An experiment on the effect of different sources of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi on tomato seedlings (var. Ratan) were conducted in the seed bed of Soil Science Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur, Bangladesh during rabi 2007-08 and 2008-09. Eight sources of AM fungi viz. Jessore (AM-01), Rahmatpur (AM-02), Joydebpur (AM-03), Ullapara (AM-04), Jamalpur (AM-05), Hathazari (AM-06), Ishurdi (AM-07), Rajshahi (AM-08) from different AEZs of Bangladesh (Jessore, Rahmatpur, Joydebpur, Ullapara, Jamalpur, Hathazari, Ishurdi, Rajshahi) were studied along with a control and mixed sources on tomato seedlings. Soil based AM inoculum at the rate of 2.0 kg m^-2 was used. Biomass yield of tomato (var. Ratan) increased from 11.0% to 57.9% in 2007-08 and 25.1% to 70.4% in 2008-09 by inoculation with different sources of AM over control. The highest biomass yield (360 mg seedling^-1 in 2007-08 and 339 mg seedling^-1 in 2008-09) of tomato (Ratan) was observed with mixed culture which was identical to all AM source in 2007-08 and with Jamalpur source (AM-05) which was identical to all AM source except Ullapara source (AM-04) in 2008-09. Uptake of all the nutrients by tomato seedlings was also improved by inoculation with AM fungi. The AM fungi from all the sources appeared to be effective in enhancing the growth and development of tomato seedlings. The AM fungi might be used to produce tomato seedlings.

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Experiments were carried out in Seed Technology Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur during August-September 2004 and 2005 to study suitable preservatives for maintaining the quality of chickpea during storage. After processing and drying, chickpea seeds were divided into four parts including a part considered as the control. Three fourth of chickpea seeds were preserved with different fungicides such as Bavistin, Vitavax and Genuin at the rate of 2.5 g/kg in earthen pots. The chickpea seeds were stored until next planting time and seed quality i.e. data on moisture (%), germination (%), root length, shoot length and vigour index was observed during storage period. Germination percentage of the initial seed lot was on average 90% and moisture content of the seeds before storage was 9%. Seeds preserved with different fungicides had significant effect for most of the parameters studied. Among the three fungicides, Bavistin had remarkable effect for higher germination percentage (87.7% in 2004 and 89.4% in 2005), root length (19.70 cm in 2004 and 19.00 cm in 2005), shoot length (17.67 cm in 2004 and 18.40 cm in 2005), root plus shoot length (37.37 cm in 2004 and 37.40 cm in 2005) and vigour (3277 in 2004 and 3342 in 2005).

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Field experiments were carried out in Pulses Research Centre Experimental Field, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh during November to March 2004-05 and 2005-06 to study the effects of different insecticides on yield and yield attributes of chickpea. Seeds were preserved with different fungicides and stored them in earthen pots. The seeds were divided into four parts including a part considered as the control. For the insecticide treatment, fungicides such as Sevin, Mipsin and Asataf were used at the rate 1g/kg of chickpea seeds. Chickpea seeds were stored until next planting time and seed quality was observed during storage period. Significant effect of the fungicides was observed on pods/plant both in 2004-05 and 2005-06, seeds/pod in 2004-05 and seed yield both in 2004-05 and 2005-06. The highest values for almost of all these characters were observed when the seeds were preserved with Sevin. Sevin was at par with Mipsin for seed yield of chickpea in 2005-06 only. Among three insecticides, Asataf showed less effect. Sevin treated seeds gave the highest plant height, pods/plant (48.3 in 2004-05 and 48.6 in 2005-06), seeds/pod (1.77 in 2004-05 and 1.81 in 2005-06), 1000- seed weight (120 g in 2004-05 and 121 g in 2005-06) and seed yield (1304 kg/ha in 2004-05 and 1251 kg/ha in 2005-06) which were somewhat identical to Mipsin and Asataf but significantly higher over control.

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Physio-morphological characters of twenty one germplasm of snake gourd were studied at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Ishwardi, Pabna, Bangladesh during the growing season of 2012. Wide variations were found among the germplasm in respect of flower, yield and qualitative characters. All parameters were significant difference except days to 1^st male flowering. The maximum number of fruit per plant (30.39) was obtained from the germplasm TDISDOO8, while the minimum number of fruits per plant (15.90) was found from check 1ocal cultivar. Regarding, length and diameter of fruit, the longest and the widest fruit were produced by TDISOO6 (51.00 cm) and TDISDO15 (16.80 cm), respectively. The highest yield per plant (16.88 kg) was recorded in TDISDO18 which was statistically similar toTDISD003 (6.84 kg) and the lowest yield per plant (3.64 kg) was obtained from local cultivar. However, the highest marketable yield (45.44 t/ha) was obtained from TDISD018 and the lowest yield (24.32 t/ha) was found in local (24.32 t/ha), respectively.

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The study was conducted to aim at the relationship between production and price of garlic in Bangladesh. The experiment was carried out by using garlic production and prices data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (during 1974-2011). The Koyck model of distributed lag models was used. According to the results, garlic production in Bangladesh has been influenced by the lag value of average price formed in the market. The most striking result of the study is the time required for the changes in the garlic prices in Bangladesh to an effect on garlic production of 32.33 years. This result also shows that the farmers are very enthusiastic for growing this crop, which is largely grown as a major spice crop. The value of coefficient indicated that the changes in lag values of the prices had a positive influence on production, but this influence was getting smaller. To reduce the risk and uncertainty of the price of garlic, sustainable garlic farming and establishment of an efficient marketing organization is necessary.

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The study was conducted to determine vitamin-C stability in mechanical and solar dried summer onion during storage at different temperatures. The effect was studied in terms of drying time (15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 minutes) and temperature (52⁰C, 60⁰C, 68⁰C) for mechanical drying (MD) and 45-50⁰C for solar drying (SD). Increased loss of vitamin C was observed with the increase in drying time and temperature. It was found that the reaction rate constant, K value (/min) was the highest (0.0302/min) for solar drying (45-50⁰C) and was followed by that at 68⁰C (0.029/min) and 60⁰C (0.0276/min), while the lowest k-value (0.0236/min) was given by the sample dried at 52⁰C. Vitamin C losses in onion was the highest during solar drying followed by mechanical drying at 68°C and 60⁰C, while the lowest losses of vitamin C was found for mechanical drying at 52°C. It was also seen that rate constant has an exponential type relationship with inverse absolute temperature and activation energy; E_a for degradation of vitamin C was found to be 3.20 kcal/g-mole for onion. The highest rate constant (0.0046/day) was given by dried osmosed onion stored at RT which was successively followed by dried sulphited onion stored at RT (0.004 /day), and dried sulphited onion stored at RFT (0.0033/day). On the other hand, dried osmosed onion stored at RFT gave the lowest (0.0029/day) rate constant during the period of storage (one year).

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Genetic divergence among one hundred and twenty seven sorghum genotypes were estimated based on morphological traits using Mahalanobis generalized distance (D2) analysis to group the sorghum genotypes. Significant variations among sorghum genotypes were observed in respect of days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height and number of seeds per panicle, 100 seed weight and yield per plant. The first female flower initiation and maturity was earlier in BD-9135 (55 days) and BD-736 (144 days) than the other genotypes. BD-4689 produced maximum number of seeds per panicle (4530.0). The highest grain yield per plant (124.90 g) was recorded from BD-755 genotypes while the lowest (4.50 g) was in BD-736 than the other sorghum genotypes. A total of 83.38 % variation was observed from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) against first six eigen values while only first two values were responsible for 46.11% variation. Considering the mean values, the genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. The highest number of genotypes (26) was in cluster VII and the lowest (7) is including in cluster II. The highest class mean values for days to flowering (84.1 days), days to maturity (148.0 days), inflorescence width (7.7 cm), number of seeds per panicle (3989.7) and seed yield per plant (106.7 g) were found in cluster II. The highest inter-cluster distance was obtained between the cluster VIII and II (25.880) followed by VI and II (22.842), while the lowest inter-cluster was between VII and V (2.859). The intra-cluster distance was the highest (0.994) in cluster VIII. The maximum value of inter-cluster distance indicated that genotypes belonging to cluster VIII were far diverged from those of cluster II.

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Effectiveness of management packages using neem oil and synthetic insecticides were tested against insect pest’s of mungbean at Pulses Research Center, Ishurdi, Pabna, Bangladesh in two consecutive seasons of kharif-I during 2011 and 2012. Spraying of insecticides reduced the insect pests infestation significantly. In both the years, thrips and pod borer infestation reduced significantly by spraying of synthetic insecticides, although stemfly and flea beetle infestation reduction were not comparatively significant. Spraying of Imidachloprid (Imitaf 20 SL) @ 0.5 ml/l gave the best results in reducing flower infestation, thrips population and pod borer infestation followed by Fipronil (Regent 50 SC) application. Accordingly, the highest net return and benefit were resulted from Imidachloprid treated plots followed by Fipronil. Hence, Imidachlorpid regarded as the best among three experimental chemicals for managing major insect pests in mungbean.

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The study examined the nutritional status of farm families in Oriade Local Government Area (LGA) of Osun State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were administered to 110 respondents who were randomly selected from 3 villages from the LGA using multistage random sampling techniques. These villages were Ijebu-Ijesha, IlokoIjesha and Iwoye-Ijesha. However, 97 questionnaires were eventually retrieved for the study analysis. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency counts and percentages. Findings reveal that 60.0% of the respondents were between the age range of 41-60 years and most (81.4%) operate a nuclear family system with moderate household members of not more than ten (90.8%). Majority of the respondents were male, married and had formal education. Chi-Square analysis shows a significant relationship between some socio-economic characteristics of the farm families such as educational level and occupation, and their knowledge on food nutrition. However, a major constraint to good nutritional pattern among the farm families in the study area was lack of knowledge on the nutritive values of the classes of food especially minerals and fats and oil. Agricultural researchers and extension workers in conjunction with health practitioners will therefore find the results of this study helpful in their tasks to improve food and nutrient intake of farm families in the rural communities.

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The study examined factors influencing the postharvest losses of yam among farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling techniques were used to select 200 respondents from four (4) Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the State. Data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentages, and inferential statistic of the multiple regression analysis. Findings reveal that more than half (56.8%) of the respondents were the age range of 51-60 years and most (94.4%) were small scale farmers cultivating less than 5 hectares of farmland. Majority of the respondents were male and had no formal education. The study further reveals that the farmers had an average knowledge on postharvest activities in yam production. Major causes of postharvest losses in yam production were found to include over-storage, ineffective post handling of yam, high cost of transportation, lack of storage/processing facilities, theft on yam, lack of improved technology and injuries to yam. Multiple regression analysis show significant relationships between farmers’ sex, farm size, farm locations and accessibility, and post-harvest losses in yam production. The study recommends the provision of improved infrastructural facilities like good roads for easy and timely evacuation of yam produce to the urban markets and also farmers’ enlightenment on not too sophisticated post-harvest technologies to ensure massive adoption.

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