Economic contribution of participatory agroforestry program to poverty alleviation: a case from Sal forests, Bangladesh

In the Forest Department of Bangladesh, a Participatory Agroforestry Program (PAP) was initiated at a denuded Sal forests area to protect the forest resources and to alleviate poverty amongst the local poor population. We explored whether the PAP reduced poverty and what factors might be responsible for poverty alleviation. We used three poverty measurement methods: the Head Count Index, the Poverty Gap Index and the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index to determine the extent poverty reduction. We used a linear regression model to determine the possible differences among factors in poverty reduction. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires and face to face interviews within the study area. PAP proved effective at poverty alleviation, considerably improving the local situation. The linear regression model showed that PAP output explained the income differences in poverty reduction. Participants identified bureaucracy and illegal money demands by forest department officials, an uncontrolled market system, and underdeveloped road infrastructure as the main obstacles to reduction of poverty. Overall, PAP is quite successful in alleviating poverty. So this program might be ofinterest at other degraded forest areas as a tool to alleviate poverty.     

Non-escaping frost tolerant QTL linked genetic loci at reproductive stage in six wheat DH populations

Reproductive stage frost poses a major constraint for wheat production in countries such as Australia.However,little progress has been made in identifying key genes to overcome the constraint.In the present study,a severe frost event hit two large-scale field trials consisting of six doubled haploid(DH)wheat populations at reproductive stage(young microspore stage)in Western Australia,leading to the identification of 30 robust frost QTL on 17 chromosomes.The major 18 QTL with the phenotype variation over 9.5%were located on 13 chromosomes including 2 A,2 B,2 D,3 A,4 A,4 B,4 D,5 A,5 D,6 D,7 A,7 B and7 D.Most frost QTL were closely linked to the QTL of anthesis,maturity,Zadok stages as well as linked to anthesis related genes.Out of those,six QTL were repetitively detected on the homologous regions on 2 B,4 B,4 D,5 A,5 D,7 A in more than two populations.Results showed that the frost damage is associated with alleles of Vrn-A1 a,Vrn-D1 a,Rht-B1 b,Rht-D1 b,and the high copy number of Ppd-B1.However,anthesis QTL and anthesis related genes of Vrn-B1 a and Ta FT3-1 B on chromosomes 5 B and 1 B did not lead to frost damage,indicating that these early-flowering phenotype related genes are compatible with frost tolerance and thus can be utilised in breeding.Our results also indicate that wild-type alleles Rht-B1 a and Rht-D1 a can be used when breeding for frost-tolerant varieties without delaying flowering time.     

Rice straw biochar amended soil improves wheat productivity and accumulated phosphorus in grain

Abstract

Biochar is a pyrolyzed biomass produced under limited oxygen or oxygen absent conditions. Few investigations have been conducted to determine the combined effect of biochar with chemical fertilizer on growth, yield and nutrient distribution pattern in root, shoot and grain in wheat as well as changes in soil physiochemical properties. This research was designed to study the combined effect of chemical fertilizer and rice straw-derived biochar on soil physio-chemical properties, growth, yield and nutrient distribution pattern within wheat plant tissue and grain. Results showed that rice straw biochar caused a significant decrease in soil pH and increase in soil organic matter as well as nutrients like total nitrogen (TN), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and boron (B) due to incubation. Result also showed that root biomass and straw did not differ between Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) and ½ BARC?+?rice straw biochar treatment. Similarly, thousand grain weight and grain yield did not differ between the same treatments. The phosphorus concentration in wheat grain was highest in ½ BARC?+?rice straw biochar as compared to other treatments. The use of rice straw biochar in addition to the chemical fertilizers in wheat production systems is an economically feasible and practical nutrient management practice. Our findings urged that reduction of chemical fertilizer application is possible with supplementation of rice straw biochar.     

利用图像和机器学习检测大豆作物幼苗期玉米杂苗

在大豆-玉米轮作生产过程中,玉米杂苗会与大豆苗竞争水和肥料,而且很容易遮住大豆苗,影响害虫（如玉米根虫）的防控,降低大豆品质。因此,在大豆幼苗期及时检测出玉米杂苗并对其进行处理非常重要。传统的人工检测方法主观性强、效率低,传感器和算法的发展为自动检测玉米杂苗提供了更好的解决方案。本研究在温室环境下模仿田间条件,待玉米和大豆发芽后,连续5天用因特尔RealSense D435相机采集彩色图像,并人工裁剪幼苗图像区域,在此基础上对图像进行分割和去噪。在采集图像形状、色彩和纹理特征值后, 对所采集的特征值进行权重分析, 保留前10种重要的特征值导入基于特征的机器学习算法中进行模型训练和预测。预测结果表明,支持向量机模型（SVM）、神经网络（NN）和随机森林（RF）的预测精度分别为85.3%,81.5%和82.6%。将数据集导入GoogLeNet和VGG-16 两种深度学习模型进行训练, 预测精度分别为96.0%和96.2%。VGG-16 模型在区分大豆幼苗和玉米杂苗中有较好的表现,彩色图像和VGG-16 模型组成的系统可以自动检测大豆生长过程中玉米杂苗的情况,为农民提供准确的信息,帮助其进行生产决策和田间管理。     

Polyculture of Thai pangus (Pangasius hypophthalmus,Sauvage 1878) with carps and prawn: a new approach in polyculture technology regarding growth performance and economic return

An experiment was conducted during May to December 2002 to determine growth performance, the highest economic return and suitable species composition in the polyculture of Thai pangus (Pangasius hypophthalmus) with carps (catla, Catla catla and rohu, Labeo rohita) and freshwater giant prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) using low‐cost formulated feed. Three treatments (T₁, T₂ and T₃) were conducted with three replications. The treatment T₁ was designed as a monoculture of pangus with a stocking density of 17 500 individual ha^?1. The other two treatments (T₂ and T₃) were designed as polyculture and stocked with pangus, catla, rohu and prawn with densities of 10 000, 2500, 5000, 3750 ha^?1; and 10 000, 5000, 2500, 3750 ha^?1 in T₂ and T₃ respectively. The net weight gain and production of pangus were significantly different (P>0.05) between monoculture and polyculture but were not different within the two polyculture systems. The production of catla and rohu were significantly different (P>0.05) in both treatments where prawn was not. Though the gross production (8.53 ton ha^?1) was significantly (P>0.05) higher in T₁, the higher gross net profit (Tk 154 201 ha^?1) was in T₂. Thus, the polyculture of pangus is more profitable than its monoculture and the species composition in T₂ is more suitable than other composition.     

Validation of Molecular Markers and Haplotype Diversity at the SalTol Locus on Chromosome 1 of Rice

Rice （Oryza sativa L.） is the most important economic activity on earth as it is second largest single use of the land for food production and also consumed by the half of the world＇s population. Salinity is the one of the most common abiotic problem in rice growing areas of the world. Millions of hectares in the tropics, arid and semi arid region could be potential rice growing areas but either left idle or cropped with very low yielding varieties due to the lack of suitable salt tolerant high yielding modem varieties.     

Hydatid disease in goats in Bangladesh

A total of 12 344 goats of different ages from various localities of Bangladesh were examined for the presence of hydatid disease and 1024 (8.29%) were found to be infected. The incidence of infection by organ was: liver 36.72%, lungs 32.03%, spleen 4.69%, heart 3.13%, kidney 1.56%, omentum 0.78%, and both liver and lungs 21.09%. The severity of infection was: weak (84.56% and 86.55%), medium (13.32% and 11.87%) and heavy (2.12 and 1.58%) in the liver and lungs respectively. Of the 1792 cysts examined, 175 (9.76%) were fertile, 1342 (74.89%) were sterile, 206 (11.50%) were calcified, 47 (2.62%) were supporative and 22 (1.23%) were undeveloped. The incidence of infection by age of host was: 0.63% between 0 and 1 year, 2.48% between 1 and 2 years, 5.53% between 2 and 3 years, 16.80% between 3 and 5 years and 21.64% for 5 years old and above.     

Temperature and metal ions-dependent activity of the family I inorganic pyrophosphatase from the swine roundworm Ascaris suum

Temperature dependence, heat stability and metal ions-dependent activity were examined on the Family I inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) recently identified from Ascaris suum. Recombinant A. suum PPase (rAsPPase) showed an optimal activity at 55 degrees C. The rAsPPase was heat stable at 40 degrees C in the absence of added Mg(2+) and at 50 degrees C in its presence. The enzyme required divalent metal ions for its activity. The preferences for the metal ions (5 mM concentration) were in the order: Mg(2+)> Co(2+)> Cu(2+)> Fe(2+)> Zn(2+)> Mn(2+). On the contrary, enzyme activity was inhibited by Ca(2+). These findings suggest that catalytic features of AsPPase are consistent with the Family I PPases reported from a wide range of organisms.