A glimpse on post-graduate thesis researches of Agronomy Department of IAAS and prioritized future research directions

Abstract

To appraise the major research outputs of agronomic crops and cropping systems and to direct the future research priorities of Agronomy Department of post-graduate (PG) program of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (IAAS), a rigorous review was accomplished on about two decadal (2000-2018) student’s thesis research works. The review revealed that the agronomic researches at IAAS from 2000 to 2012 were concentrated mostly in on-station farm of Rampur, Chitwan and found their focus on 11 food grain crops with five major themes viz. varietal evaluation, crop management, soil nutrient and weeds management, and crop simulation modeling. With the shifting of IAAS PG program from Rampur to Kirtipur in 2013, the major agronomic researches were found to be concentrated in on-farm stations due to transitional movement of IAAS to Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal. A total of 115 agronomic studies were conducted on various crops, of which 92 were on cereals, 8 on legumes, oilseed and minor cereals including potato. There were records of 10 studies on rice-wheat and 3 studies on maize-based systems. The huge gaps between the potential and farmers' field yield and between the potential and research station yields for rice, maize and wheat crops suggested a great scope to raise yields of cereals by improved agronomical researches on varieties evaluation, crop and nutrient management and weed management. Simulation modeling study predicted that the varieties of rice and maize adopted at present could sustain the yields only for recent few years and needed for introduction of new climate resilient varieties, then after. Innovative and new researches on eco-region suited on-farm trails with variety identification, improved crop husbandry and soil nutrient management, improved weed and water management and on agro-meteorology, conservation agriculture, climate change adaptation and crop simulation modeling are advised as future research frontiers to uplift the productivity and reduce yield gaps of major food crops and to strengthen the academics of post-graduate research in near future.

Multi-year Prediction of Wheat Yield under the Changing Climatic Scenarios in Central-west Terai using DSSAT Crop Model

“…It is also reported that the changing rainfall pattern and its distribution affect negatively on wheat yield because wheat cultivation is mostly rainfed, but more vulnerable to drought stress than other crops in Nepal (Amgain et al 2019, Amgain and Timsina 2004, 2005Timsina and Humphreys 2006). It is also reported that research on farmers' field would be more vulnerable to climate change and, hence urge for innovative climate change research (Amgain et al 2018;Amgain 2015).…”

Agronomic management and climate change scenario simulations on productivity of rice, maize and wheat in central Nepal using DSSAT ver 4.5 crop model

“…The cereal-based cropping systems in Terai and mid-hills of Nepal are highly intensive, but are facing the sustainability problems due to fragile ecologies and increased dominance of cereals devoid of legumes in the systems (Devkota et al, 2018).The average grain yield of major crop cultivars in any particular region or the whole country is inevitably smaller than yield potential. Preliminary research works in Nepal have shown a large gap between rice yields in farmers' fields (<3.5 t ha -1 ) and on research stations (around 1.5-2.5 t ha -1 ) (Amgain & Timsina, 2005;Dhakal, 2016;Amgain et al, 2018). Maize, the second important crop of Nepal after rice in terms of area accounts 2.2 million tons production with 2.45 t ha -1 productivity (ABPSD, 2017;Shrestha, 2015).…”

“…These yields are far behind the average world level yield and Nepalese farmers are facing the problems of food insecurity over the years. Central Terai and hills of Nawalpur and Kaski districts being located in central Nepal, the agriculture in these eco-zones is mainly affected by series of climatic anomalies and their induced effects like abiotic and biotic stresses (Amgain & Timsina, 2005) and research on farmers' field would be more vulnerable to climate change and hence urge for innovative research (Amgain et al, 2018). In spite the large research efforts to lift the system yields by various allied sectors of agriculture in these areas; there are still large gaps between biologically and climatically achievable potential yields and research station and on-farm yields and urged for the precision agriculture research like crop simulation modeling (Timsina & Connor, 2001;Timsina et al, 2004;Amgain, 2004).…”