Background: Garlic (Allium sativum L.) has been used as a medicine throughout ancient and modern history; it has been taken to prevent and treat a wide range of conditions and diseases. In Bangladesh, the demand for garlic increases day by day, but on the other hand, due to a shortage of land, production of garlic is not up to the mark. However, to solve the problem, a pot culture experiment was conducted at the net house of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period of November 2007 to March 2008 to examine the effect of potassium (K) on the growth, yield, nutrient content, and its uptake by garlic. Results: In this study, six levels of K viz. 0, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 250 kg ha −1 were used as treatments. All the parameters, i.e., plant height, number of leaves plant −1 , fresh and dry weights of leaves (g plant −1), fresh and dry weights of bulb (g plant −1), bulb diameter, and number of cloves bulb −1 significantly varied due to different doses of K application. The maximum total yield and size of garlic bulb were obtained with potassium application at 200 kg ha −1. Potassium at 200 kg ha −1 produced the highest fresh and dry weights of bulbs and leaves, diameter, moisture content, number of cloves, and yield as compared to the other treatments. The uptake of nutrients like N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, B, and Na significantly varied due to the application of different doses of K. The highest contents and nutrient uptake of N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, B, and Na were found with potassium application at 200 kg ha −1. Conclusions: The overall results suggested that the yield of garlic increased with increasing potassium fertilizer, where K application at 200 kg ha − 1 is suitable for obtaining maximum yield.

Background: Tomatoes are now one of the most popular nutrient-dense vegetables in terms of acreage, production, yield, commercial use, and consumption that add to the Bangladesh economy and ultimately reduce poverty. With this view, a lab investigation was carried out to analyze the effects of tomato (Sofol and Roma VF) verities on different post-harvest managements to extend shelf life as well as reduce post-harvest losses.Results: This study confirmed that the fruit quality attributes (color, firmness, weight loss, chilling injury, total soluble solids, pH, disease incidence, disease severity, and dry matter content) were increased whereas moisture content, vitamin C, and titratable acidity decreased with the increases in storage duration. The high quality attributes such as color, firmness, weight loss, chilling injury, total soluble solids, pH, disease incidence, disease severity, and dry matter content increased, whereas moisture content, vitamin C and titratable acidity decrease of tomato were observed in Roma VF while Sofol variety had high weight loss, moisture content, titratable acidity, and vitamin C. Moreover, the highest shelf life (17 days) was recorded in Sofol than Roma VF (15 days). On the 16th day of storage, maximum disease severity (41%) and disease incidence (71%) were observed at an earthen cooling pot, whereas a significant reduction in disease severity (1%) and disease incidence (8%) were recorded in tomatoes stored at 10 o C temperature. Weight loss was the lowest (4%) in Sofol when kept at unperforated low-density polyethylene (LDPL) plastic bag as compared to Roma VF treatment (11%). Considering the physiological process, held at the low temperature (10°C and 15°C) and increased shelf life as well as reduced the diseases of tomatoes. Conclusions: The investigator concluded that the findings of this study will be helpful with specific regard to long and medium-term storage, quality control, transportation, and advertising, and will also be beneficial to tomato growers of Bangladesh.

Background: Betel leaf is the oldest and now highly paid farmer's crop, but the most vulnerable to insect pests, leading to massive yield drops in Bangladesh. For this reason, the experiment was carried out at the Spices Research Centre, Bangladesh, during the period of January 2018 to December 2018 and to assess the effectiveness of the different bio-rational approach against the betel leaf sucking pests. In this study, BARI Paan-3 was used as a test crop. Studies were important that sucking insect pests to include red mite population (black fly, white fly, red mite and mealy bug) has been found actively around the year in Bangladesh. Results: Studies have shown that sucking insect population (black fly, white fly, red mite and mealy bug) has been found actively year round, whereas the maximum (22.7, 17.2, 16.1, and 14 adult/vine) and minimum (3.2, 2.8, 2.6, and 1.5 adult/vine) were recorded during the month of October and January, respectively. The results explored that the significant variations and the R 2 value suggested that biotic factor contributes 57.9, 50.9, 51.3, and 53.7% variations in black fly, white fly, red spider mite, and mealy bug population. Among approaches, the highest mortality rate (80.56, 84.73, 82.44, and 90.96%) of black fly, white fly, red mite, and mealy bug over untreated control with maximum vine yield (18.61 t/ha) is recorded from sanitation + three alternate spraying of fizimite and antario. Conclusions: It had concluded that sanitation of betel leaf garden along with three alternate spraying of fizimite (sodium lauryl ether) at 1 ml/l and antario WP (Bt + abamectin 0.1%) at 0.5 g/l recommended for an effective management of the betel vine sucking pest complex.

Background: No-tillage is considered as a promising alternative for conventional farming by saving energy input and time, reducing groundwater pollution, and counteracting soil erosion and losses of soil-organic matter. Therefore, this study was carried out in northeastern Sylhet of Bangladesh during the period of 2015-2016 to evaluate the multiple techniques of implementation in order to find a practically appropriate way to apply biochar. Results: In this study, successfully applied of biochar and glyphosate in holes with seeds and consisted of one control (pure soil), glyphosate control, biochar control, and four glyphosate treatments with 1, 2.5, 5, and 10% biochar addition. The Gly + ch1% and Gly + ch2.5% treatments demonstrated a better emergence rate than all treatments, and at the end of the emergence, they reached more than 95%. There was no important distinction found among all the treatments in the event of shooting fresh and dry biomass. Biochar amendment treatments did not show any influence on shoot fresh biomass compared to glyphosate control and biochar 5% treatment, respectively. Gly + ch2.5% treatment showed slightly better performance than all the other treatments. The similar performance was shown in case of shoot dry weight. In case of root fresh weight, there was only a significant different observed between Gly + ch1% and Gly + ch10%. However, Gly + ch1% treatment revealed slightly higher root fresh weight compared to all the other treatments. Considering the results of the germination percentage and root morphology, it could be suggested that lower rate of biochar application showed better performance on root length and development. Conclusions: It could be concluded that glyphosate application has mitigation effect to absorb herbicidal residues. For successful introduction of biochar application in agriculture, field acts as a huge amount of carbon sink and has also a positive effect to mitigate climate change.