Total Views: 1

ECO 403: Agro-biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change

Credit Hours: 2 (2+0)
Full Marks: 50 (Theory: 50, Practical: 0)

Course Objectives

Upon completion, students will be able to:

Understand agricultural biodiversity and its historical, local, regional, and global significance.
Identify components, status, threats, and conservation strategies of agrobiodiversity.
Learn policies, laws, economic, social, and ethical aspects of agrobiodiversity.
Understand climate change, its history, impacts on agroecosystems, and adaptation/resilience strategies.
Analyze the linkages between agrobiodiversity, climate change, food security, and local innovations.
Explore research trends and institutional mechanisms for conservation and climate change adaptation.

Introduction to agricultural biodiversity: concepts, history, importance, and centers of origin of crops and animals.
Components, status, threats, conservation strategies, policies, and economic value of agrobiodiversity.
Social and ethical aspects, on-farm management, and forest-agrobiodiversity linkages.
Climate change: history, Earth’s climate system, past climate records, plate tectonics, ice ages, and instrumental periods.
Impacts of climate change on agrobiodiversity, food security, adaptation, resilience, and institutional mechanisms.
Intellectual property rights, farmers’ rights, and local innovations.
Research trends in agrobiodiversity and climate change.

S.N.	Topic	No. of Lectures
1	Introduction to agricultural biodiversity: concepts, history, importance, prospects, centers of origin of crops and animals	1
2	Components of agricultural biodiversity	1
3	Status of agricultural biodiversity	1
4	Threats to agricultural biodiversity: documenting and assessing	1
5	Conservation of agricultural biodiversity	1
6	Policies and laws for agrobiodiversity conservation	1
7	Economic value of agrobiodiversity	1
8	Social and ethical aspects in agrobiodiversity	1
9	On-farm conservation and management practices in Nepal	1
10	Forest and agrobiodiversity	1
11	Introduction to climate change and its historical overview	1
12	Earth’s climate system	1
13	Interpreting past climate from geologic records and its effect on agrobiodiversity	1
14	Long-term climate change related to plate tectonics	1
15	The last ice age and last deglaciation	1
16	History of climate change	1
17	Orbital control on monsoons and ice sheets	1
18	Instrumental period of climate change	1
19	Agrobiodiversity and climate change	1
20	Food security and climate change	1
21	Climate change adaptation	1
22	Climate change resilience	1
23	Institutional mechanisms in agrobiodiversity conservation	1
24	Institutional mechanisms in climate change	1
25	Climate-induced disasters	1
26	Intellectual Property Rights	1
27	Farmers’ Rights	1
28	Local innovations and practices on agrobiodiversity conservation	1
29	Local innovations and practices on climate change adaptation	1
30	Research trends on agrobiodiversity conservation and climate change	1
Total		30

Hardy, J. T. (2003). Climate Change – Causes, Effects, and Solutions, 1st Edition, John Wiley & Sons.
Houghton, T. (2004). Global Warming (3rd edition), Cambridge University Press.
Keith, A. (Ed.). (2005). Global Change and the Earth System, Springer Publication, London.
Altieri, M. A. (1987). Agro-Ecology: The Scientific Basis of Alternative Agriculture, Westview Press, Colorado, USA.
Arumgam, N. (1994). Concepts of Ecology, Sras Publication, Nagorcoil.
ABPSD. (2006). Statistical Information of Nepalese Agriculture, MOAC, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Jodha, N., Baskota, S., & Pratap, U. (1992). Sustainable Mountain Agriculture (Vol. 1 & 2), ICIMOD, Kathmandu.
Tang, Y., & Tulachan, P. M. (2001). Mountain Agriculture in the HK-regions, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal.