Sixty genotypes of ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula Roxb.) were collected from different locations of Bangladesh and were used to study their variability, character association and genetic diversity. Seventeen traits studied, of these, eight showed high heritability (over 80%). Correlation coefficient study indicated that yield per plant had highly significant positive relationship with the number of fruits per plant (r = 0.874**), average fruit weight (r = 0.707**), vine length at harvest (r = 0.359**) and length of fruit (r = 0.334**). On the other hand, the sex ratio and circumference of fruit exhibited negative association with yield. Path co-efficient analysis showed that number of fruits per plant exhibited the highest positive direct effect (0.7192) on yield followed by average fruit weight (0.4656). Based on Mahalanobis' D 2 statistics, the sixty genotypes were grouped into four different clusters. Clustering pattern revealed that genotypes collected from the same location were grouped into different clusters. The average intercluster distances were always higher than the average intracluster distances suggesting wider genetic diversity among the genotypes within the cluster. Custer-III had the highest intracluster distance (97.9).

Banana is considered a short life commodity. Extended storage of bananas can be accomplished when ripening is not induced by a large ethylene exposure. Extension of shelf life banana would be possible by applying different promising postharvest treatments. The present study attempts to investigate the effect, of different postharvest treatments namely modified atmosphere with or without ethylene scavenging chemical (KMnO 4 ), cooling, low temperature and hot water treatment on shelf life and quality of 3 commercially important bananas namely Sabri, Champa and Amritasagar. The two-factor experiment was laid out in completely randomized design with three replications. Sabri, Champa and Amritasagar showed significant differences in time periods to reach successive stages of ripening. Longer period was required to reach ripening stages in variety Sabri than those of Champa and Amritasagar. Postharvest treatments and varieties were found to exhibit significant variation in total soluble solids (TSS) content during storage. The variety Sabri had the highest TSS content than that of Champa and Amritasagar. An increasing trend in TSS contents was observed in all varieties at all stages of ripening. The disease severity and disease incidence wer e greatly influenced by postharvest treatments and varieties during ripening and storage. All the treatments exhibited significant effects in relation to disease incidence. Modified atmosphere packaging with ethylene scavenger (KMnO 4 ) and storage of banana at 15C resulted in reduced disease. Disease incidence was the lowest in Sabri variety than that of Champa and Amritasagar. Different postharvest treatments and varieties showed highly significant variation on shelf life. Results showed that the shelf lives of bananas of the variety Sabri, Amritasagar and Champa were 10.81, 9.00 and 10.11 days, respectively. Sabri had the longest shelf life (16.25 days) than two other varieties. Postharvest treatments exerted significant effects to extend shelf life of bananas. The longest shelf life of 15.58 days was observed in bananas held at 15c temperature. Significant extensions of shelf life were also recorded in fruits held in plastic bags with or without KMnO 4 . Combinedly, the longest shelf life was found in fruits of Sabri variety at 15C. Considering the findings it may be concluded that significant variation existed due to the effects of different varieties and postharvest treatments in respect of prolongation of shelf life and other quality parameters of banana. The she lf life of banana could be extended up to 15.58 days in low storage temperature (15C) and up to 10.91 days in modified atmosphere packaging with KMnO 4 . The longer shelf lives of banana with the above mentioned treatments might be related to the slower changes in physico-chemical compositions.

Unpuddled transplanting of rice is gaining attention in Bagnaldesh agriculture. Energy budget is essential for efficient management of the resources in agricultural production. The energy balance under different minimum tillage practices in rice cultivation was assessed during 2009-11 by comparing the parameters: energy input, energy output, energy productivity and energy output:input ratio. Energy input in CT, SPWT, BP and ST were 25.50, 23.15, 20.48 and 20.49 GJ ha -1 , respectively in rice cultivation. Maximum energy was consumed for chemical fertilizers. Tillage energy ranked second in conventional tillage and ranked fourth in minimum tillage options. Energy output was insignificant due to insignificant yield difference. Unpuddled transplanting (BP and ST) showed 8-12% increase in energy productivity and 22-24% increase in energy output:input ratio. However, from the energy saving point of view, unpuddled transplanting may be considered better options depending on the resources availability in rice cultivation.

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from November 2010 to May 2011 to study the effect of variety and rate of nitrogen on the performance of Boro rice. The experiment comprised three varieties viz., BRRI dhan28 (V1), BRRI dhan29 (V2) and BRRI dhan45 (V3); and five rates of nitrogen viz., control (N0), 50 kg  (N1), 100 kg (N2), 150 kg  (N3)and 200 kg  (N4) N ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The growth analysis results indicate that the tallest plant (80.88 cm) and the highest number of total tillers hill-1 (13.80) were observed in BRRI dhan29 at 70 DATs and the highest total dry matter (66.41 g m-2) was observed in BRRI dhan45. The shortest plant (78.15 cm) and the lowest number of tillers hill-1 (12.41) were recorded from BRRI dhan45 and the lowest dry matter (61.24 g) was observed in BRRI dhan29. The tallest plants (84.01 cm), highest number of tillers hill-1 (14.06) and the highest dry matter (69.58 g m-2) were obtained from 200 kg N ha-1. The tallest plants (86.48 cm) and maximum dry matter (72.30 g m-2) were recorded from BRRI dhan28 with 200 kg N ha-1 and BRRI dhan45 with 200 kg N ha-1, respectively. The highest number of tillers hill-1 (15.14) was obtained from BRRI dhan29 with 50 kg N ha-1. The harvest data reveal that variety had significant effect on total tillers hill-1, effective tillers hill-1, non-effective tillers hill-1, panicle length, grain yield, straw yield and harvest index. The highest grain yield (4.84 t ha-1) was recorded from BRRI dhan29. The results of the experiment also indicate that total tillers hill-1, effective tillers hill-1, grains panicle-1, sterile spikelets panicle-1, grain yield, straw yield and harvest index were significantly affected by levels of nitrogen, while plant height, panicle length, 1000-grain weight were not significantly affected by levels of nitrogen. The highest grain yield (5.58 t ha-1) was obtained from 200 kg N ha-1. Interaction effect of variety × 200 kg N ha-1 produced the highest grain yield (5.82 t ha-1). From the results of the study it may be concluded that BRRI dhan29 rice may be cultivated with 200 kg N ha-1 for obtaining higher yield in AEZ 9 of Bangladesh.Progressive Agriculture 26:6-14, 2015

Information on genetic relatedness among ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) genotypes from Bangladesh is currently not reported. Twenty eight accessions collected from different parts of Bangladesh were studied using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. Four selected decamer primers, out of sixteen screened, could generate a total of 27 RAPD fragments of which 22 were polymorphic (81.5%). The bands ranged from 50 to 1500 bp in size. Genetic variation statistics for all loci estimated the average gene diversity (h) value as 0.278 and the Shannon's Information Index (I) as 0.415. Dendrogram based on unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) segregated the accessions into five clusters. Cluster III was the largest with 13 members followed by cluster II, V, I and IV with 6, 4, 3 and 2 members, respectively. Accession LA27 and LA29 were found very close to each other with the highest inter-variety similarity index (96.05%) and the lowest genetic distance (0.077); whereas accession LA40 and LA72 were more distant to each other with the lowest inter-variety similarity index (44.43%) and the highest genetic distance (0.73). A DNA extraction method has been standardized. The marker was found to be useful tool for assessing genetic variations in Luffa acutangula.