A Critical Assessment of Seedling Production Using a Floating Agriculture System in Bangladesh's Southern Submerged Ecosystem

Raziuddin¹, Md Mahmudul Hasan Khan²*, Takia Tanzina Akhter Bhuiyan³, Gazi Nazmul Hasan¹, Md Rashedul Islam⁴, HM Khairul Bashar¹ and Nur Alam Siddiqui⁵

¹OFRD, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh
²Plant Breeding Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh
³Sher-e-bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
⁴Horticulture Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh
⁵SSO, Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition, Bangladesh

*Corresponding Author: Md Mahmudul Hasan Khan, Plant Breeding Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh.

Received: June 18, 2021; Published: June 29, 2021

Abstract

Floating agriculture system has a wide impact on livelihood of submerged ecosystem of southern region of Bangladesh. Research and documentation based on seedlings production based floating agriculture system on its productivity, stability, adaptability, sustainability, and profitability in situ condition is inadequate. Therefore, an approach was made to construct an overview of seedlings production based floating agriculture system based on farmers field condition trial, so that biospheres’ and edaphic ecology would be utilized with indigenous inputs, nature of floating bed would be justified, pesticide use can be rationalised, productivity and marketability would be understood. Therefore, the trial was conducted at waterlogged ecosystem of Bisharkandi union, Banaripara upazilla of Barishal district during Kharif -1 season from late May to October, 2018 to evaluate the performance of four vegetables (bottle gourd, papaya, bombay morich and brinjal) on conventional floating beds at farmers level in three batches i) BARI lau 4 ii) papaya (local) + bombay morich iii) hybrid bottle gourd + brinjal (local) + Bombay morich. The unit floating bed size was 60 m long × 1.2 m wide × 1.2 m height. Papaya (local) provided the maximum number of seedlings (59.29). The maximum number of marketable seedlings was provided by the second batch (3095) and hence the maximum gross return (20920 Tk.). The maximum total dry matter was provided by the third batch seedlings production. Floating bed prepared by indigenously had submergence rate 1.05 cm/day found less stable which frequently needed re-establishment by bed materials. Insects and disease infestation occurred sporadically. Non-judicious pesticides use with higher residual retention by indigenous farmers causing water body contamination in a drastic way. The net return attained from the trial was 26,998 Tk./bed.

Keywords: Seedling’s Production; Floating Agriculture; Submerged Ecosystem

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Citation

Citation: Md Mahmudul Hasan Khan., et al. “A Critical Assessment of Seedling Production Using a Floating Agriculture System in Bangladesh's Southern Submerged Ecosystem". Acta Scientific Agriculture 5.7 (2021): 92-98.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Md Mahmudul Hasan Khan., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.