Maize (zea mays) is the most important cereal crop after rice in Bangladesh. During storage, maize grains are severely destroyed by insect pests. Most of the farmers of Bangladesh do not know how to preserve corn seed properly due to insufficient knowledge of storage pest of maize. An experiment was conducted to assess the major pests associated with stored maize, the damage and losses they cause in Bangladesh during July to December 2017. Sixty (60) farmer's farms from fifteen major maize growing districts of Bangladesh were assessed. Sixteen Arthropods, Fifteen Coleopterans, Five Lepidopterans and one Acarina were documented from the collected samples. Maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais) followed by maize grain moth (Sitotroga cereallela), rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae), flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) and Areca nut weevil (A. fasciculatus) were the major pests of stored maize in the study area. Among them, Maize weevil (S. zeamais) is the dominant, destructive and most important pest of maize in Bangladesh. This pest was found in abundance in all areas assessed damaging maize grain. Quantitative average grain damage of 75.85% and losses of 51 to 85% are common in the store within five to six months after storage. An integrated weevil management method should be implemented to prevent the high quantitative and qualitative grain losses incurred to contribute towards family food security in Bangladesh.

An experiment was conducted at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), Regional Station, Kishoreganj, Bangladesh during July to December 2010 and 2011 to study the effect of spacing and time of de-topping on yield and quality of kenaf seed cv. HC-95 grown under transplanting method. The experiment comprised three plant spacing (viz.,  40 cm × 15 cm, 30 cm × 15 cm and 20 cm × 15 cm) and five de-topping (viz., no de-topping, de-topping at transplanting, de-topping at 15, 30 and 45  days after transplanting (DAT) in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The highest yield of kenaf seed was obtained from planting at 30 cm × 15 cm spacing. The best quality seed in respect to germination and vigour was also obtained from transplanting at 30 cm × 15 cm spacing. The highest seed yield, germination and vigour of seed were obtained for de-topped at 30 DAT. The study concludes that late season kenaf produces highest seed yield with best quality when planted at 30 cm x 15 cm spacing and for de-topping at 30 DAT. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 626-634

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Roselle or Mesta (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is one of the plants whose plant parts are used to prepare juices. The Roselle calyx is considered as a good source of antioxidants. But the antioxidant properties of BJRI (Bangladesh Jute Research Institute) released Roselle vegetable variety, BJRI vegetable mesta-1, is not quantified yet. With the objective of making this vegetable more popular among the consumers, an experiment was conducted at the Jute Agriculture Experimental Station, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, Jagir, Manikganj to find out the antioxidant properties of BJRI vegetable mesta-1. Total four antioxidant components eg., total phenol content, total flavonoid content, proanthocyanidin content, anthocyanin content and three antioxidant activities eg., DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging, (FRAP) ferric ion reducing antioxidant power, H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), radical scavenging were measured from the calyx sample of BJRI vegetable mesta-1. Among the four antioxidant components, total flavonoid contents (959.53 mg 100 g–1) posses the highest position and anothocyanine contents (0.17 mg 100 g–1) were in the lowest position. FRAP activities were highest among the antioxidant activities of the calyx of our studied vegetable mesta. Our findings represented the quantity of antioxidant contents of the calyx of BJRI vegetable mesta-1 which justify its uses as natural antioxidants. Thus, Roselle calyx may act as an alternative source of antioxidant rich natural herbal tea.

The major purpose of this research was to introgress Saltol QTL into the genetic background of BRRI dhan49 through marker-assisted backcrossing. FL478 was used as a donor parent of Saltol QTL. Marker assisted backcrossing strategies were applied to develop BRRI dhan49-Saltol lines. A primer polymorphism survey was carried out between the two parental genotypes viz. BRRI dhan49 and FL478. A total of 363 SSR and InDel primers were surveyed and a total of 96 markers (27%) were found polymorphic. A cross was made between BRRI dhan49 and FL478 to produce F1 seeds and F1 was confirmed by RM493. Foreground selection was carried out using RM493 in all generations. Fifty six SSR markers were used for background selection. The Graphical Genotype (GGT) software was used to estimate the percentage recovery rate of the recurrent parent genome and to find out the genome ratio of the parents in the selected progenies of the backcross populations. From BC1F1 generation five best plants were selected based on background recovery of recurrent parent and backcrossed with recurrent parent. From BC2F1 generation, six plants were selected based on the highest background recovery of 80.7% to 89.5%. BC2F2 seeds were produced by selfing of selected BC2F1 individuals. The Saltol introgressed lines performed better in salt stress condition in hydroponic screening. The developed BRRI dhan49-Saltol lines would be useful for developing salt tolerant rice varieties or for using in other breeding programs.