Testing and promotion of mungbean in cereal fallows in the low hills and terai agroecosystems of Nepal
Nityananda Khanal1, D. Harris2, Lakpa T Sherpa1, Ram K Giri1 and Krishna D Joshi2, 3

In Nepal, grain legumes are an important part of the daily diet and are grown both as sole- and intercrops. With the decline of chickpea cultivation due to high incidence of pests and the reduced popularity of grasspea as consumers become more aware of its toxicity, Nepalese farmers have been searching for other leguminous crops. Testing and promotion of mungbean was initiated as part of a drive to integrate legumes into cereal fallows (land that remains fallow after the harvest of rice, maize or wheat) in 2002. After testing of mungbean varieties from the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC) in the summer and autumn seasons in 2002, huge demand for mungbean was identified. This led to massive promotion of mungbean in 2003 through farmer participatory trials and informal research and development (IRD) across 13 districts in the low hills and terai ecosystems of the country. Planted mostly in fallows without applying any supplemental fertilizer or irrigation, yield levels were generally low. However, the overwhelming majority of participant farmers preferred AVRDC varieties over local cultivars for most agronomic and post harvest traits including earliness, yield, pod and grain size, grain colour, smell and taste. Improved mungbean varieties hold great promise as a catch crop in diverse cropping patterns. This paper reports the outcomes of the

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