Unscientific land use and cropping techniques have led high soil erosion and degradation of soil quality in the mid-hills of Nepal. To understand the effects of land use systems for selected soil chemical properties in mid-hills, composite soil samples at 0 cm to 20 cm depth were collected from five different land-use systems: Grassland, forest land, upland, lowland, and vegetable farms from Dhading district of Nepal in 2017. Soil samples were analyzed for soil fertility parameters: Soil pH, organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), available potassium (K) and its effect due to different land use systems were compared. Results showed that soil pH was neutral in vegetable farms (6.61), whereas the rest of the land-use systems had acidic soils. Soil OM (3.55%) and N (0.18%) content was significantly higher in forest, but the lowest soil OM (1.26%) and N (0.06%) contents were recorded from upland and lowland farms, respectively. Available P was the highest in the vegetable farm (41.07 mg kg−1) and was the lowest in grazing land (2.89 mg kg−1). The upland farm had significantly higher P levels (39.89 mg kg−1) than the lowland farm (9.02 mg kg−1). Available K was the highest in the vegetable farm (130.2 mg kg−1) and lowest in grazing land (36.8 mg kg−1). These results indicated that the land under traditional mixed cereal-based farming had poor soil health compared with adjacent vegetable, grazing, and forest lands among the study area. The variations in soil fertility parameters suggest the immediate need for improvement in soil health of traditional farmlands.

Grafted vegetable seedlings have been used from the early 20th century. This technique has been utilized extensively in East Asia and the European countries where it has developed as a multimillion-dollar industry. The increase in land area under protected cultivation, intensive use of land, scarcity of production resources and changing climate leading to unpredictable weather has caused a rapid increase in the use of grafted vegetables. However, in Nepal, where the productivity of vegetable crops is quite low and the breeding activities are inadequate, use of grafted vegetables is still unexploited. Therefore, this technique can be an important intervention to improve the overall production system of Solanaceous and Cucurbitaceous vegetables. Methods of vegetable grafting, their current uses, research carried out in Nepal and the possible opportunities are discussed in this review paper. Cleft, splice, tongue approach, hole- insertion and pin grafting are the methods currently in use. Grafting can be used to overcome the problems caused by various soil borne disease and nematodes and abiotic stresses like, low and high temperature stress, water stress, salinity, metal and organic pollutants while increasing the yield and extending crop duration in vegetable production. In Nepal, few research have been carried out on vegetable grafting with majority of them on assessment of tolerance to soil borne diseases. Utilization of this technique in Nepalese conditions provide ample opportunities for researchers and academicians to conduct researches and for breeding companies to develop resistant rootstocks. By implementing this method, vegetable industry can improve the overall yield, its quality and reduce hindrances in production.

The extensive use of agro-chemicals deemed the conventional agricultural system of Nepal as unsustainable, regarding which organic agriculture seems as a realistic alternative, which lays its major focus on sustainable production system rather than on productivity. It has been gaining huge interest and is being widespread in contemporary context. In this regard, the paper attempts to outline the status and practices of organic agriculture in Nepal. Highlighting the major policy initiatives taken for promoting and advancing organic agriculture in Nepal, the paper also brings in light the relevancy of global agenda Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and other international conventions for prioritizing organic agriculture in Nepal. Though being determined in the direction of organic agriculture, contradictory decisions and policies deterring organic agriculture continue to emerge in Nepal. The paper, thus, highlights those deterring policies and identifies the major policy gaps hindering the growth of organic agriculture in Nepal. Presenting the case of ambitious mission of Karnali province to gradually transform itself to fully organic province, the paper assesses the major constraints for organic agriculture and suggests some policy recommendations that needs to be addressed to further its growth and development and eventually develop a sustainable food production system to ensure the long term national objectives of food security and inclusive economic growth for healthy and quality life of all Nepalese

Use of seedling rootstocks is widespread in Jumla and research on the evaluation of clonal rootstocks for propagation has still not started. Study on the concentration of IBA and wounding effect in cuttings is also deficit. Therefore, this investigation was carried out in the Hi-tech Greenhouse of Kalika nursery in Jumla, Nepal from February to July, 2018 to investigate the rooting response of MM111 apple rootstock to wounding (with or without) and various Indole-Butyric Acid (IBA) concentrations (0, 2000, 2500 and 3000 ppm). The experiment was laid out in a factorial Complete Randomized Design by preparing cuttings of 20 cm length and 5 to 10 mm diameter and planting them in rooting media made by mixing perlite, cocopeat, forest soil and vermicompost in 1:1:1:1 ratio after 15 second of quick dip in IBA solution. All the rooting and vegetative parameters were significantly affected by different concentration of IBA solution and wounding. The results revealed minimum number of days to first sprouting (15.50), highest rooting percentage (68.52%), highest number of roots per cutting (23.11), highest length of the longest root (22.83 cm), maximum diameter of main sprout (2.92 mm), maximum number of leaves at 86 DAT(20.06), 93 DAT(22.50) and 100 DAT(30.17) in the cuttings treated with IBA 2000 ppm. Increasing the IBA concentration beyond 2000 ppm produced negative effects. Similarly, wounding resulted in better root and shoot parameters of cuttings than with no wounding. The rooting percentage (57.4%), number of roots per cutting (21.83), length of the longest root (20.96 cm), diameter of the main sprout (2.66 mm) were significantly higher in wounded cuttings which also recorded the lower days for first sprouting. The interaction effect was significant (p<0.01) only on the rooting percentage while all other parameters were non-significant. The results indicated that 2000 ppm IBA with basal wounding perform better than other treatments.