Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population and to increase the yield potential of rice would be a key factor for mitigating global demands of about 810 million tons of rice by 2025. To exploit the economic importance of heterosis, quantitative valuation was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replications for 16 agronomic traits of 5x5 half diallel populations during boro season of 2017-2018. Diallel populations were generated by using five selected parents (P1: BRRI dhan28, P2: BRRI dhan74, P3: BINA dhan10, P4: IR59418-7B-21-3 and P5: BRRI dhan67) where, P1 was considered as standard check to estimate the economic heterosis. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant variability among the genotypes for most of the traits except grain length and length-breadth ratio. The results showed that none of the hybrid combination performed better for all the traits over the three types of heterosis. The highest relative heterosis was recorded in P3×P4 followed by P4×P5 for grain yield plant-1, filled grains panicle-1, effective tillers plant-1. Majority of the cross combinations (>60%) revealed highly significant positive heterosis for grain yield plant-1 over mid parent. Heterobeltiosis for grain yield plant-1 was observed significant for 50% cross combinations and could be utilized in hybrid breeding. Whereas, more than 70% crosses exhibited undesirable negative standard heterosis for grain yield plant-1. Only two cross combinations (P3×P5 and P3×P4) among ten revealed significant positive economic heterosis for grain yield plant-1 and those could be exploited in rice breeding. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 9(1): 45-53

The genetic diversity was assessed in 42 Brassica rapa genotypes for identifying parental genotypes having distant relationship for hybridization. All the genotypes were analyzed through principal component analysis, principal coordinate analysis canonical variate analysis and non-hierarchical clustering which compute Mahalanobis's D 2 statistics. The genotypes under study were grouped into six clusters. The cluster V contained the maximum numbers of genotypes (15) and cluster III had the minimum number of genotypes (3). The highest intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster V that represented maximum variability within the cluster and Cluster VI had the lowest intra-cluster distance. The maximum inter cluster distance was noticed between the clusters II and III and the lowest between clusters II and VI. Cluster with large distances were considered more diverged than those with small distances. Yield and yield contributing characters such as days to 1 st flowering, number of siliquae on main racemes, number of siliquae per plant, number of seeds per siliqua, 1000 seeds weight and seed yield per plant contributed more towards genetic divergence considering diversity pattern. Considering cluster distance, inter-genotypic distance, cluster mean and other agronomic performances genotypes BC-200502, BC-200505, BC-200506, BC-200510, BC-200512, BC-200515, BC-200519, BC-200521, BC-200529, BC-200530, BC-200531B, BC-200531Y, BC-200536, BC-200537, BC-200542, BC-200543, BARI Sarisha 12, and BARI Sarisha 14 may be selected from different clusters for hybridization program.

The experiment was conducted at the field and laboratory of the Department of Crop Botany, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Salna, Gazipur during the period from December 2016 to March 2017 to find out the morpho-anatomical appraisal of some pulse crops of Fabaceae family under salinity stress. Seven pulse crops viz., Lentil var. BARI Masur-7, Mungbean var. BARI Mung- 6, Blackgram var. BARI Maskalai-1, Chickpea var. BARI Chola-9, Field pea var. BARI Motor-1, Grasspea var. BARI Khesari-3 and Cowpea var. BARI Felon-2; two levels of salinity 0 and 8 dSm-1were imposed as experimental treatments. It was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. The NaCl was directly mixed to the dry soil. The soil (6 kg pot-1) of each treatment was placed in plastic pots with drainage holes in the bottom. The results of the experiment revealed that, salt stress caused decrease in morphological attributes and also changed anatomical features. There was a significant variation in relative values (%) of plant height, root length (%) root dry matter (%) and shoot dry matter (%) of seven selected pulse crop varieties due to the salinity stress. The highest percentage of relative plant height (92), relative root length (98), relative root dry weight (89) and relative shoot dry weight (72.8) were observed in cowpea followed by grass pea and the lowest percentage of relative plant height (51), relative root length (56), relative root dry weight (54) and relative shoot dry weight (48) were observed in lentil. The stem anatomical features were found similar changes in xylem and phloem area. Among the pulse crop varieties, cowpea and grass pea were performed better whereas lentil and black gram were found more susceptible species than the others according to their morphological and anatomical attributes. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 44(3): 439-451, September 2019

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of organic and inorganic fertilizers on growth, yield and physio-chemical properties of papaya (Carica papaya) from February to December 2019. The experiment was designed into twelve treatments [T1 = Control, T2 = 100% RDF (Recommended Dose of Fertilizers), T3 = 50% RDF+ 50% MOC (Mustard Oil Cake), T4 = 50% RDF+ 50% VER (Vermicompost), T5 = 50% RDF + 50% PM (Poultry Manure), T6 = 25% RDF+ 75% MOC, T7 = 25% RDF + 75% VER, T8 = 25% RDF+ 75% PM, T9 = 100% MOC, T10 = 100% VER, T11 = 100% PM and T12 = MOC + VER + PM] at the experimental field of Department of Horticulture, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The effect of treatments varied significantly for most of the characters studied. Results showed that the plant growth, yield contributing traits, fruit yield and quality of papaya significantly increased in T10 treatment compared to other treatments. The maximum amount of dry matter of fruit (4.37%), TSS (18.17 %), total sugar (9.43 g/ 100g), reducing sugar (6.34 g/ 100g), β- carotene (0.24 mg/ 100g), mineral as Ca (0.39%), Mg (0.33%) and K (2.08%) were found in T10 treatment and the minimum amount were found in the control T1. The maximum amount of non-reducing sugar was obtained from T12 (3.93 g/ 100g) and the minimum from T3 (2.23 g/ 100g). Ascorbic acid was found maximum in T7 (24.99 mg/100g) and minimum from T11 (22.00 mg/100g). A significant influence of T10 treatment on growth, yield and physio-chemical characters was observed. The application of 100% vermicompost which influenced growth, yield and physio-chemical properties of papaya in Salna series of Red Brown-terrace soil is suggested. Ann. Bangladesh Agric. (2020) 24(2) : 69-83

Cultivation of gerbera is a promising practice among the flower growers. Proper soil preparation can substantially improve their productivity. Finding the appropriate gerbera genotype performing better in a suitable soil combination is a potential field of study. On this aspect, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth and performance of Gerbera genotypes with soil amendments during the period from November 2014 to July 2015 at the field research site of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. There were five treatments viz. T0 (control), T1 (Cowdung), T2 (Mustard oil cake), T3 (Urea+ TSP+ MOP), T4 (Organic+ Inorganic) along with five genotypes (G1 = White double, G2 = Yellow double, G3 = Light orange single, G4 = Light pink spider G5= Deep red double). Significant variation among the genotypes and treatment were observed either in single or in combination. Genotype G3 produced the maximum leaf number, flower number (32.4), whereas genotype G5 had the maximum diameter of flower stalk and produced larger flower as well (9.2cm). However, genotype G1 showed the maximum vase life (9.47days). These all were happened when organic and inorganic fertilizers (T4) applied combined. Among all, G3 produced the maximum leaf and flowers numbers which was dwarf at the same time and in case of interaction effect, G3T4 was observed to produce maximum number of leaves and flowers.