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The abundance, foraging behavior, and diurnal and seasonal dynamics of the pollinator insects in chili ecosystem, and the impact of the pollinator insects on chili production was studied at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, (BSMRAU) Gazipur, Bangladesh using the chili variety BARI Morich 2. The crop was cultivated in natural, supplemented insect and selfpollination conditions. The lime butterfly, honey bee, carpenter bee and sweat bee were found in the chili ecosystem. Honey bee depicted significantly the highest abundance and visitation frequency and carpenter bee was found as the most rapid forager. The diurnal and seasonal abundance of the pollinator insects was fluctuated and the peak abundance was found at 11.00 hour of the day. Abundance of lime butterfly, honey bee and carpenter bee revealed negative relationship with maximum and minimum temperatures, and positive relationship with relative humidity and rainfall. Abundance of sweat bee was positively correlated with maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall, and negatively correlated with relative humidity. The chili plants exerted vulnerable response to insect pollination producing significantly the higher number of fruits per plant, fruit length, diameter and weight, number of seed per fruit, seed weight and yield. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 46(3): 297-306, September 2021

The present study was aimed at determining the constraints confronted by the farmers in livelihood diversification. The purposes of this study were to determine the extent and nature of livelihood diversification of the farmers and also to explore relationships of 13 selected characteristics of the farmers with their livelihood diversification. There were a total of 1270 farmers in the 5 villages constituted the population of the study, out of which 10 percent of the total farmers were selected through simple random sampling technique. This gave a sample size of 127 such farmers. Data were collected by the researcher himself with the help of pre-tested interview schedule during 15 February 2013 to 30 March, 2013. The livelihood diversification scores of the respondents ranged from 0.22 to 0.79 with an average of 0.41. It is seen that more than half of the farmers 53.5% had medium level of livelihood diversification compared to 19.7 percent of them having low livelihood diversification and 26.8 percent had high livelihood. Out of 13 selected characteristics of the farmers, seven of those viz. education, family education, income generating experience, household annual income, communication exposure, organizational participation and attitude towards livelihood diversification had positive significant relationship with livelihood diversification. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 44(2): 355-365, June 2019

Mustard (Brassica juncea) variety BARI Shorisha-11 was cultivated during September 2016 to March 2017 in Gazipur, Bangladesh to find out the population dynamics of aphid and its infestation level on mustard. The aphid Lipaphis erysimi (Homoptera: Aphididae) was abundant in the field and caused infestation. The population of aphid in the mustard field showed fluctuation and reached to the peak at 22 December which was 289 per plant. Inflorescence had significantly higher level of infestation compared to individual siliqua and leaf. The daily mean temperature had significant negative, light intensity had insignificant negative and relative humidity had insignificant positive correlation with the abundance of aphid. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the weather parameters namely temperature, light intensity and relative humidity individually as well as combindly contributed on the abundance of aphid, but the temperature had greater effect than other factors.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 43(4): 611-618, December 2018

Present study assessed genotypes and their interactions with environments (GEI) for plant height, days to maturity and grain yield of 40 maize hybrids including two local checks across five different locations of Bangladesh. Thirty eight white QPM (Quality Protein Maize) hybrids were collected from CIMMYT, Mexico. The AMMI (additive main effect and multiplicative interactions) and GGE (genotype + genotype × environment) model were used to assess the additive and multiplicative effects of the interactions. Significant variations were found for genotypes (G), environments (E) and GEI for all the studied characters. The environment of Gazipur is poor while those of Ishurdi and Rangpur are rich for QPM hybrids production. Considering three parameters viz., mean, bi and S2di, it was evident that all the genotypes showed different responses of adaptability under different environmental conditions. Among the hybrids E21, E23, E30 and E22 exhibited bi~1 and S2di~0 for all the characters under study, which clearly indicated that the hybrids are stable across the environments. The hybrids E11, E25, E37 and E4 had bi value significantly different from the unity with non significant S2di value for one or more characters studied, indicating high responsiveness of the hybrid but suitable for favorable environments only. E5 was a good yielder and stable over environments. Considering the yield potentiality and stability parameters five hybrids were found promising over the locationsBangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(2): 259-271, June 2017

Crop evapotranspiration (ET c ) and crop coefficient (K c ) values of potato (variety: BARI Alu -7, Diamant) at different growth stages were determined through lysimeter method at Irrigation and Water Management Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur during 2008 - 2009. The study was conducted by applying irrigation at 25 and 40 days after planting (DAP) allowing drainage (AD) (T 1 ), at 25, 40, and 55 DAP AD (T 2 ), at 25, 40, and 60 DAP AD (T 3 ), and at 25, 40, 55, and 60 DAP AD (T 4 ) within and adjacent of four lysimeter tanks. Irrigation at 25, 40, and 55 DAP produced the highest tuber yield and was considered to be suitable for estimating seasonal ET c , and K c values. The seasonal highest ET c was found to be 162 mm. The K c values of 0.25, 0.62, 0.70 and 0.18 were determined at initial, development, midseason and late season stages of potato. These values differed slightly from the FAO recommended values. As the lysimeter provides control environment, the K c values determined by this method are most dependable and recommended for estimating ET c of potato in semi-arid climatic conditions of Bangladesh. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(1): 67-76, March 2017

Powdery mildew (Oidium erysiphoides f.sp. ziziphi) is the major disease of Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) in Bangladesh. An experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of six fungicides, two organic oils, and a detergent against the disease. Tested fungicides were Tilt (Propiconazole) @ 0.05%, Folicur (Hexaconazole) @ 0.1%, Bavistin DF (Carbandazim) @ 0.2%, Dithane M-45 (Mancozeb) @ 0.3%, Thiovit 80 WG (Sulpher) @ 0.3%, and Cupravit (Copper) @ 0.3%, the oils were Mustard oil @ 0.5% and Neem oil 0.5%, and the Detergent (Trix) @ 0.5%. The materials were applied as foliar spray for seven times at an interval of 15 days. All of the fungicides and two oils gave significant decrease in severity of powdery mildew and increased fruit yield of Indian jujube irrespective of varieties, locations and over times. Among the treatments, Folicur, Tilt, Thiovit, and Dithane M-45 sprays were found effective than others. The severity index values on two jujube varieties were 3.89-4.50 at Mowna and 4.00-4.53 at Ishurdi in control treatment. The severity indices were reduced to 1.45-1.96 at Mowna and 1.33-2.07 at Ishurdi due to application of Tilt, Folicur, Thiovit, and Dithane M-45, which gave increase in fruit yield over control by 68.88, 63.69, 63.04, and 54.63% in Apple Kul and 83.25, 77.87, 77.39, and 70.36% in BAU Kul, respectively. Most of the treatments were able to reduce number of spotted fruits. The best effective fungicide was found to be Tilt followed by Folicur and Thiovit in reducing disease severity of powdery mildew as well as other fruit diseases like fruit spot and fruit rot and increase fruit yield of Indian jujube. Therefore, Tilt/Folicur may be recommended for jujube growers to control the powdery mildew disease in commercial orchard. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v38i4.19032 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 38(4): 659-672, December 2013

Fertigation was found technically and economically feasible for tomato cultivation in winter as well as in summer. An experiment was conducted with summer tomato (BARI Hybrid Tomato–4) having 2 drip irrigation levels with different levels of NPK and micronutrient (B, Z n , and M g ) during kharif-1 seasons of 2007 and 2008. The fertilizer levels were N 100 P 55 K 120 kg/ha, N 100 P 55 K 120 B 1 Zn 4 Mg 4 kg/ha, N 100 P 70 K 140 kg/ha and N 100 P 70 K 140 B 2 Zn 6 Mg 8 kg/ha and the irrigation levels were drip irrigation at 2 days interval and drip irrigation at 3 days interval. The highest marketable yield of summer tomato (35.90 t/ha and 27.12 t/ha) were obtained from the fertigation treatment with fertilizer doses of N 100 P 55 K 120 B 1 Zn 4 Mg 4 kg/ha irrigated at 2 days interval in 2007 and 2008. The cull yield was also the lowest (2.53 t/ha and 1.15 t/ha) in this treatment in both the years. The lowest tomato yield (20.50 t/ha and 18.29 t/ha) were obtained from the treatment with fertilizer doses N 100 P 70 K 140 kg/ha irrigated at 2 days interval where no micronutrients were used. Fruit quality parameters like TSS, Vitamin-C and β-carotene were also the highest for the best yielder. So, use of micronutrients with NPK showed a significant effect on quality fruits as well as yield of summer tomato. The best yielder treatment received 261.0 mm of seasonal water including an effective rainfall of 60.5 mm during the crop seasons. The highest BCR (4.41) was also found in the same treatment. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 37(3): 449-456, September 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v37i3.12088

An investigation was conducted to find out the effect of PLRV infected seed tubers on disease incidence, plant growth, and tuber yield of potato. The levels of PLRV infected seed tubers were 0, 10, 20, 33, and 100%. Presence of PLRV infected tubers at 20% and higher rate caused significant increase in disease incidence and reduction in plant height, stem number, tuber number, and tuber yield as compared to that in control. Incidence of PLRV in the experimental fields, reduction in plant height, stem number, tuber number, and tuber weight per hill was positively and linearly correlated with levels of their inoculum. Spraying of Nimbicidine against insect vector did not show significant influence on plant growth and tuber yield.Keywords: Inoculum levels; disease incidence; PLRV; insecticide; growth and yield performance; potato.DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i3.6441Bangladesh J. Agril. Res.35(3) : 359-366

Genotype-location interaction and phenotypic stability of cob yield and maturity parameters of eight baby corn genotypes including hybrids and composite varieties were assessed during rabi 2006-2007. Significant genotype-environment interactions were observed for all the characters under study. Pooled deviations were also found significant for all the characters except days to harvesting. The genotype Khoibhutta was found stable for days to tasselling, days to harvesting and yield of by product and suited to unfavourable environment. On the other hand, the BBC1 was stable across environments for days to harvesting and cob yield. Genotype NS pop corn was stable for days to tasselling and suited to unfavourable environment and stable for yield of by-product and cob yield across the environments. The genotype BHM5 showed stable performance only for cob yield across the environments. Keywords: Stability; genotype; environment; G × E; yield components; baby corn. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i3.6455Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(3) : 489-496

The performance of seed tubers harvested from potato plants grown from sprout cutting, stem cutting and conventional seed tubers against PVY and PLRV were investigated. Sprout cutting, stem cutting and conventional seed tubers of variety Diamant were planted and second and third generation seed tubers were harvested. The least incidence of PVY and PLRV was recorded when seed tubers from sprout cutting were used. Whereas, the highest incidence of the viruses was observed where conventional seed tubers wete planted. Incidence of PVY, PLRV and their mixed infection was lower in earlier generations as compared to later generations. Performance of seed tubers produced from sprout cutting was better in respect of plant growth, tuber number and tuber yield per hill as compared to seed tubers obtained from stem cutting or conventional method. Key Words: Sprout cutting; stem cutting; PVY; PLRV; growth; yield; potato. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v34i4.5837Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 34(4) : 609-622, December 2009

A study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of black point and percentages of germination, moisture content and different fungi associated with wheat seeds during storage in different types of container. Seeds of a widely cultivated variety Kanchan were stored in five types of containers viz., ‘dole'(bamboo made), earthen pitcher, tin container, polyethylene bag and refrigerator (10°C) for ten months at room temperature. Samples were taken at monthly interval beginning from the month of April (prior to storage). The seed moisture content and black point severity were found highest in dole resulting in the lowest percentage of seed germination. The highest germination percentage was observed under storage in refrigerator followed by polyethylene bag, tin container and earthen pitcher. The moisture content and black point infection increased and seed germination decreased with the increase of storage period. Prior to storage in April, the seed germination was 95%, which decreased to about 75% at the end often months of storage (in January). Various fungal flora associated with wheat seeds differed in their prevalence depending on the length of storage period and types of container used for storage. The population of field fungi viz., Alternaria alternata, Aiternaria triticina, Bipolaris sorokiniana, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Curvularia lunata, Epicoccum purpurascens and Fusarium spp. decreased while that of storage fungi viz., Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Nigrospora, Penicillium and Rhizopus increased with the progress of storage period. Key Words: Storage, seed quality, wheat. doi:10.3329/bjar.v33i3.1606 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 33(3) : 469-477, September 2008

Studies were conducted to develop mild/avirulent strain of PRSV-W using nitrous acid, sodium azide and UV-radiation for the mutagenic treatments. Among the three mutagens’ sodium azide at 3%, 4%, and 5%, and nitrous acid at 0.1M and 0.125M were proved to be effective in producing mild/avirulent strains of PRSV-W, while UV-radiation was proved to be ineffective. Evaluation on the effectivity of mild/avirulent strains in net house in protecting severe strain of PRSV-W proved that the efficiency of mild/avirulent strain to protect the severe strain of the virus was dependent upon the time gap between the mild strain inoculation and challenge inoculation. The challenge inoculation with the severe strain of PRSV-W after 12 days of mild strain inoculation could confer the cross-protection in about 64% pumpkin plants upto 40 days. The presence of mild/avirulent strains of PRSV-W in the asymptomatic plants challenged with severe strain of PRSV-W was tested by mechanical inoculation of Chenopodium amaranticolor to observe the development of characteristic local lesions of PRSV-W. Keywords: PRSV; cross protection. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i2.5891Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(2) : 279-285, June 2010

Performance of potato seed tubers of first, second, third, fourth, and fifth generations were evaluated against PVY and PLRV. Potato plants grown from first generation seed tubers were free from PVY infection. Incidence of the virus was the minimal at second generation, which increased afterwards steadily by third, fourth, and fifth generations. Incidence of PLRV was minimal at first generation. It increased gradually with the advancement of generation seed tubers showing the highest incidence at fifth generation. The highest plant growth and tuber yield were recorded at second generation, which was followed by third, fourth, and fifth generations. The highest reduction in plant height, tuber number, and tuber yield were recorded in 5th generation due to infection of PVY and PLRV. Keywords: Generation evaluation; PVY; PLRV; growth; yield; potato DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i1.5865Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(1) : 37-50, March 2010

A two-year field experiment was conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Jessore during the rabi seasons of 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 to find out the level of disease incidence under different levels of irrigation and fungicide spray on the bulb yield of onion. Four irrigation levels: no irrigation (I 1 ), irrigation at 10 days interval (I 2 ), 20 days interval (I 3 ), and 30 days interval (1 4 ) with 4 spray schedules: no spray (F 1 ), one spray at 40 days after transplanting (DAT) (F 2 ), two sprays each at 40 and 55 DAT (F 3 ) and three sprays each at 40, 55, and 70 DAT (F 4 ) were used. Yield and yield attributes varied significantly (p = 0.05) between sprayed and unsprayed, and irrigated and non-irrigated treatments, respectively. Higher yields were obtained with the higher frequencies of irrigation and spray. Application of fungicide reduced the disease severity significantly, while irrigation had no significant effect on disease infection. But there was a decreasing trend of the disease severity with increasing irrigation frequency. The highest bulb yield of onion (12.45 t/ha) was obtained with a total water use of 245 mm in six applications including an effective rainfall of 16 mm and three sprays. The disease severity between sprayed and unsprayed plots ranged from 1.33 to 3.16 for I 1 , 1.08 to 2.33 for I 2 1.16 to 2.83 for I 3 , and 1.16 to 3.00 for I 4 , respectively. Key Words: Onion, disease incidence, irrigation, water use efficiency. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v34i3.3967 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 34(3) : 417-424, September 2009

Production of tomato is hampered by many diseases in the field. Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is the major limiting factor for tomato cultivation all over the world. Its incidence is higher in tropical and subtropical areas mainly because of higher activities of whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) (Kung. 1999: Lapidot et al., 2001). It is also an important disease of tomato in Bangladesh (Rashid et al., 2001). Application of pesticides is generally suggested for the management of virus diseases in Bangladesh, but in most cases it is ineffective. Therefore, vigorous search for finding other effective alternatives is necessary. Some researchers found that trap crops may reduce incidence of TYLCV and other viruses due to delay in initial infection (Al-Musa, 1982: El-serwiy et al., 1987; Ahmed et al., 1996). But there is no report on the effect of trap crop on virus diseases prevalent in Bangladesh. The present experiment was conducted to find out the efficacy of brinjal, cucumber and okra as trap crops against whitefly to manage TYLCV on tomato.