A field experiment was carried out at micronutrient experimental field of Soil Science Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur to study the effect of foliar application of zinc on yield of wheat (BARI gom-25) grown by skipping irrigation at different growth stages of the crop. The experiment was designed in a split plot design on sixteen treatments comprising four irrigation treatments (regular irrigation, skipped irrigation at crown root initiation, skipped irrigation at booting stage and skipped irrigation at grain filling stages of wheat growth) and four foliar application of zinc (0.0%, 0.02%, 0.04% and 0.06% of zinc). Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate (ZnSO 4 . H 2 O) was used as a source of Zn. The interaction effect of irrigation and foliar application of zinc significantly influenced the yield and yield components of wheat. The highest yield (5.59 t ha -1 ) was recorded in normal irrigation which was identical with skipping irrigation at flowering and heading stage with 0.06% foliar application of zinc. Skipping irrigation at crown root initiation stage had the most negative effect on growth and yield. Skipping irrigation at flowering and heading stage of wheat with 0.04% foliar application of zinc gave the identical yield in regular irrigation with 0.04% and 0.06% foliar application of zinc. Thus, foliar application of zinc played a major role on yield and yield components of wheat at later stages of growth. The response of foliar application of Zn was positive and quadrate in nature. The optimum dose was appeared as 0.04% foliar application of zinc for grain yield of wheat in the study area of Joydebpur, Gazipur (AEZ-28).

Thirty three genotypes of Brassica rapa L. were evaluated in order to find out their inter-genotypic variability; character association and path coefficient of seed yield/plant and its component characters. BARI sarisha-6 x TORI-7 S-45 showed best result in terms of early maturity (75 days) and higher seed yield/plant (5.28g) than check varieties. The character, plant height, was highly influenced by the environment whereas, all other characters influenced the least. Number of secondary branches/plant showed the highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation. Moreover, number of siliquae/plant, number of secondary branches/plant and number of primary branches/plant showed high heritability (93.16%, 75.69% and 68.03%, respectively) couple with high genetic advance in percent of mean (37.74%, 73.55% and 26.82%, successively). The seed yield/plant showed significant positive correlation with number of siliquae/plant (r g = 0.7011 ** , r p = 0.5684 ** ), number of primary branches/plant (r g = 0.5611 ** , r p = 0.4016 * ) and number of secondary branches/plant (r g = 0.5160 ** , r p = 0.4098 * ) revealing that selection based on these traits would be judicious. Path analysis showed that the number of siliquae/plant (0.4679), number of primary branches/plant (0.2823) and number of secondary branches/plant (0.0092) were the most important contributors to seed yield/plant. The results indicated that number of siliquae/plant, number of primary branches/plant and number of secondary branches/plant can be used as selection criteria to increase seed yield/plant in rapeseed.

Field experiment was carried out for two consecutive years to study the effectiveness of soil and foliar application of micronutrients on the yield of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Gazipur. The micronutrients zinc (Zn) in the form of zinc sulphate (ZnSO4.7H2O) at the rate of 0.05 % and boron (B) in the form of boric acid (H3BO3) at the rate of 0.03% were applied as foliar spray at three different stages of plant growth i.e (i) before flower initiation; (ii) after fruit set when it becomes approximately marble sized; and (iii) at 20 days interval of second spray. The tomato yield and its contributing yield traits were significantly affected by foliar fertilizer treatments as against soil application of B and Zn fertilizers. Among various treatments, foliar application of Zn (0.05 %) + B (0.03%) produced maximum fruit yield (85.5 and 81.7 t ha-1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively) while the control no application of Zn (0.0) and B (0.0) produced 66.8 and 60.7 t ha-1 in 2013 and 2014, respectively and it was statistically identical with soil application of B and Zn @ 2 and 6 kg ha-1 (T5), respectively. The increment of yield was 19.2 to 31.1% and 7.57 to 18.3%, respectively, over control and soil application. The integrated use of foliar application of micronutrients and soil application of macronutrients are recommended to enhance tomato yield.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 41(3): 411-418, September 2016

A field experiment was carried out to study the zinc-iron relationship in wheat (BARI Gom-26) plant grown under water stress condition in the field near net house of Soil Science Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur, during November 2015 to March 2016. The experiment was designed in a split plot on sixteen treatments comprising four irrigation treatments (regular irrigation, stopping irrigation at crown root initiation, stopping irrigation at booting stage and stopping irrigation at grain filling stage) and four foliar application of zinc and iron (control, 0.05% of zinc, 0.05% of iron and 0.05% of zinc +0.05% of iron). Zinc sulphate monohydrate (ZnSO4. H2O) and ferrous sulphate (FeSO4. H2O) were used as a source of Zn and Fe. The highest yield (4.01 t ha-1) was recorded in stopping irrigation at grain filling stage which was identical with regular irrigation. Water stress at crown root initiation stage had the most negative effect on growth and yield. Foliar application of zinc and iron played a major role on yield and yield components of wheat at later stages of growth. The results obtained from the present research showed that iron and zinc spray increased grain yield and quality of wheat and improved the effects caused by drought stress.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 43(3): 395-406, September 2018

The article presents results of additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and genotype (G) main effect and genotype by environment (GE) interaction (G × GE) biplot analysis of a multi environmental trial (MET) data of 15 sweetpotato varieties released from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute conducted during 2015-2018. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of genotype, environment and their interaction on tuber yield and to identify stable sweetpotato genotypes over the years. The experimental layout was a randomized complete block design with three replications at Gazipur location. Combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the main effects due to genotypes, environments and genotype by environment interaction were highly significant. The contribution of genotypes, environments and genotype by environment interaction to the total variation in tuber yield was about 60.16, 10.72 and 12.82%, respectively. The first two principal components obtained by singular value decomposition of the centred data of yield accounted for 100% of the total variability caused by G × GE. Out of these variations, PC1 and PC2 accounted for 71.5% and 28.5% of variability, respectively. The study results identified BARI Mistialu-5, BARI Mistialu-14 and BARI Mistialu-15 as the closest to the "ideal" genotype in terms of yield potential and stability. Varieties 'BARI Mistialu-8, BARI Mistialu-11 and BARI Mistialu-12' were also selected as superior genotypes. BARI Mistialu-3 and BARI Mistialu-13 was comparatively low yielder but was stable over the environment. Among them BARI Mistialu-12, BARI Mistialu-14 and BARI Mistialu-15 are rich in nutrient content while BARI Mistialu-8 and BARI Mistialu-11 are the best with dry matter content and organoleptic taste. Environments representing in 1 st and 3 rd year with comparatively short vectors had a low discriminating power and environment in 2 nd year was characterized by a high discriminating power.