An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from November 2010 to May 2011 to study the effect of variety and rate of nitrogen on the performance of Boro rice. The experiment comprised three varieties viz., BRRI dhan28 (V1), BRRI dhan29 (V2) and BRRI dhan45 (V3); and five rates of nitrogen viz., control (N0), 50 kg  (N1), 100 kg (N2), 150 kg  (N3)and 200 kg  (N4) N ha-1. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The growth analysis results indicate that the tallest plant (80.88 cm) and the highest number of total tillers hill-1 (13.80) were observed in BRRI dhan29 at 70 DATs and the highest total dry matter (66.41 g m-2) was observed in BRRI dhan45. The shortest plant (78.15 cm) and the lowest number of tillers hill-1 (12.41) were recorded from BRRI dhan45 and the lowest dry matter (61.24 g) was observed in BRRI dhan29. The tallest plants (84.01 cm), highest number of tillers hill-1 (14.06) and the highest dry matter (69.58 g m-2) were obtained from 200 kg N ha-1. The tallest plants (86.48 cm) and maximum dry matter (72.30 g m-2) were recorded from BRRI dhan28 with 200 kg N ha-1 and BRRI dhan45 with 200 kg N ha-1, respectively. The highest number of tillers hill-1 (15.14) was obtained from BRRI dhan29 with 50 kg N ha-1. The harvest data reveal that variety had significant effect on total tillers hill-1, effective tillers hill-1, non-effective tillers hill-1, panicle length, grain yield, straw yield and harvest index. The highest grain yield (4.84 t ha-1) was recorded from BRRI dhan29. The results of the experiment also indicate that total tillers hill-1, effective tillers hill-1, grains panicle-1, sterile spikelets panicle-1, grain yield, straw yield and harvest index were significantly affected by levels of nitrogen, while plant height, panicle length, 1000-grain weight were not significantly affected by levels of nitrogen. The highest grain yield (5.58 t ha-1) was obtained from 200 kg N ha-1. Interaction effect of variety × 200 kg N ha-1 produced the highest grain yield (5.82 t ha-1). From the results of the study it may be concluded that BRRI dhan29 rice may be cultivated with 200 kg N ha-1 for obtaining higher yield in AEZ 9 of Bangladesh.Progressive Agriculture 26:6-14, 2015

A pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza, cowdung and phosphorus on red amaranth and Indian spinach in the net house of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications and 8 treatment combinations comprised of T 1 : Control, T 2 : Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), T 3 : Cowdung (CD), T 4 : Phosphorus (P), T 5 : AM + CD, T 6 : CD + P, T 7 : AM + P and T 8 : AM + CD + P. Red amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor L.) cv. BARI Lalshak-1 and Indian spinach (Basella alba) cv. BARI Puishak-1 were used as test crops for the experiment. The experimental results showed that there were significant differences in growth and yield characters such as plant height, plant diameter, number of leaves per plant, shoot fresh and dry weights, root fresh and dry weights of red amaranth and Indian spinach due to the application of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), cowdung (CD) and phosphorus (P) independently and combinedly. When arbuscular mycorrhiza, CD and phosphorus were applied combinedly, it exhibited a remarkably higher response in growth and yield of these vegetables.

Most of the vegetable crops retain an association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) which can improve the growth, nutrition, water supply and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses of host plants. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate whether the association of red amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) and Indian spinach (Basella alba) with AMF, increase the shoot mineral nutrient contents and whether supplementation of organic matter and phosphorus enhance AMF association. The experiment was laid out in a factorial design considering three-factor viz. arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), cowdung (CD) and phosphorus (P). There were five replications and total 40 treatment combinations. Results showed that in both vegetable maximum N, P, K, S, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn and protein contents were observed due to the application of AMF and cowdung with phosphorus. The combined application of AMF with cowdung and phosphorus enhanced the association with plants and was more effective than only AMF application to enhance nutrient contents. Also, the uptake of almost all macro-and micronutrients increased due to the application of cowdung and phosphorus with arbuscular mycorrhiza.