Hybrid Rice: Economic Assessment of a Promising Technology for Sustainable Food Grain Production in Bangladesh

Hybrid rice, one of the viable and proven technologies has been considered as a new frontier to increase rice production for meeting growing demand for staple food in Bangladesh. Using farm survey data this paper examines comparative profitability of hybrid and inbred rice cultivation and estimates a Stochastic Frontier Function to determine the effect of key variables on farm efficiency. Results show that hybrid rice gives substantially higher yield as well as net return compared to inbred rice which leads to increase and sustainable growth of food grain production. Analysis of Stochastic Frontier model shows hybrid rice farms are technically more efficient than inbred.Hybrid Rice, Technology, Economics, Food Self-sufficiency, Crop Production/Industries, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Photocatalytic decolorization of methyl orange dye using SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposite particles synthesised by Ultrasonic Assisted Co-Precipitation Method

The ultrasonic-aided co-precipitation method was used to create SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposite particles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and UV-vis spectroscopy were used to characterize the nanocomposite particles. XRD patterns revealed the crystalline structure of particles and the average particle size determined by Debye Scherrer’s equation was found to be 11.355, 4.9577, and 4.333 nm for TiO2 nanoparticles, SnO2 nanoparticles, and SnO2-TiO2 nanocomposites, respectively. The Ti, Sn, and O species were confirmed to exist by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The UV absorption peaks at 288, 305, and 350 nm were attributed to SnO2, TiO2-SnO2, and TiO2 respectively. The photocatalytic aspect was investigated in a model organic contaminant (methyl orange). Data obtained by the above-mentioned characterization methods confirmed the superior photocatalytic activity of SnO2-TiO2 nanostructure than SnO2 or TiO2 alone

Sonochemical Synthesis, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Performance Evaluation of Au/ZnO Nanocomposite for Methyl Orange Degradation

This study examines the impact of gold (Au) incorporation on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. Both pure ZnO and Au/ZnO nanocomposite have been synthesized using a unique and environmentally friendly sonochemical approach. The as-synthesized Au/ZnO nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopic techniques. Under UV-visible irradiation, the photocatalytic effectiveness of ZnO nanoparticles and Au/ZnO nanocomposites for the degradation of dye was examined. The results demonstrated that the nanocomposite has greater photocatalytic activity than ZnO nanoparticles. This is due to the effective electron transfer from ZnO to Au prolonging the lifetime of photogenerated holes, which play the most important role in the dye degradation process.&nbsp

Accumulation, tissue distribution, health hazard of microplastics in a commercially important cat fish, Silonia silondia from a tropical large-scale estuary

The current knowledge regarding the presence of microplastics (MPs) in the digestive tracts of fish, particularly the non-edible parts, provides limited assistance in assessing the risk to human health and establishing guideline values for policy-making purposes. Therefore, we conducted the first investigation into MPs within the commercially significant catfish species S. silondia, form a major tropical estuary assessing their accumulation, characteristics, and associated risks in various tissues, particularly the consumable muscle. A sum of 132 MPs were identified, and the mean abundance of MPs were 7.40 ± 4.12 item/DT, 3.20 ± 1.69 item/gill and 2.60 ± 1.65 item/muscle found in digestive tract (DT), gill and muscle of the fish, respectively. The strong relationships of MPs among three different tissues (y = 0.6069x - 22.69, R2 = 0.7589) indicated the pathways and how MPs were influenced by the physiology of organisms. The prevalence of MPs in fish muscle demonstrated their trophic transmission to humans. Moreover, fishes with higher weight had higher MPs in their gill, and DT. The dominant type, color and size of MPs were fibrous (89.67%), violet (41%) and < 0.5 mm sized (94%), respectively. The high percentage of fibers suggests that they might have come from ropes, fishing nets or sewage. FTIR chemical composition analyses of microplastics (MPs) identified three primary polymer types: PET (44.5%), PE (33.3%), and PP (22.2%) in fish. These polymers are commonly associated with packaging materials, household wastes and plastic pipes. Contamination level assessment by CF (CF = 2.76) and PLI (PLI > 1) indicated moderately to highly contaminated fish with MPs ingestion. While the complete understanding of the direct negative effects of microplastics (MPs) on human health remains elusive, their presence in estuarine fish raises concerns for both human and ecosystem health. The findings will be useful for assessing the hazards to human health from exposure to MPs and for creating effective risk management plans to reduce those risks

Double Transplanting: Economic Assessment of an Indigenous Technology for Submergence Avoidance in the Flood-Prone Rice Environment in Bangladesh

In the northern part of Bangladesh a large proportion of land is medium and low-lying which are subjected to the risk of flooding from heavy rains during the month of August and September. Consecutive days of heavy rains after the crop establishment causes flash floods leading to death of seedlings and additional costs for re-transplanting. In response to this environmental problem, farmers practice a system of double transplanting of rice, locally known as Bolon to avoid crop failure from submergence. One-month old seedlings are transferred to another field with dense transplanting, and then re-transplanted to the main after the risk of flash flood is over. Scientists argue that the system would have lower yield and higher costs, thereby lower profits compared to single transplanting, but farmers disagree. The purpose of this study was to assess economic performance of the Bolon system compared to the normal transplanting. Primary data were generated from 200 farmers drawn randomly from five sites to test the hypothesis that Bolon is less profitable and technically less efficient method of crop establishment compared to single transplanting. A stochastic frontier production function model was used to measure the difference in technical efficiency of the two systems. Results show although rice cultivation through Bolon involved higher cost particularly for double land preparation and transplanting of seedlings, but rice yield as well as net return was higher compared to single transplanting. The estimate of tech nical efficiency shows the farmers practicing the Bolon system are more efficient

Hybrid Rice: Economic Assessment of a Promising Technology for Sustainable Food Grain Production in Bangladesh

Hybrid rice, one of the viable and proven technologies has been considered as a new frontier to increase rice production for meeting growing demand for staple food in Bangladesh. Using farm survey data this paper examines comparative profitability of hybrid and inbred rice cultivation and estimates a Stochastic Frontier Function to determine the effect of key variables on farm efficiency. Results show that hybrid rice gives substantially higher yield as well as net return compared to inbred rice which leads to increase and sustainable growth of food grain production. Analysis of Stochastic Frontier model shows hybrid rice farms are technically more efficient than inbred

Measuring Environmental Performance of Irrigated Cotton Enterprises

Irrigation enterprises can be evaluated from a perspective of technical and environmental efficiency. This study determines the technical and environmental efficiency in irrigated cotton enterprises. This is achieved by investigating efficiency at cotton enterprise in the case study area of the Mooki Catchment, located in northern New South Wales. Deep drainage loss which contributes to salinity is considered as an environmental detrimental output. Using four different specifications of Data Envelopment Analysis relative efficiency rankings are determined for each agricultural area in the catchment. This result is then compared to biophysical characteristics from previous studies to help identify the particular features of an area which may influence outcomes that are both environmentally sound and economically efficient. With the identification of the most and least efficient cotton irrigating areas in the region, policymakers can construct a relative ranking system to best determine policy directions in order to achieve economic and environmental objectives

Table_1_Accumulation, tissue distribution, health hazard of microplastics in a commercially important cat fish, Silonia silondia from a tropical large-scale estuary.DOCX

The current knowledge regarding the presence of microplastics (MPs) in the digestive tracts of fish, particularly the non-edible parts, provides limited assistance in assessing the risk to human health and establishing guideline values for policy-making purposes. Therefore, we conducted the first investigation into MPs within the commercially significant catfish species S. silondia, form a major tropical estuary assessing their accumulation, characteristics, and associated risks in various tissues, particularly the consumable muscle. A sum of 132 MPs were identified, and the mean abundance of MPs were 7.40 ± 4.12 item/DT, 3.20 ± 1.69 item/gill and 2.60 ± 1.65 item/muscle found in digestive tract (DT), gill and muscle of the fish, respectively. The strong relationships of MPs among three different tissues (y = 0.6069x - 22.69, R2 = 0.7589) indicated the pathways and how MPs were influenced by the physiology of organisms. The prevalence of MPs in fish muscle demonstrated their trophic transmission to humans. Moreover, fishes with higher weight had higher MPs in their gill, and DT. The dominant type, color and size of MPs were fibrous (89.67%), violet (41%) and  1) indicated moderately to highly contaminated fish with MPs ingestion. While the complete understanding of the direct negative effects of microplastics (MPs) on human health remains elusive, their presence in estuarine fish raises concerns for both human and ecosystem health. The findings will be useful for assessing the hazards to human health from exposure to MPs and for creating effective risk management plans to reduce those risks.</p