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This study attempts to estimate credit fungibility (CF) and analyses its factors, using the primary data of 208 smallholders from Punjab province of Pakistan
. Findings revealed that smallholders used a significant proportion of obtained credit on non-agricultural purposes. Among three groups of smallholders compared, that is, lower smallholders ([les]1.0 acre), middle smallholders (1.01-2.50 acres) and upper smallholders (2.51-5.00 acres), lower smallholders used nearly one-third of their obtained credit for non-agricultural purposes in spite of their highest dependency on credit to carry out their agricultural activities. In contrast, the other two groups of smallholders, whose dependency on credit was relatively low, had used a comparatively lower proportion of the credit for non-agricultural activities. The study also found that non-fixed assets and landholding size are the key factors of CF. Other factors such as non-farm income, household size, repayments of old loans, illiteracy and credit source also affected CF significantly, but with notable variations across the groups
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In pursuit of sustainable forest conservation, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal have promoted participatory forest management (PFM) approaches such as community forestry, joint forest management, and social forestry
. This study assessed these approaches based on policy and legal frameworks, organizational arrangements, and decentralization of authority, which are considered the fundamental requirements for the success of PFM. The findings of the analysis revealed that although there is a tendency among all four countries moving toward PFM, their features and fundamentals vary considerably from one country to another. Overall, community forestry in Nepal appeared to be a robust participatory system, while the social forestry of Bangladesh?a highly centralized approach?is deemed very weak. The community forestry approach in Bhutan and joint forest management in India fall between these two extremes. Broad policy recommendations are outlined for promotion of genuine PFM
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As in other mountain regions of Asia, agricultural lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh are undergoing degradation due primarily to environmentally incompatible land-use systems such as shifting cultivation (jhum) and annual cash crops
. The suitable land-use systems such as agroforestry and timber tree plantation provide benefit to the society at large, but they might not provide attractive economic benefits to farmers, eventually constraining a wide-scale adoption of such land-use systems. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate agricultural land-use systems from both societal and private perspectives in the pursuit of promoting particularly environmentally sustainable systems. This article evaluated five major land-use systems being practiced in CHT, namely jhum, annual cash crops, horticulture, agroforestry, and timber plantation. The results of the financial analysis revealed the annual cash crops as the most attractive land use and jhum as the least attractive of the five land-use systems considered under the study. Horticulture, timber plantation, and agroforestry, considered to be suitable landuse systems particularly for mountainous areas, held the middle ground between these two systems. Annual cash crops provided the highest financial return at the cost of a very high rate of soil erosion. When the societal cost of soil erosion is considered, annual cash crops appear to be the most costly land-use system, followed by jhum and horticulture. Although financially less attractive compared to annual cash crops and horticulture, agroforestry and timber plantation are the socially most beneficial land-use systems. Findings of the alternative policy analyses indicate that there is a good prospect for making environmentally sustainable land-use systems, such as agroforestry and timber plantation, attractive for the farmers by eliminating existing legal and institutional barriers, combined with the provision of necessary support services and facilities
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This paper analyses factors influencing the adoption of land management practices in two mountain watersheds of Nepal based on information collected through a questionnaire survey of 300 households
. Farmers in both watersheds have adopted several types of structural and biological land management practices to control land degradation. The stepwise multiple linear regression model ran using SPSS revealed 10 variables significantly influencing the adoption of land management technologies. The variables found significant are: extension service, caste affiliation of farmers, household agricultural labor force, landholdings with fluvents, dystrochrepts,and rhodustalfs soils,training on land management,schooling period of the household head,participation in joint land management activities,and landslide density in farmlands. The predicted R value of 0.62, R square of 0.37,and adjusted R square of 0.35 indicate moderate explanatory power of the model as a whole. However,the acceptance of the variables included in the model helps us to draw very useful policy conclusions for sustainable land management. All above mentioned variables have positive influence on the adoption of land management technologies,but remarkably,ex tension services were revealed as the strongest factor influencing the adoption of technologies. This indicates the positive influence of the extension service provided by the Phewatal Management Project and the need for provision of similar type extension service for farmers elsewhere in the hills of Nepal
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Mountain watersheds, comprising a substantial proportion of national territories of countries in mainland South and Southeast Asia, are biophysical and socioeconomic entities, regulating the hydrological cycle, sequestrating carbon dioxide, and providing natural resources for the benefit of people living in and outside the watersheds
. A review of the literature reveals that watersheds are undergoing degradation at varying rates caused by a myriad of factors ranging from national policies to farmers? socioeconomic conditions. Many agencies ? governmental and private ? have tried to address the problem in selected watersheds. Against the backdrop of the many causes of degradation, this study examines the evolving approaches to watershed management and development. Until the early 1990s, watershed management planning and implementation followed a highly centralized approach focused on heavily subsidized structural measures of soil conservation, planned and implemented without any consultation with the mainstream development agencies and local people. Watershed management was either the sole responsibility of specially created line agencies or a project authority established by external donors. As a consequence, the initiatives could not be continued or contribute to effective conservation of watersheds. Cognizant of this, emphasis has been laid on integrated, participatory approaches since the early 1990s. Based on an evaluation of experiences in mainland South and Southeast Asia, this study finds not much change in the way that management plans are being prepared and executed. The emergence of a multitude of independent watershed management agencies, with their own organizational structures and objectives and planning and implementation systems has resulted in watershed management endeavors that have been in complete disarray. Consistent with the principle of sustainable development, a real integrated, participatory approach requires area-specific conservation programs that are well incorporated into integrated socioeconomic development plans prepared and implemented by local line agencies in cooperation with nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and concerned people
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Amid ever-growing concerns over conservation and development of mountains this paper examines the major challenges being confronted in South and Southeast Asian countries
. This is followed by an overview of opportunities conducive to conservation and development. Though the nature and severity of the problems vary from one region to another, the typical challenges in all regions are empowerment of local governments, allocation of a fair share of resources required for conservation and development, enabling local institutions to adapt themselves to changing socio-economic situations, economic integration of uplands with lowlands, alleviation of population pressure, promotion of locationally suitable land use, and strengthening local capability for conservation and development. Diverse natural and cultural resources, institutions and technologies available in mountains offer ample opportunity for their sustainable development
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This paper sheds light on changing farmers? land management practices in two mountain watersheds, with and without external assistance, in the western hills of Nepal
. Information used in the analysis were obtained through a survey of 300 households, group discussion, key informant interviews, and field observation conducted during April?September 1999. Confronted with ever-decreasing landholding size due to a steadily growing population and scarcity of nonfarming employment opportunities, farmers in both watersheds have increasingly adopted assorted types of structural and biological measures to control soil erosion, landslides, gully expansion, and soil nutrient loss to maintain or even enhance land productivity. Adoption of gully control measures, construction of the retention walls, alley cropping, use of vegetative measures for landslide control, mulching, and use of green manure and chemical fertilizers are found significantly high in the project area due to the provision of technical and financial support, whereas composting is found significantly high in the nonproject area. Different from the traditionally held beliefs, population pressure on a finite land resource has brought positive change in land management. However, the experience from both watersheds indicates that there is limit to the extent that resource poor farmers can respond to land degradation without any external assistance. Required is the arrangement for appropriate polices and support services and facilities enabling farmers to adopt locationally suitable and economically attractive land management technologies
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Widespread deforestation and increasingly intensive use of land to sustain a growing population has increased soil erosion, lowered soil fertility, and reduced agricultural productivity in the hills of Nepal
. This has raised concern over sustainability of the hill farming system. There is growing evidence that agroforestry can be a potential solution to above problems. However, the development of agroforestry as a viable alternative for farmers in diverse ecological and socioeconomic conditions has become a very challenging issue. The objective of this paper was to identify factors influencing the adoption of agroforestry by subsistence farmers in the hills, with reference to an agroforestry project initiated by Nepal Agroforestry Foundation (NAF). Necessary information for this study came from a survey of 223 households (82 project and 141 non-project) from Kumpur, Nalang, and Salang villages in Dhading district in 1998. The results showed that male membership in local NGOs, female education level, livestock population, and farmer?s positive perception towards agroforestry have significantly positive effects, while the number of children below 5 years of age, number of males aged 10?59 years, male education, female?s Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) membership, and respondents? age had significantly negative effects on adoption of agroforestry among project households. Among non-project households, those with more livestock and male membership to local NGOs were found more likely to adopt, while the households headed by males were less likely to adopt agroforestry
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In view of the growing concern about the effects of human activities on the mountain environment of Nepal, this study examined the land use and management systems and their environmental effects with reference to a small watershed
. It was shown that farmers had used cropping diversification, mixed cropping, cropping intensification and agroforestry to cope with the problem of food shortage arising from their marginal landholdings. They had terraced virtually all of their farm plots and applied compost/manure regularly, though in inadequate amounts, to control soil erosion and maintain land productivity. Nevertheless, farm lands on the ridges were undergoing unsustainable rates of soil erosion and soil nutrients depletion due to frequent hoeing and ploughing of lands, application of inadequate amounts of organic fertilisers, lack of mulching, and fallowing of lands for too short a period and without any vegetation cover. Soil erosion was not an acute problem in river valleys, as lands were flat and terraced, but lands were undergoing degradation owing to an unsustainable rate of removal of soil nutrients. Non-amble agriculture using biological soil fertilisation, including legume cultivation and compost application, could conserve soil in suitable locations and sustain the mountain environment
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