Training & Workshop

To enhance breeding development, income, and farmers' livelihoods while increasing food security, Principal Investigators at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Dr. Ram Khadka and Dr. Ranjana Rawal, are instilling practical skills and knowledge in young plant breeders with their project, “Mitigating soilborne diseases to improve smallholder farmer livelihoods and food security." National Plant Pathology Center, which brought together 31 participants comprising NARC researchers, university faculty, government representatives, and private sector actors for a 7-day Advanced Vegetable Breeding Course. Participants were immersed in lessons on advanced breeding techniques like marker-assisted selection and Qualitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis, as well as knowledge crucial for developing fruitful breeding programs, including varietal maintenance, seed production, participatory varietal selection, commercialization, and marketing. A panel discussion on the closing day of the course gathered experts from across sectors, stimulating discussions beyond vegetable breeding, into the need for cross-sectoral collaboration and using research to advocate for beneficial national policy changes.  

The National Plant Pathology Research Centre (NPPRC), Khumaltar, Lalitpur, organized a Vegetable Grafting Workshop under the project by Feed the Future Horticulture Innovation Lab entitled "Mitigating Soil-borne Diseases to Improve Smallholder Farmers Livelihoods and Food Security in Nepal" and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on April 21–22, 2024. The two-day program was specially created to provide fundamental knowledge and practical instruction by experienced trainers to vegetable farmers and other relevant stakeholders in Nepal's vegetable grafting sector. The major objectives of this training were to enhance farmers’ capacity in vegetable grafting to tackle soil-borne diseases, provide hands-on skills in vegetable grafting, and develop a national network of vegetable grafting farmers and private firms to promote vegetable grafting entrepreneurship in Nepal.

National Plant Pathology Research Council (NPPRC), Khumaltar, Lalitpur organized the Project Inception Workshop on “Mitigating soil-borne diseases to improve smallholder farmer’s livelihood and food security in Nepal” funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture led by the University of California at Davis and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on 1st September 2023, with eighty participants from multi-disciplinary team, to disseminate information regarding the ways to mitigate soil-borne diseases and improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and food security in Nepal. The major objective of the event was to inform farmers regarding ASD (Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation) methods to fight soil-borne pathogens and digitization in the record-keeping of farmers’ fields. Nepal Agricultural Research Council is implementing this project across the country to build resilient soil systems to tackle the emerging issues of soil-borne diseases in vegetable crops in commercial farms across the country.

A 3-day, from December 1-3, workshop on TR4 diagnostics training for the plant health technicians to equip them with accurate knowledge and hands-on training to diagnose the newly discovered TR4 race of Banana wilt in Nepal. The training was organized by the National Plant Pathology Research Center (NPPRC), in collaboration with the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO), Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center (PQPMC) under the financial support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Nepal.  hosted by the NARC-Molecular Plant Pathology Lab for the researchers of NARC and Agriculture and Forestry University Nepal  The official training gathered about 40 participants where five participants were from Provincial Plant Protection Lab: 5 (Karnali and Madhes Province), two from University (Agriculture and Forestry University and Far-western University), five from PQPMC, one from Central Agriculture Laboratory, eight from NARC and Twenty NARC Research Interns. Overall, the programs covered the theoretical points of view on TR4 diagnosis, experience on invasion, management to molecular tools, and methodologies used for the isolation, extraction, detection, and long-term preservation of fusarium. 

CABI is an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. CABI Digital Library, launched in July 2022, which offers students, researchers and practitioners a single place of knowledge and science discovery to support study, research and practice. Dr. Pandit will talk about potential application of CABI digital library in agriculture research, extension and education in Nepal 

A 3-day workshop on MARPLE diagnostics for the rapid detection of yellow rust pathotypes was recently hosted by the NARC-Molecular Plant Pathology Lab for the researchers of NARC and Agriculture and Forestry University Nepal. The workshop was jointly organized by John Innes Centre (JIC), UK, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) between 13-15 Feb. 2023. There were 26 participants, among them 9 were from Agriculture and Forestry University, and 16 were from different stations of NARC. The participants include faculty members, researchers, and graduate students involved in wheat research.  The workshop provided comprehensive training in various areas, including molecular biology techniques, and advanced sequencing technologies such as MinION sequencing, bioinformatics, pathogenomics, and phylogenetic analysis. The training was locally led by Dr. Ram B. Khadka and facilitated by JIC researchers, Diane Saunders, Dominik Vinopal, and Roland Wouters and CIMMYT Scientist Dave Hodson. The training was aimed to equip the participants with the necessary skills to conduct the MARPLE diagnostic protocol independently, as well as provide them with laboratory and basic bioinformatics skills that are transferable to other projects, both now and in the future.

We organized the first National Plant Disease Epidemiology Workshop in 2021 December in collaboration with NARC- National Agricultural Environmental Science Research Center (NARC-NAESRC), Khumaltar, Nepal. Fifteen pathologists working across the county attended the two days long workshop. The training was facilitated by Dr. Dipak Poudyal, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Dr. Bhim Chaulagain, Digital Agronomist and Pest & Disease Modeler at Xarvio Digital Farming Solutions-BASF, USA, and Dr. Shanker Kaji Shakya, Bioinformatics Data Scientist at Ball Horticultural Company, Chicago, USA, Dr. Ram B. Khadka,  and  Dr. Amit Timilsaina, National Agricultural Environmental Science Research Center. The workshop was hosted by NPPRC-MPPL at National Plant Pathology Research Center.

This course is going on at NARC- National Agricultural Environmental Science Research Center (NARC-NAESRC), Khumaltar, Nepal once a week. This course is designed for beginners in R. We will be covering basic R, experimental design, layout, data import, management, analysis, visualization and big data handling in R. Interested one should contact Mr. Rameshowar Rimal, Researcher at NARC-NAESRC, Khumaltar.

NARC-Molecular Plant Pathology lab contributed as a resource person to conduct the five days long workshops on "Robust Experimental Designs and Smart Statistical Tools for Rice Research in the Face of Climate Change" for the faculties of Far-western University, Agriculture and Forestry University and researchers of NARC at Tikapur, Kailali. The workshop covers data analysis to research report writing.

NARC-Molecular Plant Pathology lab hosted a 5 days long workshop organized by JIC, UK, and CIMMYT for rapid detection of yellow rust pathotypes in Nepal. NARC researchers involved in wheat research attended this comprehensive training facilitated by JIC researchers.