A survey was carried out in two villages of Durgapur union under Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district during January to March, 2005 to investigate profitability, problems and management system of practicing jackfruit-pineapple agroforestry practice. Result revealed that the existing jackfruit-pineapple agroforesty system is profitable and has a great contribution to the meet up of nutritional demand. There is a scope of adopting improved management practices and it may increase the total production. Among the various problems, jackfruit trunk borer is the major. Measures against insects, bat, hedgehog, squirrel etc., use of popular cultivar and training on improved management practices for development of jackfruit-pineapple agroforestry system were suggested to overcome these problems. Key words: Agro-economic performance, jackfruit-pineapple agroforestry system. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jard.v6i1.1672 J Agric Rural Dev 6(1&2), 147-156, June 2008

Rapid industrialization contributes to the rising economic growth rate in Bangladesh. Gazipur district is one of the largest industrial zones in Bangladesh. Every day a huge amount of untreated industrial effluents is produced and delivered to the nearby crop field or water body. These effluents might have influenced the major chemical properties of soils. Hence, the present study was conducted to assess the impact of untreated industrial effluents on soil chemical properties expressed through a spatial distribution pattern map of the industrial zone of Gazipur district. A total of one hundred and four agricultural soil samples were collected with grid basis from different unions of the industrial areas of Sreepur and Gazipur Sadar upazilas. In Sreepur upazila, the mean values of soil pH, organic carbon (OC), N, P, S, K, Ca and Mg were 4.85, 0.81%, 0.11%, 6.08 ppm, 26.5 ppm, 0.13 meq/100g soil, 0.53 meq/100g soil and 0.19 meq/100g soil, respectively in uncontaminated soil, while the mean values of soil pH, OC, N, P, S, K, Ca and Mg were 5.15, 1.96%, 0.23%, 14.2 ppm, 187.61 ppm, 0.15 meq/100g soil, 0.64 meq/100g soil and 0.2 meq/100g soil, respectively due to industrial contamination. In both the upazilas, soil pH was strongly to slightly acidic while soil organic carbon was low to medium and N content was low. A weak spatial variation was detected for soil pH and N in these industrial areas indicating less influence on both the parameters by the effluents. Similarly, the contents of K, Ca and Mg were low in most of the areas of these two upazilas and a very little or no spatial variation was observed. On the other hand, OC and P contents were low to medium whereas S content was high in most of the study areas. Ann. Bangladesh Agric. (2022) 26 (1) : 15-28

The impacts of changing support systems for lift irrigation in Bangladesh from the public to the private sector are examined. Data are presented from an extensive study undertaken by IIMI and the Bangladesh Agricultural University. The results of the study clearly demonstrate that farmers, small dealers and input sellers all feel that transfer to the private sector has improved the quality of support services. As a result of the privatization of support services, more fuel is available, it is closer to the farms and there is less adulteration. A similar case holds for agricultural chemicals. In addition to improving the situation for small farmers, privatization has created thousands of jobs for small traders and repair shops. Data are presented that document the improvements in services and the expansion of small traders. The one issue that still must be solved is the future of deep tubewells, as the article documents that they are not economically vaiable without Government subsidies.

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