This article is based on a research undertaken to promote and facilitate linkages between gender, poverty reduction and good governance at the local level. The 569 unions under study were included from Dhaka, Barisal, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions. The research focused on analysis by combining feminist research techniques such as participant field observation, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and case studies of women's life history. The findings showed that most of the women were under the control of their husbands, and they were mere proxies. Women's voices in governance were not so far heard due to their under-representation and non-participation in institutional structures of decision-making. In governance, women still had limited and insufficient access to resources, public debate and political decision-making processes.
Bangladesh is densely populated and agriculture based country. Total rice growing area was 11.38 million ha in Bangladesh which covers 74.85% of the total cultivable area and the total production of rice was 34.71 million metric tonnes (BBS, 2016). Agriculture is the single largest producing sector of economy since it comprises about 14.1% of the country's GDP and employing around 62.1% of the total labor force (BBS, 2017). There are as many as 373 small or large haors in Bangladesh (Master Plan of Haor Area, 2012). There are many haors (basin like structure) where water remains either stagnant or in flash flooding condition during the months of May to October and mainly Boro rice is grown in the Rabi season using irrigation. Geographically, most of the haors are situated in seven districts of the NorthEast Bangladesh. The districts are Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Sylhet, Habiganj, Maulavibazar and B. Baria. The Hakaloki haor, Sumir haor, Dakar haor, Tanguyar haor, Gungiajuri haor, Mukhar haor, Kaowadighir haor etc are the prominent haors in Bangladesh. The total cultivated area in those haor districts is about 1.26 million hectares of which 0.68 million ha (nearly 66%) is under haor. Almost 80% of this area (i.e. 0.68 million ha) is covered by Boro rice, while only about 10% area is covered by T. Aman production (Huda, 2004). Out of these, 95 haors are in Sunamganj district of which about 70% area has now been turned into cultivated land (Master Plan of Haor Area, 2012). Boro-Fallow-Fallow and Fallow-Fallow-T. Aman are the major cropping patterns practiced in the area. So, there is a great possibility of growing modern variety rice as well as other rice and nonrice crops in the haor areas. One of the major reasons for nutrient stress is the use of imbalance fertilizers. Among the improved cultural practices, to insure proper growth, large amount of chemical fertilizers are applied in different crops field (Shakouri et al., 2012). Judicious and proper use of fertilizers can markedly increase the yield and improve the quality of rice (Alam et al., 2009). Farmers' of haor area do not apply balance doses of fertilizers because of higher yield of rice comparison to other areas of Bangladesh. It is most important that the actual fertilizer application should be known to manipulate the adequate fertilizer input supply for higher production and social appreciation to apply balance
The experiment was carried out at Sunamganj district during November 2016 to May 2017 to observed the effect of urea fertilizer on the yield of boro rice varieties in haor areas of Bangladesh. Two factors experiment viz. Varieties BRRI dhan29 and BRRI dhan58; and six urea fertilizer levels including: 340 (F1), 320 (F2), 300 (F3), 280 (F4), 260 (F5), and 165 kg ha-1 (F6) [Farmer’s practice (FP)] were used. In case of F1-F5, the MoP-TSP-CaS04-ZnS04 as 127-112-75-11 kg ha-1 were used while Farmers’ practice (FP) was done with only 82 kg ha-1 TSP. The experiment was laid out in two factors randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three farmers’ replications. Data were collected on growth, yield and yield contributing characters of boro rice. Plant height varied at harvest stage in relation to variety and fertilizer. The tillers production hill-1 varied at harvest in case of variety and urea application. Higher plant height was found in BRRI dhan58 (93.9 cm) in comparison to BRRI dhan29 (90.3 cm). Plant height was also influenced due to urea fertilizers application. The higher tillers hill-1 (15.9), effective tillers hill-1 (12.3) and longer panicle length (21.1 cm) were produced by BRRI dhan58 at harvest compared to BRRI dhan29. The longest panicle (21.4 cm) was produced in the treatment F3 (300 kg urea ha-1). Higher number of sterile spikelets panicle-1 (58.5) and 1000-grain weight (23.2 g) was produced by BRRI dhan58. Higher number of grains panicle-1 (137.5) was produced by BRRI dhan29. The highest grain yield (6.7 t ha-1) and straw yield (7.91 t ha-1) were obtained in the treatment F3 (300 kg urea ha-1). The experimental soil analyses showed that the nutrient contents in post-harvest soils were higher compared to initial soil due to balanced fertilizer application. It is concluded that 300 kg urea ha-1 promoted highest grain yield.
Variation of the soil attributes of a land in an area is dependent on topography, time, climate, parent material, land use land cover, land management, distance and scale. This variation affects the representation of soil of a land in an area. The study aimed to assess the variations in the representation of major soil properties of a unique fallow-acidic-undisturbed-level upland in different spatial resolutions of soil sampling. A fallow and level upland of 1500 m2 as separately gridded with the spacing of 5mx5m, 10mx10m and 15mx15m and geo-referenced surface (0-20 cm) soil samples were collected from the corner of each grid. The collected soil samples were analyzed for texture (Tx), organic carbon (OC), pH, total N (TN), available P (AP), exchangeable K (exch K), available S (AS), available Fe (AFe), available Zn (AZn) and available Mn (AMn) in soil. Statistical and geospatial analyses of the dataset were done with the relevant softwares. For the nutrients TN, AP, AZn and AFe, coefficients of variation (CV) showed a trend of increment across high-medium-low spatial resolutions, and their variability ranked as AZn (mean CV=104.03%, great variation)>AFe (mean CV=41.67%, moderate variation)>AP (mean CV=20.32%, moderate variation)>TN (mean CV=4.92%, low variation) based on average CV of three spatial resolutions of sampling. In case of other soil attributes, no particular trend of increment or decrement was observed across the resolutions and their variability was moderate except for pH which had low variability. Their variability ordered as exch K (mean CV=35.17%)>AS (mean CV=34.98%)>SOC (mean CV=31.71%)>Tx (mean CV=31.17%)>AMn (mean CV=30.10%)>Soil pH (mean CV=6.96%). Rationale correlations were observed between some soil attributes (pH vs AZ, AFe, OC; Tx vs TN, AP; Exch K vs AZn vs AFe; OC vs Exch K, AZn, AFe) with different degrees of associations (r), and increased trend in r value was found across the resolutions of high-medium-low except for pH and Tx. Different spatially gradient structures of the ordinary krigged interpolated maps were observed for different soil properties and for different spatial resolutions. Quantitatively, calculated (from semivariograms) nugget effects of 0-100% indicated that spatial dependency of studied soil properties could be very strong to very weak. The heterogeneity of soil in the upland as revealed by our results would assist scientists or farm managers to use or compare scale-dependent soil data wisely and precisely.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.