Background
Environmental degradation and climate change are the two major problems confronting agriculture today. Climate change, caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has emerged as one of the most prominent global environmental problems. Nepal, an agrarian country, is impacted by extreme weather events, erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and changing climate dynamics. Furthermore, environmental impacts on agriculture have raised serious concerns about sustainable agricultural production system caused by rampant use of agrochemicals, which is counterproductive to soil, water, and air quality. These are likely to threaten the food security and livelihoods of people in Nepal. To sustain the food and nutritional security of the country, an urgent attempt is necessary to make Nepalese agriculture more resilient to environmental degradation and climate change that can fulfill the current and future food demand.
To address these challenges, an Agricultural Environment Unit was established at Khumaltar under Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) in 2000 and later in 2013 it was upgraded to a division. Division emerged as a National Agricultural Environment Research Centre (NAERC) in 2018. The center is mandated for technologies generation and testing on-farm and promote them to enhance the resilience of Nepalese agriculture to confront environmental degradation and climate change. This can be achieved with the collaboration with public, private, civil society, local governments, and other stakeholders to improve food security and the livelihood of farmers.
Mandate
- To conduct basic and strategic research for environment and climate resilient sustainable agriculture with a special emphasis on rainfed agriculture and small-scale farmers.
- To impart training on agriculture-environment inter-relationships.
- To provide advisory and consultancy services on environment monitoring, assessment, and climate change in agriculture.
- To coordinate with local, national and international organizations for making Nepalese agriculture more resilient to environmental degradation and climate change.
Research strategy
Climate change adaptation and mitigation
- To develop and disseminate adaptation technologies to enhance the resilience of agriculture to the current and future climatic risks.
- To develop technologies for carbon sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
- To assess the vulnerability of productivity and quality of crops and livestock to climate change.
- To develop decision support systems and policy guidelines for managing agriculture in climate change scenarios.
Environmental impact and mitigation
- To assess the impacts of soil, water and air pollution on agriculture and vice versa.
- To evaluate carbon, water and nitrogen footprints of agriculture in different agro-climatic zones.
- To develop strategies for managing pollution impacts on agriculture.
- To evaluate ecosystem services for conventional and emerging agricultural practices.
Capacity building and policy formulation
- Training on environmental monitoring, climate change adaptation, GHG mitigation, N and C management and simulation modeling.
- Policy formulation for climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, low carbon agriculture and carbon trading.
Researchers
| Name | Position | Qualification | Specilization |
| Dr. Dhruba Raj Bhattarai | Chief | PhD | Climate Smart Horticulture |
| Dr. Pradeep Shah | Scientist | PhD | Conservation Agriculture |
| Dr. Roshan Babu Ojha | Scientist | PhD | Soil Environment |
| Mr. Kumar Mani Dahal | Technical Officer | M.Sc. Ag. | Climate Smart Production |
| Mr. Rameshwer Rimal | Technical Officer | M.Sc. | Agro-meterology |
| Mr. Hem Lal Bhandari | Technical Officer | M.Sc. | Agri. Economics |
Service Provided
- Preparation and distribution of weekly weather based Agro-met advisory bulletin and disseminated through social media- google group, email, facebook and other social media.
- Provided information on climate change and available CSA technologies to various stakeholders
- Information on climate change and CSA technologies disseminated through different media (radio, television, newspaper)
- Trainings to farmers on CSA technologies (DSR, AWD, ZT wheat, Intercropping, drip irrigation, protected agriculture etc.)
Contact Address
National Agricultural Environment Research Centre
Nepal Agricultural Research Council,
Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal.
PO Box 3605, Kathmandu
Tel: +977-1-5535981 Fax: +977-1-5527695
Email: env@narc.gov.np
Website: www.narc.gov.np