The experiment was conducted at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Farm, Gazipur in Aman season to determine the optimum time of planting and to find out the genotypes having high yield potential. Fine rice genotypes Basmati PNR, Basmati 370, Basmati 375, and Basmati-D were transplanted from 22 July and continued upto 7 October at an interval of 15 days both in 1999 and 2000. Thirty-day old seedlings were transplanted at a spacing of 20 cm x 15 cm. The tallest plant was found in the early-planted crop at maturity. Crop planted from 7 August to 7 September gave more number of tillers per m2, panicles per m2 and grains per panicle which resulted in higher grain yield. Compared to the 22 August planting, grain yield decreased by 11, 10, 10, 26, and 61 percent, respectively, when the crop was planted on 22 July, 7 August, 7 September, 22 September, and 7 October. The growth duration of the genotypes decreased with the advancement of planting date. Among the genotypes, Basmati PNR gave maximum grain yield followed by Basmati-D due to more number of panicles and lower percentage of spikelet sterility. The lower grain yield was found in Basmati 370 irrespective of planting date due to lower number of panicles and high percentage of spikelet sterility. The Basmati PNR matured 5-12 days earlier than the rest of the test genotypes. Thus, fine rice Basmati PNR and Basmati-D were most suitable to obtain higher grain yield when planted within 17-21 August. Key Words: Basmati rice, time of planting, Aman season. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v34i3.3962 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 34(3) : 373-384, September 2009

An experiment was conducted at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur during Rabi season 2001-02 and 2002-03 (November to March) to evaluate the effect of raised bed planting method on different crop growth parameters, which influence the wheat productivity. Total tiller production, leaf area index (LAI), dry mater production (DMP), crop growth rate (CGR) and agronomic productivity of wheat under bed planting on 70, 80 and 90 cm wide beds with two and three plant rows bed -1 and conventional method were investigated. The number of tillers m -2 in 70 cm beds with both two and three rows were statistically identical to conventional method. Wheat plants grown on narrow beds (70 cm) produced similar LAI to that grown in conventional method but plants in wider beds (80 and 90 cm) had less LAI than that in conventional method. Similarly, DMP and CGR in 70 cm beds were either comparable or higher than conventional method. Grain yield of 70 cm beds were higher than conventional method. Wheat in 70 cm beds increased number of panicles m -2 , number of grains panicle -1 and 1000-grain weight of wheat.

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Field experiments were conducted at the Regional Agricultural Research Station of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Jessore during rabi (winter) seasons of 1999-2001 to study the tillage and mulching effects on conservation of residual soil moisture, yield attributes and yield of mustard (cv. Daulat.). Three different tillage methods, namely minimum, reduced and conventional tillage were used in the main plots and three different mulch materials, namely rice straw, water hyacinth, black polythene including no mulch were used in the sup-plots. It was observed that reduced tillage and polythene mulch or rice straw mulch conserve more moisture than other tillage methods and mulch application. Tillage practice significantly influenced the dry matter, yield and yield components of mustard. Reduced tillage gave consistently the highest seed yield (969 kg/ha), while minimum tillage gave the lowest seed yield (92 kg/ha). Mulching also resulted in better crop growth and increased yield. Significantly higher seed yield (1164 kg/ha) was recorded from black polythene mulch followed by rice straw mulch (1089 kg/ha). The yield of mustard was obtained due to the interaction effects on reduced tillage and polythene mulch followed by conventional tillage and polythene mulch, which was found superior to all other treatments. Results revealed that polythene mulch or rice straw mulch accompanied by reduced tillage was economically profitable for mustard cultivation/production under rainfed condition.

An investigation was undertaken in Jute Research Regional Station, BJRI, Kishoreganj during the period of 2000 -2001 to 2002 -2003 to evaluate the energy input, energy output and output-input ratio of some selected jute based cropping pattern. the result showed that the highest energy input (42,928 MJ ha aman rice-Lentil (2,88,33, ), although the energy output from main product of potato containing cropping pattern was the highest. The energy output from by-product was more compared to main product for all the cropping patterns.Between two jute based cropping patterns, olitorius jute containing pattern required higher energy input than that of capsular is but energy output was higher in capsularis jute containing pattern. Output-input ratio of cropping pattern was maximum (14.5) in 2-crop pattern where rabi crops were absent. It indicated that rabi crops had lower energy output compared to other kharif crops.