PERFORMANCE OF WINTER VEGETABLES CULTIVATION IN MANGO FRUIT TREE BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the farmers’ fields of Naovangar char, Bolaier char and Laxmir char under Jamalpur and Sherpur region, Bangladesh. This experiment was also conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Jamalpur, Bangladesh during the winter season of 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.The objectives were to evaluate the performance of radish, sweet gourd and mustard leaf cultivation under mango fruit tree based agroforestry system, to increase the production of vegetables by using the fallow land under mango garden and to increase income of the farmers in char areas of Jamalpur and Sherpur. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with 3 replications. Three years experimental results revealed that, at Naovangar char, the highest radish equivalent yield (30.66 t ha-1), gross return (Tk.306600 ha-1), net return (Tk.225600 ha-1) and BCR (3.7) were found from radish cultivation followed by sweet gourd and the lowest from mustard leaf cultivation (17.22 t ha-1, Tk, 172200 ha-1, Tk. 101200 ha-1 and 2.4 respectively). At Bolaier char, the highest radish equivalent yield (30.33 t ha-1), gross return (Tk.303300 ha-1), net return (Tk.219800 ha-1) and BCR (3.6) were found from radish cultivation followed by sweet gourd and the lowest from mustard leaf (17.88 t ha-1, Tk, 178800 ha-1, Tk.106800 ha-1 and 2.4 respectively).At Laxmir char, the highest gross return, net return and BCR also followed the same trend. At RARS, Jamalpur, vegetables production under agroforestry system also followed same pattern. Radish cultivation exhibited remarkably higher radish equivalent yield (32.74 t ha-1), higher gross return (Tk 327400 ha-1), net return (Tk 238400 ha-1) and BCR (3.6). The mustard leaf cultivation recorded the poorest performance regarding the said parameters. Prior to considering the obtained results from the study, it can be concluded that radish cultivation under agroforestry systems are more profitable than other winter vegetables cultivation. So, vegetables radish cultivation under mango fruit tree based agroforestry system might be encouraged in Jamalpur and Sherpur region in Bangladesh.