The Global Scenario of A1, A2 β-Casein Variant in Cattle and its Impact on Human Health

Beta casein (β-casein) has gained considerable interest among scientists and farmers as it provides promising factors to milk that enhance its quality and concentration. It is believed that the A1 β-casein variant shares an association with numerous human diseases. Since there are numerous hypotheses concerning the link between variants of β-casein and human diseases, many researchers across the globe have genotyped the cattle in terms of A1, A2 β-casein variants. This paper catalogs the A1 and A2 β-casein genotypes shared by different cattle breeds across the globe. Various literature encompassing the adverse effects of β-casein variants were assessed adequately. This paper suggests that the effects of undertaking the A1 β-casein variant on human health are ambiguous. Adequate research providing stronger evidence is needed for understanding the effects imparted by the consumption of both A1 and A2 β-casein variants on human health.

Cannabis Legalization and Potential Impacts on Nepali Economy and Public Health

After sustained pressure from the United States and the United Nations, Nepal enacted the Narcotics Drugs (Control) Act of 1976, banning licensing of cannabis dealers and farmers, and declaring cultivation of cannabis unconstitutional. The United States has now legalized cannabis for recreational use in 15 states and two territories, while >40 countries have legalized cannabis for medical use. Nevertheless, Nepal still legally bans cannabis, which has symbolic cultural value as well as economic and medical benefits. Farmers would likely benefit from its legalization. Employment opportunities, tourism, and government revenue would increase. The trade deficit of the country can be reduced by exporting cannabis. The rising public support for the legalization of cannabis has resulted in the recent submission of a bill for its consideration in the Nepal parliament. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the status of cannabis in Nepal, including its history and potential positive impacts if it is made legal.

Perceived Importance of Core Competencies among Extension Professionals in Nepal

Agricultural systems are evolving globally. Farmers and agri-entrepreneurs are demanding trustworthy and efficient extension and advisory services that they can rely on to improve their farming systems and associated enterprises. In this context, extension professionals are expected to be versatile and be competent in their services. Competency refers to having required knowledge, skills and abilities in both process skills and technical subject matters to effectively deliver assigned services. Competency needs are context specific and dynamic. Thus, it is imperative to periodically examine what competencies extension professionals possess and how they value them. This cross-sectional study sought to examine the perceived importance of key competencies among agricultural extension professionals in Nepal. Extension professionals in Nepal’s public agricultural and livestock development offices and agriculture-based non-governmental organizations comprised the study population. Survey data were collected from August to September 2015 through self-, group-administered, and web-based questionnaire. The respondents rated eight core competencies as important or very important. Their perceptions of the importance of these core competencies significantly differed across their current positions, level of education, age, and experience in extension services but not across their educational institutions, employers, and gender. There is a need to develop extension education curricula integrating these core competencies and providing education and training on these core competencies to extension professionals.

Review of Poultry Production and Poultry Vaccine Manufacture in Nepal

Poultry industry is one of the strong pillars of Nepal’s agricultural production system, contributing around 4% in the national gross domestic product (GDP). Nepal is self-reliant in poultry meat and egg production. This sector provides employment to thousands of people and has become a major source of income to rural people. Low investment cost, less manpower requirement, and quick returns attract many investors towards poultry farming and hence the population and productivity of poultry is increasing year after year. Different viral, bacterial, protozoal and fungal diseases, including influenza, fowl typhoid, coccidiosis and mycotoxicosis, cause tremendous economic loss to the poultry sector of Nepal each year. Vaccines can be an effective preventive measure against poultry diseases and Nepal government together with the private sectors produce vaccines against different poultry diseases. Still, poultry vaccine production within the country is not enough and depends on imports from other countries. Considering the continuous growth in the poultry production and constant threat of disease outbreaks, government of Nepal as well as private sectors should invest more on vaccine production within the country. This article explains the current status of poultry production and vaccine development in Nepal.

Robotic Manipulation for Specialty Crop Harvesting: A Review of Manipulator and End-Effector Technologies

This paper reviews recent developments in manipulator and end-effector technologies for the robotic harvesting of specialty crops that include fruits, vegetables, nursery crops, and nuts among others. Quantitative performance measures and general review criteria, including methods of crop detachment and end-effector sensing, are used to evaluate technologies and determine state-of-the-art in the field. Challenges affecting commercial implementation, limitations of current mechanical designs, and best practices are then presented. Results of the review show that, in general, robotic manipulation during harvesting has been limited by lack of system optimization and insufficient robustness to position error accumulated during visual localization. Inconsistent reporting practices have also hampered research and development across the field. At the conclusion of the review, some avenues of future research that could potentially lead to improvements in system performance are proposed. Some of the proposed recommendations include specific horticultural practices, the development of modular, multi-functional designs, and the incorporation of robust grasping techniques used in many of today’s robotic hands.

Maintenance of Non-Timber Plants at Low Heights Increased the Solar Radiation Influx and Understory Vegetation Biomass in Woodlands

The vast coverage of woodlands in the southeast United States offers a great opportunity for grazing small ruminants. However, not much attention has been given to utilize these resources well. The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the potential of increasing the a) light influx to the woodland floor and b) understory vegetation biomass by altering the height of non-timber (non-pine) plants. The study was conducted in six woodland plots (0.4-ha each) consisting of southern pines, hardwoods, and numerous understory plant species. The non-pine plants were either left uncut (control) or cut to one of the heights from the ground: 0 m, 0.9 m, and 1.5 m (treatments) in summer 2016. Kiko wethers (8) and Katahdin rams (5-6) were rotationally stocked in the study plots (3 plots per animal species) during 2017 and 2018. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) data were collected before and after stocking animals and the understory vegetation biomass samples were collected before stocking animals in the study plots. The PAR influx in areas that received cutting treatments increased by 413-1723% when measured before grazing, and by 543-2223% when measured after grazing compared to the control. Similarly, the productivity of understory vegetation biomass was 36-107% greater in the cutting treatment areas compared to the control. The findings suggest that the maintenance of non-pine plants at low heights can significantly increase the PAR influx to the woodland floor, thereby enhancing the productivity of understory vegetation and grazing opportunity for small ruminants.

Genetic Variation Within and Among Lowland Switchgrass Cultivars as Revealed With AFLP Polymorphisms

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has gained wider attention due to its recognition and use as a model herbaceous crop species for bioenergy production. Genetic diversity information in lowland switchgrass cultivars can help to specify cultivars to be used in the breeding programs aiming for hybrid vigor. The objective of this research was to analyze genetic variation within and among five lowland switchgrass cultivars using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. AFLP polymorphisms indicated the presence of high genetic variation within lowland switchgrass cultivars with ‘Alamo’ exhibiting the highest genetic variation and ‘Performer’ the lowest. The Nei’s genetic diversity parameters revealed the lowest genetic distance between cultivars ‘Alamo’ and ‘Cimarron’ and the highest value between cultivars ‘Alamo’ and ‘Kanlow’. ‘Alamo’ and ‘Cimarron’ were clustered together while ‘BoMaster’, ‘Kanlow’, and ‘Performer’ were grouped into the other cluster. In addition, there were clusters with mixed genotypes. The findings of this study can be used to select diverse lines as parents for heterosis and inbreeding studies.

Training Center Employees’ Perceptions of the Village Animal Health Worker Training Program in Nepal

Employees are an integral part of training organizations. They play key roles in planning, implementing, and monitoring and evaluation of training programs. However, employees’ perceptions of training programs have not been fully studied. Building on professional learning community theory, this study sought to assess training center employees’ perceptions of village animal health worker (VAHW) training in Nepal. Twenty-seven employees took part in a group-administered survey conducted in June-July 2012. Respondents appreciated trainees’ participation in class discussions, availability of class handouts to trainees, and instructors’ facilitation skills. They indicated problems in participant selection, inadequacy of educational materials, and no or limited monitoring and follow-up of training programs. The findings suggest to keep human resources at training centers competent and inclusive, improve the training environments, and pursue programs to sustain VAHW training and associated services.

Growth and Yield Response of Wheat to Tillage, Rice Residue and Weed Management under Rice–Wheat Cropping System

Recent decades have seen many changes in agricultural production systems in Nepal, such as increased mechanization for harvesting of major cereal crops, which leaves a large volume of crop residue in the field, increased herbicide application for weed control, and increased adoption of reduced tillage systems. In this study, we compared the effects of tillage, rice residue and weed managements on yield and yield attributes of wheat cultivated under rice-wheat rotation in the Southern Plain (Terai) region of Nepal. The study was conducted during the wheat growing seasons (November through April) of 2013–2014, 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 in Rupandehi district. The experiment was deployed in a split-split plot design with tillage system as main plot [conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT)], residue removal management as a sub-plot [whole residue retained (WR), partial residue retained (PR) and no residue retained (NR)], and weed management as a sub-sub plot [(manual weeding (MW) and chemical weeding (CW)], replicated three times. Analysis of variance was applied to the yield and yield attributes of wheat for fixed and interaction effects. Averaged across the years, the CT system (2.4 t ha–1) had significantly higher yield than ZT (2.2 t ha–1) but the difference was not consistent in all study years. While rice residue retention did not influence grain yield in Year1, WR produced greatest and NR produced lowest yield in Year2 and Year3, indicating potential yield increase in wheat following the whole rice residue retention in the long run. Grain yield did not significantly vary with weed management method, suggesting that manual weed control can be as effective as herbicide in weed management in wheat agroecosystem in the Southern Plains (Terai) region of Nepal.

Rural Households' Allocation of Remittance Income in Agriculture in Nepal

This paper examines the uses of remittances in various household activities by remittance-receiving households in rural Nepal. Specifically, this paper focuses on the allocation of (a) remittances in agriculture and other dimensions of household activities, and (b) whether there is any association between the amount of remittances received and the amount allocated by households to agriculture and other dimensions. This study utilizes the detailed household level data (n=139 remittance-receiving households) collected from the Chitwan Valley in 2014, a rural migrant-sending setting of southern Nepal that collected remittances received by households and remittance used in various household activities with monthly precision in the past 12 months. Using the multilevel multivariate OLS regression, the results showed that of the total amount of remittances used, farming (e.g. purchase of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides) received only about 3.1 percent. In contrast, a large proportion of remittance was used in buying fixed assets such as land, houses, and jewelry (27.1%), followed by food and vegetables (15.3%), savings and business investment (12.3%), loan payment (11.0%), education, (11.2%), and health (4.1%). Adjusted results from multivariate analysis (multilevel OLS) showed that the amount of remittances received by households was not significantly associated with its use in farming. However, the amount of remittances received was positively associated with the amount used in buying fixed assets, media (electronic) items, clothing, covering cultural expenses, paying utilities, and repaying debt. Implications from the findings are presented.