Growth and yield of short duration Aman rice (Oryza sativa) cultivars as influenced by age of seedlings

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh during the period from July to December 2019 to study the effect of cultivar and seedling age on the performance of short duration transplant Aman rice. The experiment comprised four Aman rice cultivars, viz., BRRI dhan49, BRRI dhan56, BRRI dhan66 and BRRI dhan71, and four seedling ages viz. 20, 25, 30 and 35-day old seedlings. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results of the study showed that growth, yield and yield contributing characters were significantly influenced by cultivars, seedlings age and their interactions. At growth stage, BRRI dhan49 with 20-day old seedlings produced the tallest plant (57.67 cm and 67.33 cm, respectively), the highest number of total tillers hill-1 (15.00 and 13.67, respectively) and total dry matter (8.03 g m-2 and 11.50 g m-2, respectively) at 30 and 50 DAT. At harvest, the highest number of total and effective tillers hill-1 (12.82 and 12.00), longest panicle (24.50 cm), highest number of grains panicle-1 (128.80), heaviest 1000-grain weight (23.17 g), highest grain yield (5.35 t ha-1) and highest harvest index (51.69 %) were obtained from the cultivar BRRI dhan66. While, thirty-day old seedlings produced the highest number of total and effective tillers hill-1 (13.46 and 12.70), longest panicle (24.67 cm), highest number of grains panicle-1 (136.90), highest grain (5.62 t ha-1) and straw yields (5.81 t ha-1) and harvest index (51.67 %). In case of interactions, BRRI dhan66 with 30-day old seedlings produced the highest number of total and effective tillers hill-1 (14.67 and 13.97), longest panicle (26.00 cm), highest number of grains panicle-1 (146.7), highest grain yield (6.31 t ha-1) and highest harvest index (52.72 %). So, result of the present study reveals that BRRI dhan66 with 30-days old seedlings was found to be the best for obtaining maximum grain yield

BaDLAD: A Large Multi-Domain Bengali Document Layout Analysis Dataset

While strides have been made in deep learning based Bengali Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in the past decade, the absence of large Document Layout Analysis (DLA) datasets has hindered the application of OCR in document transcription, e.g., transcribing historical documents and newspapers. Moreover, rule-based DLA systems that are currently being employed in practice are not robust to domain variations and out-of-distribution layouts. To this end, we present the first multidomain large Bengali Document Layout Analysis Dataset: BaDLAD. This dataset contains 33,695 human annotated document samples from six domains - i) books and magazines, ii) public domain govt. documents, iii) liberation war documents, iv) newspapers, v) historical newspapers, and vi) property deeds, with 710K polygon annotations for four unit types: text-box, paragraph, image, and table. Through preliminary experiments benchmarking the performance of existing state-of-the-art deep learning architectures for English DLA, we demonstrate the efficacy of our dataset in training deep learning based Bengali document digitization models

Agronomic approaches to biofortify iron in tomato

The study was conducted to biofortify Fe in tomato fruit. Seven tomato varieties were tested in this study to screen out the potential variety for biofortification. Based on Fe concentrations of tomato fruit, BARI Tomato-14 was selected as test crop. Six different methods for Fe application viz. 100% as seedling priming, 50% in soil + 50% as foliar spray at seedling stage, 50% as seedling priming + 50% as foliar spray, 100% as foliar spray at seedling stage, 100% as foliar spray at flowering stage and 100% as foliar spray at fruiting stage @ 4 kg Fe ha-1. Iron was applied for 3 times at 7 day interval at all growth stages. Experiments were laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 3 replications. Different application methods of Fe significantly influenced the growth, yield contributing characteristics, yield, biochemical constituents, nutrient concentrations and their uptake by BARI Tomato-14. The highest values of most of the studied parameters including Fe content and uptake were recorded from the application of 50% Fe as seedling priming + 50% Fe as foliar spray. Significant and positive correlations among the growth and yield contributing parameters due to the application of Fe were observed. Interestingly the highest vitamin-C, protein, lycopene, N, K and Ca contents and uptake were observed in 50% as seedling priming + 50% as foliar spray of Fe @ 4 kg ha-1. Except few most of the studied nutrients were negatively correlated with Fe. Iron was biofortified by 66.28 µg g-1 in BARI Tomato-14. Results suggest that application of 2 kg Fe ha-1 as seedling priming + 2 kg Fe ha-1 as foliar spray at seedling stage for 3 times at 7 days interval along with the recommended doses of NPK fertilizers in soil can be practiced for Fe biofortification in tomato. [J Bangladesh Agril Univ 2022; 20(4.000): 362-372

Agronomic biofortification of zinc in tomato

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a major public health issue worldwide. The biofortification of Zn in popular vegetables could be a promising way to address this burning issue. To enrich tomatoes with bioavailable Zinc through agronomic biofortification. Seven tomato varieties were examined to identify the best one for Zn biofortification based on fruit Zn concentrations. Then six levels of Zn viz., 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 kg ha−1 were applied to screen out the best Zn dose for maximum biofortification. Finally, the identified Zn dose was applied using six strategies viz., 100% seedling priming, 50% soil + 50% foliar spray at seedling stage, 50% seedling priming + 50% foliar spray, 100% foliar spray at seedling stage, 100% foliar spray at flowering stage and 100% foliar spray at the fruiting stage to recognize the best application strategy. These three experiments were executed following a completely randomized design with three replications. In screening, BARI Tomato-14 showed the lowest Zn concentration compared to all other varieties. The application of 5 kg Zn ha−1 showed the highest Zn concentration in tomato with better yield and quality. Finally, 5 kg Zn ha−1 as 50% soil application + 50% foliar spray showed the maximum biofortification of Zn in BARI Tomato-14 with the highest growth, yield and quality. Therefore, application of 5 kg Zn ha−1 as 50% soil and 50% foliar spray on BARI tomato-14 could be a potential option to mitigate Zn deficiency.</p

Comparative analysis of nutrient composition and antioxidant activity in three dragon fruit cultivars

Dragon fruit has significant economic value in many countries due to has excellent nutritional content, health advantages, and adaptability to different climates, making it an important crop in the global fruit industry. This study aimed to gather comprehensive nutritional data on three dragon fruit cultivars by analysing the levels of micronutrients, fibre, carbohydrates, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals in their pulps. Uniform dragon fruit samples underwent thorough analysis for proximate composition, mineral content, pigments, antioxidants, and vitamin C, with statistical methods used to assess significant differences among the parameters studied. The proximate composition analysis revealed significant differences among the three dragon fruit cultivars. Among the proximate components, protein (0.40 ± 0.02 g/100 g), moisture (91.33 ± 0.88%), crude fibre (0.32 ± 0.07 g/100 g), and ash (1.27 ± 0.09 g/100 g) were more abundant in Hylocereus costaricensis than in Hylocereus undatus and Hylocereus megalanthus. On the other hand, Hylocereus undatus had higher carbohydrate (17.02 ± 0.63 g/100 g) and energy (69.74 ± 2.44 kcal/100 g) contents. K (7.23 ± 0.35 mg/100 g), Ca (1.61 ± 0.13 mg/100 g), Fe (1.84 ± 0.05 mg/100 g), and Zn (0.37 ± 0.034 mg/100 g) are highly abundant in H. costaricensis. Additionally, Hylocereus costaricensis had the highest anthocyanin content (120.15 ± 3.29 mg/g FW) and total carotenoid content (72.51 ± 1.62 mg/g FW), along with the highest vitamin C content (8.92 ± 0.13 mg/g FW) and total soluble phenolic content (572.48 ± 20.77 mg/100 g). Its remarkable antioxidant activity was further highlighted by the lowest SC50 value (13.50 ± 0.4 mg/mL) for its DPPH radical scavenging capacity. The total soluble sugar content was highest in Hylocereus megalanthus (8.72 ± 0.30 g/100 g FW). Hierarchical clustering analysis revealed distinct trait and genotype associations; among the studied cultivars, Hylocereus costaricensis demonstrated superior performance across multiple traits. Correlation analysis indicated significant positive correlations among several traits, while principal component analysis highlighted the contribution of each trait to overall variance, with PC1 explaining 73.95% of the total variance. This study highlights the nutritional variations among dragon fruit cultivars, with Hylocereus costaricensis showing superior performance, guiding dietary planning and functional food development