THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

26 June 2013

Automatic weather stations have been installed in three districts of the Gandaki River Basin (GRB) under the project Adaptation to Climate Change by Livestock Smallholders in Gandaki River Basin. The three locations of the weather stations are Baireni VDC of Dhading (27o47’0.45″N, 85o0’42.68″E), Tindobate VDC of Syangja (27o58’17.48″N, 83o45’0.86″E), and Jayanagar VDC of Kapilvastu (27o40’41.38″N, 83o1’54.83″E). The automatic weather stations are now measuring temperature and relative humidity every 15 minutes and accumulated precipitation every 5 minutes. Measurements are transmitted by telemetry system and accessible via web interface (login information may be available on request). We hope to also add a feed of current observations to our website and to make them available to local stakeholders by text message. The weather stations are measuring directly at the field sites for climate adaptive demonstrations, enabling more accurate evaluation of the impacts of different weather conditions on forage, fodder, and livestock productivity and an improved baseline for evaluating extremes. The weather stations are also intended to expand regional climate monitoring capacities by being added to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) network, where DHM may take over responsibility for maintaining them after the current project ends.

As well as installing the weather stations, the research team visited the demonstration sites to get community feedback on how the project was going so far, learn more about livestock systems and livelihoods in each district, and solicit ideas for additional trainings and demonstrations. The project has been demonstrating easily replicable climate change adaptation technologies through water and soil conservation at the three demonstration sites. Feedback on the experimental fodder plots, as well as on the seed samples distributed to farmers for planting in their own plots, was positive. Milk production, marketed through local cooperatives, was very important in all the three sites, and it was suggested to log production daily to enable better understanding of the effect of climate variations on productivity. Meetings were also held at the District Livestock Service Offices (DLSO) in Dhading, Syangja, and Kapilvastu. The meetings provided opportunities to learn about current extension activities in the districts, including initiatives for value-added production and marketing of milk, silk, and coffee, and to coordinate project demonstrations and trainings with government policy. The research team also visited Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur Campus, to meet university leaders and to discuss opportunities for research collaboration. Following an overview of the project by the project leader Prof. Nir Krakauer, the four graduate students currently supported by the project presented their research plans: 1) Ms. Saluna Pokhrel will sample ticks and blood to quantify tick-borne disease in cows across the three districts; 2) Ms. Rachana Dev will study livestock systems from a gender perspective; 3) Mr. Razan Malla will conduct soil and water measurements to compare drip vs. flood irrigation yields and water and nutrient use efficiency at the experimental plots; and 4) Mr. Parashuram Bhandari will quantify factors affecting community adaptation to climate extremes.

The project team presented their work and plans at several government offices, including DHM, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and the Department of Livestock Services (DoLS), and other stakeholders including USAID/Nepal and WWF/Hariyo Ban Program. The project team discussed sustaining the weather stations, needs for short-term training and capacity building, and how to most effectively develop and disseminate policy recommendations based on the results of this project.

This is a project of The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), City University of New York (CUNY), and Colorado State University (CSU). The project is funded by the award “Adaptation for Climate Change by Livestock Smallholders in Gandaki River Basin” from the USAID Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program (LCC CRSP) at CSU to CUNY, with the Principal Investigator Prof. Nir Krakauer (CUNY) and co-investigators Prof. Ajay Jha (CSU); Dr. Soni Pradhanang and Dr. Tarendra Lakhankar (CUNY); Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha and Prof. Upendra Pradhananga (SEN). This project is undertaken in collaboration with the Government of Nepal (DHM, DoLS) Agriculture and Forestry University, and Tribhuvan University. The project began in August 2012 with an inception workshop among the wider stakeholders, and preliminary field visits were organized in October/November 2012.