Dr. Krishna Bahadur Shrestha1 and Dr. Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha2
Abstract
Agro-ecological characterization of districts is a pre-requisite to plan and programne for horticultural development in Nepal. Natural vegetation, indigenous trees, and traditional knowledge may be used as environmental indicators for horticultural extension and planning. Perennial crops (fruit trees) contribute to safeguard land stability of fragile mountain ecosystem and livelihood sustainability of peasant population. Nepal's wealth of agro-diversity and genetic resources has not yet been harnessed for commercial use. However environmental management should remain integral in orders to address isolated but upcoming issues like pesticidal pollution, excessive use of chemical fertilizers, loss of vegetal cover and biodiversity, loss of indigenous crops and traditional knowledge, emerging weather problems like the winter cold wave and the ground water poisoning with arsenic chemicals, and possible problems of biosafety due to genetically modified organisms. Environmental management should emphasize to effectively applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system and Integrated Plant Nutrient System (IPNS) while the production system could well promote biotechnology for micro propagation and quality standardization. Horticultural development has to be synchronized with infrastructure for transport and communication to access markets and market networks.