The study was carried out in the field laboratory of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding of Bangladesh Agricultural University in order to evaluate varietal performance and genetic variability of fourteen tomato genotypes based on morphological and biochemical characteristics. Tomato genotypes were collected from Genetics and Plant Breeding farm, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The field experiment was conducted from October 2014 to March 2015 with Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) including three replications. Data for genetic analyses were collected on seven traits viz. days to first flowering, pollen grain fertility, days to first fruit maturity, individual fruit weight, plant height, ascorbic acid content and yield per plant. ANOVA showed significant variation among the tomato genotypes for all the traits. Wide range existed between minimum and maximum mean values for all the genotypes whereas genotype World champion had the maximum individual fruit weight with the highest yield. On the other hand, genotype CI-170-0-20-2-0 gave poor performance. Yield exhibited a positive significant correlation with individual fruit weight; and in path coefficient analysis, maximum positive direct effects were found through individual fruit weight followed by plant height, ascorbic acid content and days to first fruit maturity. In principal component analysis, the main three components contributed approximately 79.14% of total variability. Genotypes were classified into five clusters by Ward's method including late maturing and low yielder genotypes in cluster I, early flowering genotypes in cluster II, high yielder with large fruited genotypes in cluster III, genotypes containing low ascorbic acid in cluster IV and genotypes having early maturity with small fruit but minimum pollen grains fertility rate in cluster V. Based on the present findings, World champion and Big cherry were considered as superior varieties among the fourteen genotypes and individual fruit weight might be considered as an important criteria for yield improvement.

Soil salinity remarkably hinders rice growth, development and productivity. The present study was set up to explore the role of exogenous salicylic acid (SA) and silicon (Si) application on the growth and yield performance of two contrasting rice genotypes, namely BRRI dhan41 (salt-tolerant) and BRRI dhan49 (salt-sensitive) under salinity. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications and four SA and Si treatments such as control (tap water), 100 ppm SA, 100 ppm Si (as CaSiO3) and, co-application of SA and Si (50 ppm each). Results revealed that the maximum plant height (125.2 cm), fresh weight of shoot (267.3 g) and maximum K+/Na+ (5.2) were obtained in BRRI dhan49 after sole application of Si under salt stress. Besides, the number of grains per panicle and grains per hill significantly increased in BRRI dhan41 after the sole application of SA (64 and 46%, respectively) and co-application of SA and Si (29 and 21%, respectively), and in BRRI dhan49 with sole SA (182 and 277%, respectively) and Si (75 and 446%, respectively) compared with their respective controls. Besides, we observed that the K+/Na+ was increased where the shoot accumulation of Na+ reduced significantly in both rice varieties after sole and co-application of SA and Si compared with the untreated plants. However, the present findings showed new dimensions regarding the beneficial effects of Si on rice plants which could effectively be utilized to grow and maximize rice production in the saline-prone coastal areas of Bangladesh encountering detrimental effects of salt stress on rice. Bangladesh Agron. J. 2022, 25(2): 119-127