For Rural Development

Krishna Paudel

Animal genetic resources that in clude both wild and domesticated species, and their diversity constitute some of the most important natural resources that Nepal possesses. Our country has many indigenous animal species and breeds could contribute to enhance food production provided programmes on scientific research, development and utilisation are implemented. The ray of hope comes from a recent initiative taken by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The FAO’s intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGFRA), a major international forum for developing policies on genetic resources for food and agriculture, has since the last decade shown interest and commenced preliminary actions through country-driven processes for developing a global database on the state of the world’s animal genetic resources (AnGR). Preparation of the first report on the state of the world’s AnGR for food and agriculture is one of such actions. Individual member countries including Nepal have recently been requested for the preparation of their country reports on the state of animals having agricultural significance in the respective countries. In this context, Nepal is exercising for gathering information on the state of our AnGR for the first country status report. This country report has to be endorsed by the Nepalese government and then submitted to FAO as an official national report. The report we submit will be recognised by FAO as a scientific and legal input for the first report on the state of the world’s AnGR. It also forms a basis for investment in research and development depending on what Nepal is likely to contribute to the conservation and utilisation of AnGR in the global perspective.

Nepal is a unique country in this globe in terms of AnGR. Though it occupies less than 0.2 percent of the total landmass of the globe, it accommodates more than 2 percent of the global animal genetic diversity. Nepal should consider preparation of this country report on AnGR as an opportunity for capitalising its diversified AnGR as a national asset. Species being utilised currently and some wild species that have scope for domestication in the future should be the subject of the report. The report demands clear plans and programmes, existing and to be developed in the future, on conservation, promotion, cultivation, scientific development and utilisation of the species in the country with global perspective. The most important aspect is we must reflect in the report how international attention can be gathered for the development of our AnGR focusing on the welfare of Nepalese farmers and commercialisation of livestock farming while at the meantime contributing and receiving recognition from the world AnGR pool. For this, we must know the special traits of our animals in terms of their economic and biological significance that is possible only after the thorough scientific studies.

The countrvstatusreport wearepreparing will be the fundamental guideline for our future workand are flection of how much wedresentlv know about. We must trecognise, we have a great potential in thise resdect and we have to look forwared ourselve, promoting our AnGR resources for the Drosderitv of our rural people. The country report to be prepared needs to address those avianand mammalian speciesfound in Nepal that are important and potentil for human food and agriculture. The animalspecies in the Nepalese context have to be categorised into wild and domesticated ones, and then outline the number of wild speciessuitable for domestication. Further, breedsandlines of our animal species along with present and future programmes on in-vivo and in-vitro conservation of the genetic resources should also be incorporated in the report. The most important aspect is the report should visualise how we could economically exploit these species and such programmes as a component of our national development programme.

The report will not be complete if we fail to include the state of the diversity of animals. We have to plan scientific studies on the huge diversity we have. Our country’s capacity in terms of policies, programmes, management (institutional, infrastructure, human resources and equipment) and state-of-art technologies and methodologies (for example, facilities for preservation of gametes and techniques for assisted reproductive technologies) need to be available by which Nepal can address poverty alleviation while at the same time contributing to the gene pool for global food security.

It is highly demanding that all the stakeholders like government and non-government institutions involved in conservation, research, promotion and development of animal genetic resources in Nepal make their contribution to the preparation of the country report. Have we been able to achieve this level of participation from the concerned sectors? This becomes a very vital question. However, we feel the present exercise on preparation of the report has not received the deserved level of attention and coverage; therefore we fear the report might not reflect the complete picture and potential of the AnGR we have.

We realise, Nepal has once again received a unique opportunity for gaining international recognition of our AnGR heritage, therefore, we urge the exercise of preparing the report receive full participation of local communities, GOs and NGOs in the process.

As government resources are not adequate, participatory role of Nepalese farmers becomes crucial in conservation, promotion and economic production of AnGR. Transferring scientific knowledge to smallholder farmers by implementing participatory research and development programmes on AnGR in the country becomes crucial for poverty alleviation and rural development. We see scope in succeeding towards poverty alleviation and development through diverting urban, national and international resources for the conservation and for optimising economic utilisation of AnGR in Nepal.

Important issues

It becomes necessary to recognise that we have a huge knowledge gap of what we have and what we can achieve by exploiting our AnGR for our economic development.

· Indigenous technical knowledge has not received due recognition from national institutions working in the field but can contribute to the area of conservation and utilisation of our animals.

· Many aspects concerning recognition, identification, characterisation, and development of animal species of economic importance are still the subjects of research. There must be a clear policy on researching AnGR. Such research must be state funded with adequate international collaboration where possible. Do we have such national policies and priorities? If not, this is the right time to proceed for formulating policies and setting priorities. Let us list out the species by priority based on the contribution to GNP and the improvement potential they possess. Among domesticated species - buffalo could be number one followed by cattle, goat, pig poultry etc.

Programmes for gathering people’s participation in in-situ conservation and promotion of AnGR has a great potential therefore it needs to be reflected in the report.

We must concede that we have not yet adequately assessed our AnGR’s diversity. Probably we have to begin from the basic and fundamental aspects of our knowledge base for their scientific studies.

We must also concede that it is livestock that can play a key role in poverty alleviation, rural development, tourism and small-scale industrialisation – probably the most potential areas for the development of Nepalese economy.

Assessment of the health situation, economic and biological losses due to diseases and investigation and development of therapeutic, preventive and control measures of infectious and non-infectious diseases of domesticated and wild animal population should be part future programmes of AnGR.

(The author is a senior scientist at Nepal Agricultural Research Council)

Vanishing oaks: Shivapuri National Park

Bharat B. Shrestha, Hari D. Lekhak

Oaks are environmentally the most compatible and beneficial trees in the Himalayas, which stimulate and promote the recharge of mountain springs. So, oak forests play a critical role in sustaining subsistence hill agriculture, conserving biodiversity, soil fertility and watershed. Unfortunately regeneration of such an important forest is rare in the Himalayan region.

Oak (Quercus), a member of family of flowering plant Fagaceae, is a large group of hard wood trees with about 600 species distributed in the northern hemisphere temperate zone, sub tropical and tropical Asia and the Andes. Humans have always had a strong connection to oak as they have served as a sign of permanence, eminence of hardihood, and a figure of enduring beauty.

Himalayan oaks are evergreen (with life span of more than one year) trees, distributed from 800m to 3800m elevations throughout the Himalayan region. There are more than 35 species reported from the Himalayan region, most of which are abundant in the temperate forests. There are five species commonly known in Nepal.

The economical and ecological values of oak are comparatively higher than other associated species. It is closely linked with hill agriculture as an important source of fodder, litter for making compost, firewood and timber. Oaks are keystone species without which related plants and animal life of that ecosystem would soon unravel and other dependant species would also disappear. Oaks are environmentally the most compatible and beneficial trees in the Himalayas, which stimulate and promote the recharge of mountain springs. So, oak forests play a critical role in sustaining subsistence hill agriculture, conserving biodiversity, soil fertility and watershed. Unfortunately regeneration of such an important forest is rare in the Himalayan region. Several reasons have been suggested to explain poor regeneration of oak forest such as erratic seed production, defoliation, seed herbivory, browsing damage to seedlings, forest fire, extensive lopping, thick litter, infestation by stem parasite (mistletoe) and leaf damage by insect pests. Many of these factors operate together and ultimately interfere with the natural regeneration.

The temperate forest of the newly established Shivapuri National Park is dominated by kharsu (Q. semecarpifolia) at upper elevation and banjh (Q. lanata) at lower elevation. The growth of banjh forest indicates that the species is regenerating. However, kharsu forest has posed some intricate and ecologically important questions. Some of the remarkable observations made during our recent visit (early September, 2002) were: 1). There was a wide size class gap in kharsu, with only tall, old grown dying trees and seedlings. 2) The growth of epiphytes, particularly the ferns was exceptionally luxurious up to the upper canopy level. 3) Though, kharsu is an evergreen species, we found that most of the trees of this species were in leafless condition. 4) There was total leaf fall in this species before the end of the rainy season when photosynthetic rate would be expected to be highest. 5) Mostly the young leaves were deformed and partially damaged by insects when they were still expanding. However such condition was not observed in the few isolated trees of the same species at lower elevations.

Population structure of kharsu in Shivapuri National Park clearly indicates that it has not been adequately regenerating. The presence of abundant seedlings means that the production of a large quantity of viable seeds has taken place in the immediate past. It is possible that every crop of seedlings were damaged either by herbivory, burial beneath thick layer of fresh litter, insect infestation and dispersal to unsuitable sites. Seeds die if they become dehydrated, and seedlings are more vulnerable to seasonal drought and deep shade due to the thick canopy especially during the rainy season. However, for clear understanding of the actual reason, long term monitoring of reproductive behaviour and seedling establishment is necessary.

One of the most interesting behaviours observed in kharsu of this forest was complete leaf fall before the end of rainy season (early Sept.2002), indicating that leaf life span is less than one year, which has not been reported as yet. On our route, we also noticed three types of kharsu trees; such as trees in leafless condition, trees with new crop of leaves and trees with combined crop of new and old leaves. Such a heterogeneity may be due to site specific variation in moisture, light and other environmental factors. We speculate that tree senescence decreases the leaf life span and the tree becomes completely leafless for a brief period between leaf fall and new leaf flush. Any longer absence of photosynthetic organ (leaf) during the potentially favourable period may accelerate the senescence rate of the trees. Decrease in leaf life span may be linked with adverse environmental conditions such as drought of preceding years or global warming but we do not have evidences in favour of both these possibilities.

In conclusion, from the field observation we noticed that kharsu forest is not adequately regenerating for several decades and if the present condition continues for a few more decades the oak may disappear from Shivapuri National Park. Hence it is suggested that some management practices based on long-term research should be introduced to stimulate natural regeneration. Since plantation of this tree has not been successful due to some undiscovered reason in nursery raising and plantation techniques, it is more important to manage the natural forest by adopting effective strategies. For immediate purposes, implementing sustainable methods of lopping for fodder, partially removing old and dying trees, controlling cattle and the wild animal population in order to diminish browsing damage to seedlings could contribute. Finally, it is a matter of great concern to plant scientists and foresters to save this species from complete degeneration and consequent disappearance. Therefore, the authors of this article wish to draw urgent attention of the concerned organisations to take up this problem seriously in order to save this ecologically and economically important species.

(The authors are teachers at Central Department of Botany, TU)

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