فهرست مطالب pramod kumar jha

Aphids are the important insect pest of winter season vegetable crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, mustard in Nepal. Their damage in these crops not only reduces the potential yields but also affects the market quality of those crops. Pesticides management practices are the common to reduce their infestation and crop damage. Judicious use of soft chemicals not only improve the farmers' health but also protect pollinator and beneficial soil arthropods. Therefore, a field study was conducted to test the commonly used alternative safe measures (bio-pesticides, home-made and chemical) in RCBD in a four replicates design in cauliflower crop cv. Snow Mystique. These were Mahashakti (Bt.), Neemix (Azadirachtin), Spinosad (bacteria-based), Liquid manure (a mixture of succulent plants, cow urine, fresh cow dung and ash) and Cypermethrin-10 (Superkiller-10). The study suggested that Cypermethrin-10 treated plots followed by Liquid manure and Spinosad was more effective to keep the aphid population below the threshold level than the control. The highest cauliflower curd yield was recorded in Cypermethrin treated plot (42.3 mt ha-1 ) followed by Spinosad. This study suggests that chemicals are superior in terms of population reduction and crop yield but these were not eco-friendly and sustainable. Hence, integrating these chemicals to other bio-pesticides could be an alternative to aphid as well as other pest management.

A field experiment was conducted to determine the comparative efficacy of different eco-friendly management practices against maize stem borers, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) and Sesamia inferens (Walker) in maize under field condition during spring season for two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications and seven treatments, namely: i) Trichogramma chilonis (Ishii) (egg parasitoids) @100000 eggs ha-1 , ii) Nimbicidine 0.03% (Neemax)-commercial product of neem @ 3.0 mL L-1 of water, iii) Spinosad 45% SC (Tracer) -bio-insecticide @ 0.5 mL L-1 of water, iv) Bacillus thuringiensis108 cfu mL-1 (Mahashakti)-bio-insecticide @ 2 mL L-1 of water, v) maize intercropping with cowpea (1:1 ratio), vi) Chlorpyrifos 20% EC (Dursban)- chemical insecticide @ 2 mL L-1 of water, and vii) Untreated control (without application) at the National Maize Research Program, Chitwan, Nepal. The efficacy study revealed that all the treatments significantly reduced leaf and stem injuries and increased grain yield over untreated check (p<0.05). The treatment, chlorpyrifos 20% EC was found effective with minimum percent infestation in both leaf (5.51%) and stem (1.86%) injury followed by spinosad 45% EC and T. chilonis respectively. Similarly, spinosad 45% EC gave significant result with the highest grain yield (4.66 mt ha-1 ) followed by Chlorpyrifos 20% EC (4.57 mt ha-1 ) and maize + cowpea intercropping (4.23 mt ha-1 ) as compared to untreated control (2.91 mt ha-1 ). Maize + cowpea (1:1) intercropping and release of T. chilonis were at par statistically and proved safer to natural enemies as compared to the chemical insecticides.

Ecotourism is growing business in Nepal due to domestic and international visitors. Specifically, natural lakes in Ramsar sites are very potential avenues for boating, scenic beauty and study the aquatic ecosystem. However Eichhornia crassipes has been threatening the beauty, ecosystem and eco-tourism business. This research was objectively carried out to explore income generation from ecotourism and determine socio-economic management of Eichhornia crassipes for manure or biobriquette. Four Ramsar sites namely Beeshazari, Maipokhari, Lakes Clusters of Pokhara and Jagdishpur Lakes were selected for the study. Data were collected through expert consultation organizing four workshops, direct observation and sampling. Meanwhile record of manpower, removal cost and utilization of Eichhornia crassipes were also collected. Affected sites of Eichhornia crassipes were calculated analyzing the current image of Google earth pro using ArcGIS. Samples were collected establishing sixty plots of 1m×1m and these were analyzed. Altogether about US$ 785260 was earned from tourism business between 2011 to 2015. The highest income was generated about US$ 397500 between 2011 to 2015 from visitors of Lakes of Pokhara. Removal cost of Eichhornia crassipes was the highest about US$ 108.09 ha-1 of Beeshazari Lakes in 2015. Farmers could save cost about US$ 31931 using Eichhornia crassipes as manure and that could be nearly US$ 38315 for biobriquette in 2015. The B/C ratio, NPV and Profit Index could be nearly 6.13, 96059.91 and 7175.11 using Eichhornia crassipes of Beeshazari Lakes as manure while 4.81, 105868.50 and 12415.63 using it as biobriquette. The study could contribute design the ecotourism policy.