International Journal of Agricultural Research, Innovation and Technology

7-11

Authors: MA Kashem, MG Farouque, PC Roy

The purpose of the study was to identify the crop varieties in the Haor area of Netrokona district to minimize the food vulnerability situation during food crisis. The study was conducted in four selected villages of Madan and Khaliajuri Upazilas under the Netrokona district. Data were collected from randomly selected 400 farmers from the study area in the year 2011. The findings of the study revealed that farmers usually cultivate only three HYV boro rice varieties (BR 19, BRRI dhan 28 and BRRI dhan 29) in the Haor area under study. In aman season farmers mostly cultivate local varieties and they get minimum yield. Only few vegetables found to cultivate by the farmers in Haor area. The vegetables are: onion, garlic, chilli, bottle gourd, sweet gourd, lady’s finger and tomato. Among these onion, garlic and chilli are mostly cultivated. Many farmers reported that during the flood they had to face serious problems in respect of communication, diseases, increased price of different commodities, and lack of adequate government safety net programs/relief. Farmers’ lack of flood preparedness has been observed while some farmers remained uncared about the occurrence of flood and consequently they did not take any preparedness for flood.

16-21

Authors: S Sharma, G Sumbali, V Sharma

An investigation of mycoflora and associated mycotoxins was carried out from dried market samples of stem portions of Tinospora cordifolia, an important medicinal plant of India. These samples were collected from various wholesale and retail shops of eight districts of Jammu and Kashmir state viz., Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Srinagar and Leh. A total of 39 fungal species representing 18 genera were recovered by using surface washing technique. Assessment of mycobial load of T. cordifolia showed the presence of many such fungal species that are widely acknowledged as the most important mycotoxin producers. Analyses of samples for mycotoxin contamination was done by multi-mycotoxin detection method. The dried samples of Tinospora cordifolia were detected to be contaminated with aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, ochratoxin A, patulin and citrinin. Among the various mycotoxins detected, aflatoxins were present in maximum number of samples, which is probably because Aspergillus flavus was recovered from all the investigated samples. However, fusarial species and their toxins were not detected from the investigated samples.

31-35

Authors: MK Alam, UK Nath, MAK Azad, MA Alam, AA Khan

A 10×10 half diallel experiment was conducted on groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) to ascertain the gene action and genetic parameters of ten traits including 50% flowering, no. of pods per plant, plant height, harvest index, pod index, 100 pod weight, 100 kernel weight, pod size, diseases infection and yield per plot. The experiments were carried out in the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh during the cropping season of 2010-2011. The estimates of gene effects indicated that significance of both additive and non-additive variance for pod size, 100 pod weight and diseases infection among the traits and presence of over dominance satisfying assumptions of diallel except dormancy. However, both the additive and non-additive gene affects together importance to control of most quantitative traits in the groundnut. The average degree of dominance (H1/D) 1/2 (H1 = dominance variance, D = additive variance) was higher than one, indicating over dominance for all the traits. The narrow-sense heritability was high for 50% flowering (38%), harvest index (35%), pod size (52%), 100 pod weight (35%) and yield per plot (41%) indicating that great genetic gain could be achieved for them.

41-48

Authors: S Akter, M Shahjahan, MS Rahman, PS Das

Rotifers are valuable live food for larval fish and crustacean in aquaculture. In the present study, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the suitability of Chlorella ellipsoidea as food for production of the rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus. The experiment was carried out in three treatments using dried powder Chlorella ellipsoidea (T1), fresh live Chlorella ellipsoidea (T2) and Baker’s yeast (T3) as food with three replications. For supplying food to rotifers, C. ellipsoidea was cultured sufficiently in different inexpensive culture media before rotifer culture and it was continued up to the end of the rotifer culture experiment. The ranges of environmental factors analyzed were suitable for both C. ellipsoidea and rotifers culture during the experimental period. Maximum cell densities of C. ellipsoidea were recorded in inexpensive pulse bran extract medium during the culture period. The mean population densities (means ± SEM) of B. calyciflorus were significantly (p<0.01) highest in T2 (28.6 ± 4.64 (x103) individuals L-1) compared to T1 (11.6 ± 1.24 (x103) individuals L-1) and T3 (11.4 ± 1.82 (x103) individuals L-1). The findings of present study revealed that fresh cultured C. ellipsoidea was the best food for production of the rotifer, B. calyciflorus.

54-58

Authors: MM Rahman, MA Kalam, MA Salam, MR Rana

Tea leaf encompasses essential components like caffeine, polyphenol, lipid etc. The study was conducted to find out the essential constituents in green and oolong tea from aged tea leaves during the year of 2012. Tea leaves with different plucked aged were collected from Lackatoorah Tea Estate at sylhet district in Bangladesh. Collected leaves were processesed to make desirable samples for biochemical analysis in the laboratory of Department of Food Enginnering and Tea Technology, SUST. Results revealed that the essential constituents like moisture, caffeine, polyphenol, lipid, protein, ash, ascorbic acid, acidity and pH value in green tea made from different aged leaves were found slightly higher than oolong tea, ranged from 6.38±1.06 to 3.49±0.59%; 4.91±0.82 to 1.49±0.24%; 30.88±5.15 to 18.23±3.04%; 7.50±1.25 to 9.58±1.59%; 13.15±2.19 to 17.33±2.88%; 3.87±1.65 to 7.86±1.31%; 48.4±8.05 to 21.3±3.55(mg); 2.13±0.68 to 1.18±0.19% and 5.52±0.11 to 5.97±0.18%, respectively. Similarly, the moisture, caffeine, polyphenol, lipid, protein, ash, ascorbic acid, acidity and pH value from different aged leaves were found in oolong tea from 6.19±1.04 to 2.98±0.49%; 4.68±0.78 to 1.11±0.19%; 20.89±3.48 to 8.23±1.37%; 6.40±1.07 to 9.13±1.52%; 13.03±2.17 to 17.19±2.86%; 3.44±0.58 to 7.57±1.27% 6.44±1.08 to 0.98±0.17 (mg); 2.02±0.34to 1.02±0.17% and 5.53±0.11 to 5.97±0.20%, respectively. Therefore, young tea leaves (i.e. 5 to 8 days tea leaves) should be plucked for considering useful constituents in processed green tea and oolong tea.

66-71

Authors: MA Islam, Mst A Begum, MM Jahangir

The experiment was carried out at FSRD site, Pushpopara, Pabna, during November, 2010 to December, 2011 to observe the comparative performance of integrated plant nutrients management (IPNS) system through the use of organic (cowdung, cowdung slurry) manure and inorganic fertilizer on wheat, sesame and T. Aman crops under wheat-sesame-T. Aman cropping pattern. The experiment was consisted with four treatments viz. T1: Soil test based inorganic fertilizer dose for high yield goal, T2: Cowdung @ 5 t ha-1 + IPNS basis inorganic fertilizer dose for high yield goal, T3: Cowdung slurry @ 5 t ha-1 + IPNS basis inorganic fertilizer dose for high yield goal and T4: Fertilizer dose usually practiced by the farmers. In case of wheat, the highest grain yield (3.80 t ha-1) was obtained from bio-slurry treated plot that means T3 treatment followed by T2 and the lowest (3.31 t ha-1) from T4. Higher seed yield (1.31 t ha-1) of sesame was obtained from T3 that was statistically identical to T2 and T1 and the lower (1.01 t ha-1) from T4. For T. Aman rice, the highest grain yield (4.89 t ha-1) was obtained from T3 which was statistically indistinguishable from T1 where as the lowest grain yield (4.1 t ha-1) was recorded from T4. Considering the whole pattern, it is observed that the highest gross return (271100 Tk ha-1) was obtained from T3 followed by T2 and the lowest (225650 Tk ha-1) from T1 treatment. Total variable cost was recorded as the highest (100368 Tk ha-1) in T2 followed by T3 and the lowest (86775 Tk ha-1) in T4 treatment. The highest marginal value of product (45450 Tk ha-1) was recorded in T3 followed by T2 where as the minimum (28710 Tk ha-1) was found in T1 over the T4 treatment. Marginal variable cost was observed as the highest (13593 Tk ha-1) in T2 treatment followed by T3 and the minimum (8899 Tk ha-1) was recorded in T1 treatment. The highest MBCR (4.15) was recorded from T3 followed by T2 and the minimum (2.31) from T2 treatment.