrastructure development (20.6%) from different organizations. Climate resilient projects and programs designed in bottom up approach to enhance understanding of impacts of climate change will help farmers to cope climate risk on rice production.

Clubroot is a devastating disease of crucifers throughout the world. It is caused by a soil-borne obligate phytoparasite, Plasmodiophora brassicae Wor. Plant affected by this disease shows flagging of leaves, unthrifty growth, and even premature death. When uprooted, root shows characteristic symptom of hypertrophied club-shaped root system. Several biotic and abiotic factors affect the disease severity. Biotic factors include spore load in soil and virulence of pathogen, whereas abiotic factors generally include soil environmental factors such as soil temperature, soil pH, soil moisture, and soil type. Pathogen survives, for substantial period of time in absence of host, through its double-walled resting spores in soil or crop debris. Temperature affects spore germination, occurrence, and pathogen proliferation. Acidic soil reaction is crucial for pathogen to proliferate, metabolize, secret enzymes, and to complete lifecycle. All type of soil textures favor disease; however, severity differs with type of soil and soil organic matter content. Soil moisture provides platform to move bi-flagellated zoospores to infect root hairs of crops. Root hair infection is commensurate with inoculum density or spore load in soil. Immediate management strategies entail cultural practices, use of biocontrol agents, and application of chemical as last resort. Trichoderma spp., Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis, and Gliocladium catenulatum are potential biocontrol agents. Flusalfamide, Fluazinam, and Cyazofamid are some common chemicals used to control clubroot. Soil carried by farm implements, human body, irrigation water, and flood can be potential source of pathogen. The risk of clubroot can be reduced by ensuring phyto-sanitory measures, destroying host crop debris, regular scouting, growing resistant cultivars, avoiding acidic soil reaction, eliminating weedy hosts, and reducing soil movement.

Cabbage production is an im¬portant farm enterprise for descent socioeconomic status and nutritional security of rural farmers in eastern hill of Nepal. The study was conducted to determine contribution of cabbage in livelihood of rural farmers and constraints in commercial cabbage production in Chhathar-Jorpati Rural Munic¬ipality, Dhankuta district of Nepal. A total of 60 cabbage producing households were randomly selected. Primary data were collected through 60 questionnaire survey. The data obtained were analyzed using MS-Excel and SPSS. Average land holding of farmers was 1.45 hectare. Cabbage occupied 67.99% of total land area under vegetables production with 60.06% contribution on annual income from vegetables and 23.69% contribution on total annual household income. Gross return and total variable cost per hectare were NRs. 195424.66 and NRs. 117566.70 respectively. The average gross margin per hectare from cabbage production was calculated Rs.77857.96; benefit cost ratio was estimated 1.66. Among total variable cost, labor cost (47.52%) was highest followed by nutrient (46.97%), seed (5.31%) and pesticides (0.21%) cost. Productivity of cabbage was 26.66 Mt per hectare. There is a huge potential for improvement of yield and benefit of crop, but the government should support farmers with subsidy in fertilizers and disease management programs.

Garden pea is one of the economically and nutritionally most important winter vegetable crops in Nepal. Garden pea production is an emerging farm enterprise of Nepalese farmers of Eastern hill and mountain. The study was conducted to determine profitability, to investigate whether factors of production are being used in economic way, and to find out extension strategies for increasing income of farmers in Dhankuta district of Eastern Nepal. A total of 120 garden pea producing farmers, (60 from Chhathar-Jorpati Rural Municipality and 60 from Mahalaxmi Municipality of Dhankuta), were randomly selected and interviewed using semistructured interview schedule. Descriptive statistics and Cobb-Douglas production function were used to analyze the collected data. The benefit cost ratio (3.54) indicates that the garden pea production in study site was profitable with productivity of 6.59 Mt ha-1 per hectare. The production function revealed that cost on seed and labor have statistically significant effect on gross returns. In contrast, the effect of cost cost on plant nutrients and pesticides were not statistically significant. The sum of regression coefficients was 1.04 which indicates that production function exhibited an increasing return to scale. Thus, extension strategies should be primarily focused on introducing high yielding varieties, use of high quality seeds, providing trainings on improved farming practices, increasing value addition practices and strengthening market infrastructures. SAARC J. Agri., 17(2): 165-172 (2019)