Md. Mostak Ahmed
Scientific Officer
Vertebrate pest division, BARI
Dr. Gobinda Chandra Biswas
Principal Scientific Officer
Vertebrate pest division, BARI
A questionnaire based survey on rat damage in bed planting of wheat was conducted among the wheat growing farmers of Durgapur and Chargat upazila of Rajshahi district. Among the 100 farmers (50 from Durgapur 50 from Chargat), 100% opinioned that the lowest damage was found in bed planting. Lower yield loss (2.89%) was occurred in bed planting than conventional tillage (8.63%). Rat infestation was maximum in booting stage (91%) than ripening stage (79%). Around 95.45% farmers used poison bait and 49.65% used traps for controlling rat. Most of the farmers (71.91%) used planter for making beds and 28.09% farmers used spade. The highest yield (4.60 t/ha), gross return (101200 Tk/ha) and net return (70518 Tk/ha) was obtained from bed planting of wheat crop.
Survey, rat damage, bed planting , wheat, Rajshahi
Pest Management
i) To know the damage severity of rat damage in bed planting of wheat field in Rajshahi region
In consideration of the above-mentioned objectives of the study, two upazila of Rajshahi district were purposively selected for the study. These were; i) Durgapur and ii) Chargat. This study was based on field survey where primary data were collected from the farm owners. An interview schedule was prepared by the expected data. At first a draft questionnaire schedule was prepared in accordance with the objectives of the study. Then the schedule was pre-tested to verify the relevance of the questions. After pre-testing and necessary adjustment, a final survey schedule was developed. A reasonable size of sample to achieve the objectives of the study was considered. Considering these aspects, 100 sample farms (50 for Durgapur and 50 for Chargat) were selected for the study. A purposive sampling technique was followed in this study. The data were collected using the interview schedule (questionnaire) and analyzed to fulfill the objectives of the study. The collection of data covered a period of one year from July 2012 to May 2013. After data collection, the collected data were summarized, tabulated and analyzed according to the objectives of the study. A tabular method of analysis was followed in analyzing the collected information.
VPD annual research report, BARI
Twenty thousands
Among the interviewed farmers, 51.05% operated medium farms ranging from 1.01 to 3.0 ha in size. 29.02% operated small farms (0.21 to 1.0 ha) and 19.93% farmers operated marginal farms (0.02 to 0.20 ha). Among the selected farmers, 55.06% experienced in wheat cultivation for more than10 years, while 36.02% for more than 5 years but less than 10 years and only 8.39% cultivated this crop more than 1 year but less than 5 years. Modern cultivation techniques of wheat training was received by 86.81% respondents rest only 13.19% respondents were not able to get such opportunity. Wheat Research center (WRC) was the highest (88.5%) training provider and Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) provided about 48% training next to WRC. Other organizations provided only 11.5% trainingAlmost 100% respondents considered that rat was a serious pest of both locations and 100% farmers opinioned that bed planting wheat reduced rodent infestation (Table 3). Percentage of damage caused by rats was higher in conventional tillage system. In conventional tillage system yield loss was around 8.63% but in bed planting yield loss was only 2.89% Wheat crops were infested by rats in different stages. The 91% infestation was highest in booting 79% infestation was in ripening stage and it was 24.5% in tillering stage respectively which are presented in table 5. Farmers used different methods such as capturing by hand, trapping and poison baiting for controlling rat. Maximum farmers used poison baiting (95.45%) and trapping (49.65%) for controlling
Report/Proceedings