Accessibility navigation


Farmers' management of rice varietal diversity in the mid-hills of Nepal: implications for on-farm conservation and crop improvement

Rana, R. B., Garforth, C. and Sthapit, B. R. (2009) Farmers' management of rice varietal diversity in the mid-hills of Nepal: implications for on-farm conservation and crop improvement. Plant Genetic Resource: Characterization and Utilization, 7 (1). pp. 50-62. ISSN 1479-263X

[img]
Preview
Text - Published Version
· Please see our End User Agreement before downloading.

132kB

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1017/S1479262108048259

Abstract/Summary

Season-long monitoring of on-farm rice (Oryza sativa, L.) plots in Nepal explored farmers' decision-making process on the deployment of varieties to agroecosystems, application of production inputs to varieties, agronomic practices and relationship between economic return and area planted per variety. Farmers deploy varieties [landraces (LRs) and modern varieties (MVs)] to agroecosystems based on their understanding of characteristics of varieties and agroecosystems, and the interaction between them. In marginal growing conditions, LRs can compete with MVs. Within an agroecosystem, economic return and area planted to varieties have positive relationship, but this is not so between agroecosystems. LRs are very diverse on agronomic and economic traits; therefore, they cannot be rejected a priori as inferior materials without proper evaluation. LRs have to be evaluated for useful traits and utilized in breeding programmes to generate farmer-preferred materials for marginal environments and for their conservation on-farm.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of International Development
ID Code:24796
Uncontrolled Keywords:crop improvement; farmer’s decision making; intensive data plots; landrace; on-farm conservation; rice; Nepal
Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation