Back to news
9 Dec 2016 | News

Communities Develop Demonstrable Agroforestry Systems with Poulownia Plantation in Sushare Gaun, Gorkha, Nepal

2 mins Read

70% Complete

Agroforestry is practiced in both tropical and temperate regions where it produces food, fiber and biomass energy, contributes to food and nutrition security, sustains livelihoods, contributes to reduction in poverty and promotes productive and resilient cropping and grassland environments. Agroforestry systems may also enhance biodiversity and water quality and control soil erosion. In addition, when strategically applied on a large scale, agroforestry enables agricultural lands to withstand weather events, such as floods and drought, and climate change. It is an essential element of the green and sustainable economy, in rural, urban and peri-urban environments.

With this understanding, ICIMOD’s REDD+ Initiative introduced paulownia plantation in three pilot districts of REDD programme namely Gorkha, Dolakha, and Chitwan. This will not only sequester carbon but simultaneously make available timber from agriculture land and reduce the pressure on natural forest, thereby contributing to biodiversity conservation as well. After receiving great enthusiasm in testing a new agroforestry system as demonstration to farmers, a total of 2000 Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) were distributed to four sites of Gorkha district namely Ghale Danda, Sushare Gaun, Kattel Danda, and Biren Chowk in June 2015 and continuous monitoring of the sites was carried out. Beside Kattel Danda, survival and growth of planted saplings on three other sites was satisfactory. The prolonged dry spell might be one of the reasons for loss of planted Paulownia at the Kattel Danda site. The present measurement and monitoring of Paulownia was carried out on Sushare and Birenchowk sites. In addition, saplings of Ghale danda are surviving but with minimal growth rate as compared to other two sites. The average height of the Paulownia was found to be 1.6 m and 2.02 m in Sushare and Birenchowk respectively. Similarly, average DBH was found to be 0.11 cm and 0.12cm in Sushare and Birenchowk respectively. The highest tree that was observed had the height of 4.8m in Sushare Gaun. The survival rate of the saplings was 62% in Sushare Gaun and 20% in Birenchowk. Now, the next survey should come up with the silvicultural interventions necessary in plantations which depends foremost on the main production objective (e.g., conservation, fuelwood, fibre, or sawlog production).

ICIMOD staff carry out the monitoring and measurement of Paulownia tree planted post-earthquake in 2015.
(Nabin Bhattarai/ICIMOD)

Communities developed demonstrable agroforestry systems in their farm land and also reforested degraded lands in community forest. It is a great achievement that this activity has fostered a deeper bonding between communities of the REDD+ sites and ICIMOD and partners. Even the earthquake affected villages saw this as a great opportunity for rebuilding their farmlands. Agroforestry is fast becoming recognised as a land use system which is capable of yielding both wood and income while at the same time conserving and rehabilitating ecosystems, and contributing equally to soil improvement and conservation.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related Content

Continue exploring this topic

Reducing Pollution from Motorcycles

The air in Kathmandu is extremely polluted, with fine particles (PM2.5) being the major cause of concern.  If you ask ...

17 May 2017 News
Using Geospatial tools Towards Effective Preparation of LAPAs

ICIMOD provides technical guidance and support on using geographic information system (GIS) tools in planning at the sub-watershed level to ...

8 Oct 2015 News
Putting Disaster Risk Management in the Hindu Kush Himalayas within the Sendai Framework

Introduction The spate of deadly disasters in the past 10 years stands testimony to the region’s vulnerability, especially that of isolated ...

1 Jul 2016 Himalica
Myanmar Villagers Learn to Make Bio-briquettes

To address rural energy problems, twenty seven villagers from Kyang Taung, Kyang Nur, Pantin, Thyetpin, Antpet and Zeyar, Myanmar were ...

25 Mar 2015 News
Training on Reframing Leadership for Women and Men for Gender Equality

The purpose of the training was to increase gender transformative impacts in the HKH ...

4 Feb 2016 Climate change
Myanmar Journalists Learn Climate Change Communication

A five-day training for 20 Myanmar journalists on reporting climate change adaptation was organised by the International Centre for Integrated ...

Workshop to improve brick kiln policy and technologies

A workshop on Brick Kilns Policy and Advocacy Network (PAN) was jointly organized by Climate and Clean Air ...

5 Aug 2016 News
SERVIR Workshop Helps Finalise M&E Framework

  A regional workshop on ‘SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) impact pathway, partnership and communication strategy’ was held 11-15 July 2016 ...