成果の概要

In the mid-hill region of Nepal rice is grown in elevations from 800 m to 1500 m, which corresponds to the elevation of our project sites in Madagascar. Rice breeding lines developed by us in Madagascar may therefore also be adapted to Nepali conditions and this trip was undertaken to explore possibilities to test this hypothesis. For that reason, I visited regional agricultural research stations and farmers fields at five different sites across the mid-elevation hills of Nepal. In discussions with farmers we learned that low input rice production is practiced on most terraced fields that are not directly adjacent to the farm house. Most rice produced would be consumed locally. My field visits were accompanied by researchers from regional agricultural research stations and together we identified thirteen fields as suitable to conduct initial screening trials and in each case farmers agreed to provide these fields to us for the coming rice season. I further visited the headquarters of the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) in Kathmandu and explained our intended work in Nepal. This was well received and it appears that NARC would welcome any further collaboration with JIRCAS.