Md Asaduzzaman
Lal Teer seed limited, Plant and R & D Farm, Gazipur, Bangladesh
Mohammad Ahsan Habib
Research fellow, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh - 2202, Bangladesh
Md Rezaul Haque
Supreme Seed Company Ltd. 10, Gareb-E-Nawaz Avenue, Level-3, Sector - 13, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Md Shafiqul Islam
School of Physical Sciences, Independent University Bangladesh, Plot 16 Aftab Uddin Ahmed Rd, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
Jebunnahar Khandakar
School of Environment and Life Sciences, Independent University Bangladesh, Plot 16 Aftab Uddin Ahmed Rd, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
Onion Seed, Bangladesh, Survey, Questionnaire
Baghmara upazila under Rajshahi district, Bangladesh
Seed Technology
In Bangladesh, onion is mainly produced in the winter season. It is grown in almost all parts of the country such as Faridpur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Pabna, Comilla, Rahshahi, Jessore and Rangpur Districts (BBS, 2017). Our study area is Baghmara upazila under Rajshahi district is one of the important onion seeds producing areas in Bangladesh. Geographically, the zone lies between 24°22 to 24°'26N latitude and 88°36 to 88°'40 E longitude with an annual average rainfall of 1211 to 1516 mm and the annual mean temperature ranges between 10.2 to 33.5°C. According to DAE (Department of Agricultural Extension), in this Upazila, in a total of 100 farmers have cultivated onions for seeds production among them fifty (50) farmers were randomly selected for personal interviewing with a closed questionnaire. The survey was carried out from 17 February to 25 March 2018. An open-ended questions administered in a semi-structured questionnaire was developed by incorporating a number of questions tested in several national and international studies and adapted to personal data including age, sex, education, farming experiences, amount of land, cultural practices such as fertilizer application, raw to raw distance, bulb to bulb distance, bulb size, planting time, storage technique and farmers satisfaction level. Qualitative data were converted to numerical data by means of suitable scoring techniques and transferred to a master sheet to facilitate tabulation. Local units were also converted into the standard units. The MS Excel and SPSS programs were used to perform the analyses of data. Age and sex composition are the major demographic features used to characterize the respondents. Although efforts were made to account for gender representation, no woman respondent in this study because the attempts were made to interview the household head in the presence of his spouse so that the responses account for the views of the women. Since all of the respondents are heads of households, it is safe to conclude that onion seed production in the study areas is male-dominated. The gender distribution in favor of males (78.1%) is not surprising as agriculture in the world is male-dominated activity (FAO, 2013). The ages of the respondents were measured in terms of the year. Based on age, the respondents were classified into three categories as young (up to 30years), middle-aged (31-45 years) and old-aged (>45years). Formal education is considered as a level of education of a respondent. It was scored by assigned for each year of schooling. For example, if a respondent passed the final examination of class VIII in the school, his educational score was 8. The experience in onion seed production was measured in terms of the year. The area under onion seed cultivation was first recorded in the local unit and then converted to the acre. Farmers were categorized as the small farm size with less than 0.30 acre of land, medium size with land between 0.30-1.46 acre and large farm with land size more than 1.46 acre. The number of fertilizers applied for onion seeds production by a respondent was estimated in kg/acre. The respondents were classified into three groups based on the average of the uses of fertilizers. The categories of the application of chemical fertilizers were low 30-47 kg/acre, 60-72 kg/acre, 3-6 kg/acre and 3-4 kg/acre, medium 48-80 kg/acre, 73-104 kg/acre, 7-10 kg/acre, 5-6 kg/acre and high doses 200-225 kg/acre , 262.5-300 kg/acre, 27.5-30 kg/acre, 15-17.5 kg/acre urea, MOP, Zn and boron fertilizers respectively. The yield of onion seeds was estimated in kg/ac. The respondents were classified into low yield 222.30-518.70 kg/acre, medium yield 521.17-815.10 kg/acre and high yield 815.10-839.80 kg/acre.
Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.7(3): 383-391, December 2020
Journal