Recycling and reuse of kitchen waste for sustainable agriculture and as renewable energy in north-eastern Bangladesh

Unbalanced use of inorganic nutrients is the main cause for stagnation or declining crop productivity; this also causes health hazards in different forms. Usually huge quantities of vegetables, fishes, meats, and bones remain unutilized or thrown away as wastes in daily household affairs. However, kitchen wastes can also be used in productive manners. The ways and means of this endeavor has been addressed in this communication. The kitchen-waste based organic fertilizer has been developed by digging pits and placing the wastes on a layer of soil, topped by a layer of plant growth-promoting microbes. Almost 25% of compost was harvested by this manner in small scale in Sylhet division (North-Eastern Bangladesh) under the auspicious of livelihood enhancement program. The main objectives were achieved by converting waste into resource, finding an alternative nutrient source for agricultural production, improving soil health and converting recycle elements to natural resources. Also, organic agriculture induced significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. At present, we are planning to produce consumable energy from kitchen wastes. Preliminary studies inspire optimism about their commercial usage, entrepreneurship for youths and improvement of environment. Finally, it is assuming that there are huge scope of application of kitchen wastes under the integrated solid waste management (ISWM) programs with its 4 R’s principle i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery of the waste with collection from both rural and urban areas for effective use for soil fertility and power energy development as a potential renewable energy source

Vermi-compost to improve tomato production in Bangladesh

Our objective was to test the effectiveness of vermin compost as a substitute for inorganic fertilisers for sustainable, large-scale tomato production. The Green Revolution in Bangladesh promoted the indiscriminate use of factory fertilisers and pesticides to obtain better crop yields. Owing to poor soil management, the organic matter (OM) content is decreasing in some situations. The use of organic fertilisers along with effective soil management can restore soil OM and sustain soil health.Vermi-compost (VC) - mainly the excreta of earthworms - is rich in humus and nutrients. It also contains a lot of microorganisms beneficial to plant growth. As a soil amendment, VC may provide a tool for soil OM management

Agrochemical-free, direct-sowing culture of a paddy with non-woven fabric mulch - Timing of puddling and leveling and basal fertilizer application

In direct-sowing rice culture using cloth mulch, puddling and leveling (P & L) is usually done 2 days before the mulching (sowing). However, the mulching is very difficult, due to the muddy condition of the soil. Comparative studies were made to observe the effects of the timing of P & L, that is, P & L 10 days before mulching (P10) vs. P & L 2 days before the mulching (P2), on the operator's physical stress, the rice growth, and grain yield. Basal fertilizer was applied 2 days before the mulching in the P2 treatment (P2-B2), and topdressing was applied at 29 days before heading in all treatments. For the P10 treatment, timing of the basal fertilization was set at 14 (P10-B14) or 3 (P10-B3) days before the mulching. Results revealed that the timing of basal fertilization had no significant effect on the growth and grain yield between P10-B14 and P10-B3 treatments. The operator's physical stress was very low due to higher soil hardness in the P10-B14 treatment ; however the grain yield was 12% lower than that of the P2-B2 treatment due to lower percentage of ripened grain. Because of the lower inorganic nitrogen of the soil, the growth of leaf area was suppressed and dry matter production was lower in the P10-B14 treatment, which resulted in lower percentage of ripened grain. To increase the grain yield of the P10-B14 treatment, future research is needed to consider the application amount and timing of topdressing, and also to reduce the gap between P & L time and mulching

A-CAP: Anticipation Captioning with Commonsense Knowledge

Humans possess the capacity to reason about the future based on a sparse collection of visual cues acquired over time. In order to emulate this ability, we introduce a novel task called Anticipation Captioning, which generates a caption for an unseen oracle image using a sparsely temporally-ordered set of images. To tackle this new task, we propose a model called A-CAP, which incorporates commonsense knowledge into a pre-trained vision-language model, allowing it to anticipate the caption. Through both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on a customized visual storytelling dataset, A-CAP outperforms other image captioning methods and establishes a strong baseline for anticipation captioning. We also address the challenges inherent in this task.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 202

ADOPTION OF ORGANIC RICE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH

Bangladesh now needs to thank its soil health, environment and human health for the country being almost self-sufficient in rice production. The present study has been undertaken to gain knowledge of the level of awareness by farmers and consumers regarding the status of organic rice, and knowledge of demand and marketing opportunities and limitations for organic rice in the country. The present study has highlighted the overall organic rice situation in Bangladesh, which is not yet well documented. The results also demonstrate that farmers and consumers are aware of the hazards of chemical compounds but have little knowledge about organic rice. The present study may open a new window for organic rice research and marketing (both local and export) for all stakeholders (including planners) and could succeed in the adoption of organic rice in Bangladesh

Effect of Integrated Rice-Duck Farming on Rice Yield, Farm Productivity, and Rice-Provisioning Ability of Farmers

The feasibility of the rice-duck system of rice production, practiced in some East Asian countries, is studied in Bangladesh as a sub-project of the Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA). The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) implements the sub-project in collaboration with two NGOs, FIVDB and BDS, in the northeastern (greater Sylhet) and southern (Barisal) regions of the country. Each demonstration trial, conducted in the field of the farmers, is treated as a replication. In these trials, the rice-duck system is compared with the methods of growing rice solely, as traditionally practiced by the farmers in Bangladesh. Evaluation of the activities carried out under the PETRRA sub-project shows that the rice-duck system is not only feasible, but also economically rewarding for the farmers. The yield of rice is, on average, 20% higher in the rice-duck system than the traditional rice system (sole rice), thereby ensuring about 50% higher net return and rice-provisioning ability. The ducks in the rice-duck fields control weeds and insects very effectively; as a consequence, labor and pesticide costs for controlling weeds and insects are minimized and the soil health is improved. The ducks provide another source of added income for the farmers. In view of the favorable results obtained in the study, it might be suggested that the rice-duck system be spread throughout the country as an income-generating activity for the resource-poor farmers

An Investigation of the Energy Use of Wheat and Rice Cultivation in Iran

The energy use of wheat and rice cultivation was investigated during 1978 in Iran. The number of investigated farms of the former was 27plots in six provinces and that of latter was 7plots in two provinces. The input-energy of wheat cultivation and grain yield ranged from 0.5 to 1.1x10⁶kcal/ha and from 0.5 to 4.2 ton/ha，respectively. The grain yields of wheat could be shown to have a parallel relation to the logarithm of the input-energy. High-yielding farms of 2 ton/ha in both methods of traditional agriculture，dryfarming and qunart-irrigation，had six as the maximum value in the energy ratio (ER: output-energy as grain yield/input-energy of cultivation). However，pumpirrigation with chemical fertilizer，harvesting high yields from 2 to 4.2 ton/ha，showed low ratios from 1 to 2.5 in the ER. In the case of rice，yields were 0.4-2.25 ton/ha of unhulled rice and the ER ranged from 1 to 6 over the 7plots. The ER of the Ahvaz area，as a low-yielding area with extensive agriculture，varied widely from 1 to 6. On the other hand，that of the Esfahan area，as a high-yielding area with relatively intensive agriculture，was around 2.4

The Influence of Temperature to Rutin Concentration of Buckwheat Grains in Humid Tropic

Rutin concentration is influenced strongly by temperature

The use of desalinated-dried jellyfish and rice bran for controlling weeds and rice yield

To achieve higher rice production, rice-growing countries have used great amounts of synthetic chemical compounds (chemical fertilizers and pesticides) that can have adverse effects on the environment and humans. Organic products and organic farming technologies are friendlier to the environment and more conducive to sustainable agriculture but require different inputs, knowledge and skills. Weed control is one of the major challenges in organic rice cultivation. The present study proposes and tests the use of desalinated-dried jellyfish chips in the development of sustainable rice production. Vast amounts of jellyfishes have been found in the Sea of Japan (Nomura's jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai Kishinouye) and Japan inland sea areas (Water jelly, Aurelia aurita (Linne)), and jellyfish populationc can have a negative impact on the fishery industry. In this context, the use of jellyfish in organic agriculture has attracted attention. The present study found that the application of desalinated-dried jellyfish (small pieces of jellyfish which are desalinated and dried) mixed in soil before transplanting can effectively control weeds in rice fields and has a nutrient effect because of the high nitrogen content (12-13%). Desalinated-dried jellyfish has potential as an agricultural material that replaces herbicides and chemical fertilizers. It also contributes to environment-friendly rice production. It was found that both desalinated-dried jellyfish and rice bran effectively controlled rice weeds when mixed in the soil before the transplanting.The grain yields of desalinated-dried jellyfish treatments were consistently higher than the corresponding rice bran treatments. The rice yield from the desalinated-dried jellyfish treatments were comparable to the chemical fertilizer treatment.