Urea Super Granule (USG) as Key Conductor in Agricultural Productivity Development in Bangladesh

The deep placement of large urea granules (known as Guti urea in Bangladesh) into puddle enhances the soil's nitrogen absorption capacity. It helps nitrogen to stay close to the roots of paddy plants, preventing urea from being washed away by rains or floods. Urea Super Granule (USG) technology is cost effective and environment friendly. Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) with technical assistance from the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) has been implementing the Guti Urea Technology Extension Project in the country since November 2007. Study says, cultivated lands using Guti urea get three times better result than the lands cultivated by urea sprayed by hand in the traditional method and earn good amount of profit and normal fertility of the land may shrink faster with the use of Guti urea instead of using organic compost fertilizer. This technology is not new in Bangladesh now but due to some gaps i.e., lack of proper marketing and demonstration, subsidy in fertilizer (especially to promote USG), less availability of user friendly Urea Deep Placement (UDP) applicator and communication gap between farmers and officials became some major constraints. In this study, author tried to focus on total scenario of Bangladesh agriculture highlighting UDP technology as productive agricultural input. Comparing with field survey data and it has been found that the technology not yet been popular to the farmers due to some technical problems like high labor cost, time consuming and difficult application process. To solve these problems it is suggested that, necessity of active marketing to spread the technology to the farmers is very important, also create more demonstration project, available supply of USG, active co-operation from fertilizer dealers can be a major support to achieve this technology as successful. Keywords: Bangladesh, USG, FDP, UDP, Agricultural Policy, Agricultur

Climate Change Impact and Agriculture of Bangladesh

Over the last period of years, it has been observed that climate change has become a major issue affecting the agriculture sector. Impacts of climate change in agriculture are global concern but for Bangladesh where lives and livelihoods depend on agriculture, it’s becoming a great threat for national food security. Considering crop agriculture as the predominant factor in the national economy, this paper tries to focus on the climate change impact and vulnerability in Bangladeshi Agriculture; it also highlights various strategies that can be taken in response to climate change, ways to adapt to the altered situation and Bangladesh’s saline tolerant, flood tolerant and shorter maturity varieties of rice and other crops. From this study it also found that these strategies will help in short run and to continue this extensive agricultural extension services need to make these varieties available to the farmers. One immediate need is to start multi-disciplinary human capability development planning and implementation for climate and environmental management. Keywords: Bangladesh, Climate Change, Agriculture, Food Security, Vulnerabilit

Business and Social Profiling of Immigrant-Owned Small Medium Enterprises: The Case of Somalian Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Thembisile Hani Municipality of South Africa

This study examines Somalia’s immigrant entrepreneurs in South Africa so as to identify patterns of ethnic entrepreneurship and socio-economic challenges faced by ethnic entrepreneurs. The research aims to enhance understanding of the characteristics and business profiles of Somalia immigrant entrepreneurs in Thembisile Hani Municipality, Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. It also seeks to make recommendations to government and private sector agencies for policy formulation that supports and encourages these Somalian immigrant entrepreneurs. A survey administered to 43 Somalia’s immigrant entrepreneurs recorded a wide range of data from which frequency distributions, cross-tabulations and Chi-square tests were processed. This was to reveal strong associations between business and social profiling. Findings reveal that the Somalian immigrant entrepreneurs, rather than turning to the private sector financial sector for capital often set up enterprises with their own capital. Findings also reveal that the fraction of the educated and the not educated is comparatively the same. They also further specify that South Africa is not the terminal migration destination of choice for these Somalia immigrant entrepreneurs. Market-share of work permits is proportionately larger than their residence permit share, this differs from other ethnic groups by substantial preference for enterprise operation, and they are very much bound to ethnic enclaves. This frame of research offers a unique contribution to an area which has been until now largely ignored. Keywords: Somalian immigrant entrepreneurs, self-employment, chain migration, ethnic entrepreneurship, economic integratio

Customer’s Perception towards Buying Eco-Friendly Diversified Jute Products: An Empirical Investigation in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

The aim of study is to explore the perceptions of customers in purchasing decision of eco-friendly Jute diversified products. This study was followed by sequential mixed methods; quantitative (positivistic) and qualitative methods to explore factors of buying decisions for eco-jute products. A convenience sampling technique was followed. A total of 200 respondents were surveyed at Dhaka city. Ten in-depth interviews also were conducted to find out more details information about participants perception and behaviors. Eco-friendly jute diversified products are shopping bags, laundry bags, shoulder bag, purses, school bags, floor mats, seminar bags and decorative items etc. This industry will have its demand in spite of substitutes artificial fiber based products such as plastic or polythine. This study will help entrepreneurs to design marketing strategies for sustaining in the competitive business world. Green marketing should be practiced for jute diversified products due to its eco-friendliness. The finding of this study is: customers have positive attitudes to jute diversified products but necessary initiatives should be taken to make customer’s satisfaction. Hence, the understanding consumers buying factors or consumer behavior are very significant to entrepreneurs for successful green marketing. For sustainable jute diversified industry, green marketing, more research, and branding are required. Keywords: Consumer behavior, Diversified Jute products, Environment, Eco-friendly products, Green Marketing

Passive Localization of 3D Near-Field Cyclostationary Sources Using Parallel Factor Analysis

By exploiting favorable characteristics of a uniform cross-array, a passive localization algorithm of narrowband cyclostationary sources in the spherical coordinates (azimuth, elevation, and range) is proposed. Firstly, we construct a parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis model by computing the third-order cyclic moment matrices of the properly chosen sensor outputs. Then, we analyze the uniqueness of the constructed model and obtain three-dimensional (3D) near-field parameters via trilinear alternating least squares regression (TALS). The investigated algorithm is well suitable for the localization of the near-field cyclostationary sources. In addition, it avoids the multidimensional search and pairing parameters. Results of computer simulations are carried out to confirm the satisfactory performance of the proposed method

Fabrication mechanism of friction-induced selective etching on Si(100) surface

As a maskless nanofabrication technique, friction-induced selective etching can easily produce nanopatterns on a Si(100) surface. Experimental results indicated that the height of the nanopatterns increased with the KOH etching time, while their width increased with the scratching load. It has also found that a contact pressure of 6.3 GPa is enough to fabricate a mask layer on the Si(100) surface. To understand the mechanism involved, the cross-sectional microstructure of a scratched area was examined, and the mask ability of the tip-disturbed silicon layer was studied. Transmission electron microscope observation and scanning Auger nanoprobe analysis suggested that the scratched area was covered by a thin superficial oxidation layer followed by a thick distorted (amorphous and deformed) layer in the subsurface. After the surface oxidation layer was removed by HF etching, the residual amorphous and deformed silicon layer on the scratched area can still serve as an etching mask in KOH solution. The results may help to develop a low-destructive, low-cost, and flexible nanofabrication technique suitable for machining of micro-mold and prototype fabrication in micro-systems