Guideline for uses of rural home zone land area for production of crops for food security of the nation

ABSTRACT

A study has been conducted regarding the proper uses of rural home-zone land area/space to every house of the country for proper production of maximum yield of various crops through-out the year for food security of the nation where some models have been established on the basis of high, medium and/or low lands of the housing-zone for growing of fruits, vegetables, cereal, arum, spices, tuber, bean or other crops. Shaks (leafy-vegetables) of all kinds can be produced with minor cares. All unwanted and undesirable housing places can be utilized for ginger/turmeric production and ponds and low lands for various fish production/farming.

Key words: Home gardening, home/house-zone, crops, rural area, yield, food security, nation.

Introduction

 No soil no crop, no crop no food and no food no existence of life. So, soil is the backbone of a nation. The more good quality the soil, the more best production of crops in the region. Bangladesh is a small country of 1,46,000 square miles and during 1950-55, there were only 35 million people, during this 75 years, the farming land is greatly reduced but population increased 4 times than those of 1950s. Here more than 1000 people live /sq km, that is the greatest compared to any other country of the world. Here is crisis of land for food production, crisis against living/survival, crisis of land for housing, building construction, plantation/forestry, marketing, industry, roads and highways (communication), sound education campus, play grounds, proper housing facility, fishing ground. Moreover, a country cannot proceed for the development without self-sufficient in food production. A hungry nation faces problems to all sides. Through modern technology with wide uses of land and huge production of lots of crops throughout the year the nation reached a self-sufficient as a food security country. Population growth is increasing but food production already increased several time more than that was in 1970s or 1980s. Again, here various natural disasters like flood, cyclone, high and/or irregular rainfall, river bank erosions, etc. widely affect the food situations of the nation. So govt. has to import food to face the food crisis/disaster of the nation. The more less the food crisis/problems of the nation, the more well for the govt. for proceed with development. For developing or utilizing more and more land under farming is difficult because of wide limitation of land in the region 80-85% of the rural people live in scattered conditions where every home/house surrounding space/area covers a good productive land those vacant space/zone can be utilized by every house owner or family members for producing of various crops like a lots of vegetables, fruits, or other crops all round the year. It will add a longer live the family members through minor field work exercise and using/eating of own fresh vegetable, fruits or other crops. During 1970s and 1980s author raised this questions hundreds of times for saving the farm land but none came in front for facing this challenge. Even in 1970 and 1980s, author advised for saving the roadside land from Bhaluka to Sripur where thousands of tons of jackfruits were marketed. Once this thousand ha of land were occupied with jackfruit plants now they are replaced by various industries and now no jackfruit garden is visible anymore. When I was a school boy in 1950s there were 10/12 sqkm plain land was utilized for rice production and now there were hundreds of families settled there and reduced crop field 60-70%. So, this is the real fact of the country i.e. country lost 50-60% agricultural land to various other purposes like housing and settlement, road and communications, marketing, industries, and many more other purposes. Recently, Sheikh Hasina-Honorable Prime Minister asked to the nation for proper utilizing and growing of more and more crops in the housing area of everyone. We must respect and follow her words for minimizing food security in the country as well as taking of fresh food to all families for better life and longer lives. Covering this

PDF DOWNLOAD

Ecological aspects of heavy metals in sediments of padma river in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT
The study was piloted to assess the ecological risk of heavy metals in sediments collected from the Padma River in Bangladesh during April to July 2022. The sediment samples were collected from five sampling sites and analyzed in the laboratory of the Soils Science, Dept. of Soil Science, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University using ICP-MS. The mean concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in summer season were 0.59, 0.83, 7.10, 16.23, 5.53 and 44.60 mg/kg, respectively. In winter, the mean concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn are 1.59, 1.22, 10.37, 24.43, 8.07 and 66.97mg/kg, respectively. Metals concentrations were found below the recommended value set by different sediment quality guidelines except for Cd. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the vast majority of the metals in agricultural sediments may originate from both anthropogenic and lithogenic activities. The contamination factor (CF), geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and potential ecological risk (PER) revealed that most of the soil samples were contaminated by Cd. The geo-accumulation index values showed that most of the samples were poorly contaminated by heavy metals. Sediment sampling sites showed low to moderate potential ecological risk (PER) in the context of PER. The results also described that the pollution load index (PLI) for all investigated samples were lower than the standard level but the growing number of industries may cause advanced
declinations of sediments. However, regular monitoring is needed for the documentation of any alternation in the quality of sediments and minimizes the damage to the benthic ecosystem.
Key words: Heavy metal, Sediments, Spatial distribution, Ecological Risk, Padma River

PDF DOWNLOAD

Effect of ZN and B application on mustard at madhupur soil under aez 28

ABSTRACT

Mustard (Binasarisha-9) was evaluated against four Zn levels (0, 3, 6, 9 kg Zn ha-1) and three B levels (0, 2, 4 B ha-1) at Madhupur under AEZ 28. The results revealed that there was a significant improvement in the growth and seed yield with increasing level of B and lower Zn levels, respectively. The highest B level        (4 kg ha-1) and lower Zn level (3 kg ha-1)  resulted 96 cm plant height, 5.33 branches plant-1, 86.33 siliqua plant-1, 7.33 cm siliqua length, 28.33 seed siliqua-1 and 1633.30 kg seed ha-1. It is suggested that for achieving higher seed yields in mustard, the Zn application may be done at the rate of 3 kg ha-1 and with B of 4 kg ha-1.

Key words: Boron, Zinc, yield and mustard 

Introduction: The soil of Bangladesh has wide variation and complexity due to diverse nature of physiography, parent materials, land type, drainage conditions and agro ecology. Depending on these aspects, the country has been divided into 30 agro ecological zones (AEZ), which varied greatly in respect of area, land and soil, climate, and cropping intensity (FAO-UNDP, 1988). Some AEZs are very potential for crop agriculture and nutrient supplying capacity but some are being depleted due to intensive cropping. Madhupur Tract (AEZ 28) is one of them. The present study was concentrated to this AEZ which is a region of complex relief and soils are developed over the Madhupur clay. The landscape comprises of level upland, closely or broadly dissected terraces associated with shallow to broad deep valleys. Eleven general soil types exist in the area of which Deep Red Brown Terrace, Deep Red Brown Terrace soils and Acid Basin Clays are the major ones. The soils on the terrace are better drained, friable clay loams to clay overlying friable clay substratum at varying depths. Soils in the valleys are dark grey heavy clays. The top soils are mainly very strongly acidic in reaction but ranges up to slightly acidic with low to medium status of organic matter, low moisture holding capacity and low fertility level. The soils are mainly phosphate fixing low to medium in P, B and K; and medium to optimum in S content. The major land type comprises 56% highland and 18% medium highland (FRG, 2018). Texturally the soils are loam and sandy loam. Over the last 2-3 decades, enormous pressure has been exerted on the soil resource to produce more food for its population. Intensification of agricultural land use has increased remarkably and the cropping intensity has increased from 143% in 1971-72 to about 197% in 2016-2017 (Krishi Diary, 2021). In addition, cultivation of high yielding varieties for all crops has increased remarkably. Consequently, this has resulted in deterioration of soil fertility with emergence of micronutrient deficiency. In this country, chronologically N, P, K, S, Zn and B deficiencies have appeared in soils and crops of Bangladesh (Islam, 2008). Among the micronutrients, next to zinc, boron deficiency is prominent in soils of Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Mymensingh, Comilla and Sylhet district (SRDI, 2010). The use of chemical fertilizers as the supplemental source has been increasing steadily but these are not applied in balanced proportion. Of the total fertilizer used in the country, urea alone constituted about 75% (FRG, 2012). Previous study indicated that about 60% cultivable land of Bangladesh is deficient in N, P and K (Miah et al., 2008). Moreover, organic matter content in country’s soils is low, the majority being below the thresh hold level (1.5%) and it was gradually depleted by 5 to 36% during the period of 1967-1995 (Ali et al., 1997). Islam (2008) mentioned that organic matter content in Bangladesh soils is generally around 1% in most and around 2% in few soils.

PDF DOWNLOAD

Pre and post-harvest soil nutrient status at rangpur sadar sugarcane field

ABSTRACT
An experiment was conducted at the farmer’s field at the Rangpur, during January-December 2018 to evaluate the nutrient status of pre and post-harvest soil of the sugarcane field. The experiments consisted of seven treatments viz., T0 = Control (No fertilizer), T1 = N165P55K120S30Zn2.5Mg20 (as per soil analysis), T2 = T1 + Dolomite (1 t ha-1),T3 = 50% of T1 + Poultry manure (10 t ha-1), T4 = 50% of T1 + Poultry manure (10 t ha-1) + Dolomite (1 t ha-1), T5 = 50% of T1 + Cowdung (12.5 t ha-1) and T6 = 50% of T1 + Cowdung (12.5 t ha-1) + Dolomite (1 t ha-1). Results revealed that all the treatments showed statistically more or less similar to each other in respect to pH (5.51-5.71), OM (1.70-1.88),Ca (3.00-3.82 me 100 g-1) and Zn (0.93 to 1.07 μg g-1) contents of the post-harvest soil. Total N contents were the highest in T5 (0.124%) followed by T4 (0.105%) while it was the lowest (0.085%) in T6.However, the highest available P, S, and Ca were found in those post harvest soil at Rangpur which treatment T5.
Key words: Sugarcane, initial soil, post-harvest soil.

PDF DOWNLOAD

Investigation of biodiversity status in accordance of simpson’s diversity index and its conservation strategy at Ramsagar national park in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT
The present study was designed to assess the biodiversity status at Ramsagar National Park (RNP) inDinajpur district, Bangladesh period from June 2019 to August 2020. Data on the diversity of the floral andfaunal species were gathered using the KII and FGD by forest-responsible persons especially bit officer andforest rangers. A total of 100 residents of the research area participated in a questionnaire survey to performthe study. The study’s findings revealed that 10.09% of climber species, 31.95% of herbs, 13.45.1% of shrubspecies, and 44.51% of tree species made up the total floral diversity. According to the study, RamsagarNational Park’s strong floral variety status was reflected by the Simpson’s diversity index value of 0.97. On
the other hand, 74.23% aves, 13.78% amphibians, 5.31% reptiles, 6.68% mammals and cultivated differenttypes of fish speciesin the aquatic body were found in Park. According to the result of Simpson’s diversityindex, the status of the faunal diversity is very rich and diverse which was 0.93. In the park, there werevarious barriers to the conservation of biodiversity and the growth of ecotourism viz. poor planning andmanagement, disregard for management authority, etc. The report recommended that the responsiblegovernment authority quickly take necessary action to increase staffing, obtain strongauthorization, includethe media, execute policies and regulations for conserving its biodiversity.
Key words: Biodiversity, conservation, simpsons’ index, eco-tourism, park

PDF DOWNLOAD

Growth and yield attributes of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) AS influenced by spacing and nitrogen fertilizer

ABSTRACT

To observe the growth and yield attributes of cauliflower under different spacing and nitrogen fertilizers, a field experiment was conducted with cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) variety “BARI Phulcopi-1 (Rupa)”. The experiment was carried out at the research field of the Department of Crop Science and Technology, Rajshahi University, Rajshahi during the period from November, 2021 to February, 2022. The experiment consisted of three spacing i.e. 60cm X 50cm, 60cm X 60cm and 60cm X 70cm  as well as three levels of nitrogen fertilizers viz. 80kg/ha, 100kg/ha and 120 kg/ha. The results revealed that different treatments significantly affected the growth and yield attributes of cauliflower. The combination of 60cm X 70cm spacing with highest level of nitrogen fertilizer (120 kg/ha) produced the maximum plant height, leaf length, leaf breadth, curd diameter, curd height, curd weight/plant and yield whereas 60cm X 60cm and highest level of nitrogen fertilizer produced the highest no. of leaves/plant and days to curd initiation. On the other hand, all the studied parameters except days to curd initiation found to be lowest in the treatment combination of 60cm X 50cm spacing with lower level of nitrogen fertilizer (80 kg/ha).The study concluded that cauliflower need to be cultivated at 60cm X 70cm spacing and 120 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer is to be applied for getting the targeted yield as well as desired return from cauliflower cultivation in “High Ganges River Floodplain zones” of Bangladesh.

Key words: Spacing, nitrogen fertilizer, growth and yield, cauliflower

PDF DOWNLOAD