Sujan Mahmud
Agronomy Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institution, Joydebpur, Gazipur
Md. Rashidul Alam
Regional Agricultural Research Station, Hathazari, Chittagong
Mohammed Amin
Regional Agricultural Research Station, Hathazari, Chittagong
Md. Mahmudul Hassan
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE)
Jhum, Rice equivalent yield, Rate of return, Rice, Chilli, Marfa
Bandarban district
Farming System
The experiment was conducted during March to September 2017 at Rameri Para, Bandarban district located in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh. Under the activities of the Commission Research Project (Component–III) a jhum hill was selected sited in between 21°55´N and 22°22´N latitude and 92°08´E and 92°20´E longitude. The experiment consists of two treatments viz. improved practices of jhum cultivation and traditional practices of jhum cultivation. The experiment was randomized complete block design (RCBD) with ten replications. The distance between block to block and plot to plot was 2.0 m each. Unit plot size was (5.0 × 4.0) m2. Site selection and land preparation were done during the month of February. Soil fertility, hill slope, accessibility and distance from village were the main considerations for site selection. At first, the standing vegetation was slashed and allowed to dry. The dried vegetation was burnt in the month of March, 2017. Rice (local; Cockrow), Cotton (CDB-13), Maize (BARI Hybrid maize-9) and Sesame (local; Sada Ghoissha) were selected for improved practice. Popular local varieties i.e. local jhum rice, local hill cotton, local maize, sesame (ghoissha) were selected for local practice. Chilli and marfa (local varieties) were also sown as local practice of traditional jhum cultivation. The seeds were sown just after the first shower occurred on 15th May, 2017. A narrow hole, about three inches deep was dug with the blunt square end of a tagol (specialized knife), a handful of mixed seeds were placed in the hole. Rice was the higher portion of seed sown by the process. Hill to hill distance for improved practice was 20 cm and for local practice it was 10 cm. N, P and K fertilizers were applied in the improved jhum @ 30, 30 and 20kg/ha (Jayanta et al., 2015) respectively, whereas no additional nutrients were applied in local practice. All the fertilizers were applied as basal except N fertilizer. One third of the N fertilizer applied as basal, and rest of the N fertilizers were applied by side dressing in the crops hills in early tillering and panicle initiation stage of rice plant. Roundup 5 ml/liter water was applied as pre-planting non-selective herbicide and hand weeding was done before split application of N fertilizers in improved method. For local jhum weeding was done by using tagol and hand pulling. Ripcord 10EC @ 1.0 ml/L water was sprayed to control infestation level of major insect pests of jhum. No pesticides were used for local jhum cultivation. Green maize cobs were harvested in late-July. Ripe rice panicles were harvested in September. Cotton and sesame were harvested in September.
Data Collection Data on Plant height at harvest (cm), number of total tillers hill-1, number of effective tillers hill-1, length of panicles (cm), number of grains panicle-1, number of filled grains panicle-1 and 1000 seed weight (g) were collected from ten randomly selected rice plants of each plot. Recorded data were analyzed statistically by using Software (version R i386 3.4.2). Plot yields of rice grain, maize green cob, seed cotton and sesame seed were collected and converted to yield kg/ha. Total production of the improved system were computed by converting component crop yields (Seed cotton yield, Sesame seed yield, Maize green cob yield) into rice equivalent yield. Similarly total production of the traditional system were computed by converting component crop yields (Seed cotton yield, Sesame seed yield, Maize green cob yield, chilli yield and marfa yield)into rice equivalent yield. Rice equivalent yield was computed by using the following formula : REY= {(Yc/Pr) x Pc} +Yr. Here, REY= Rice Equivalent Yield, Yc =Yield of the component crop, Yr= Yield of Rice, Pc =Price of the component crop, Pr =Price of Rice (Thayamini et al., 2010 and Uddin et al., 2009). Difference of REY of improved practice over local jhum practice was calculated and expressed in (%). Cost of production, gross returns, rate of return of improved and traditional jhum system were calculated. Rate of return over cost was calculated by the formula: Rate of return = Gross Return/ Cost (Esmat et al., 2011).
J Bangladesh Agril Univ 16(2): 193–197, 2018
Journal