Agronomic And Pest Management Practices In Maize Under Barind Area Of Bangladesh

ABSTRACT: A case study was conducted in four districts viz., Rajshahi, Noagaon, Chapainawabganj and Natore under Barind areas of Bangladesh through pre-tested questionnaire survey among the target farmers, i.e. 30 maize cultivating farmers per district to gather information on their existing socio-economic aspects as well as their opinion on agronomic and pest management practices in maize cultivation. Most of the farmers are middle to old aged (46.67% and 33.33%, respectively) with primary to secondary level of education (50.83% and 33.33%, respectively), small to medium farm size (18.33% and 55.83%, respectively), small to medium family size (59.17% and 37.50%, respectively) with good farming experiences and medium to high level of annual income. Maize-T. Aman rice was the major cropping pattern (71.67%), followed by Maize-Jute (14.17%) and Maize-Black gram (9.17%). Around 90.00% of the farmers cultivated hybrid maize following line sowing (88.33%) using mechanical tillage practices (97.50%) and chemical fertilizers (57.50%). There were irrigation facilities for maize cultivation using ground water by deep and shallow tube wells. Mechanical weeding was the most common weed management strategy corresponded to 61.67% of the farmers. Chemical insecticides were used by 62.50% respondents, followed by the application of IPM and botanical insecticides (20.00% and 13.33%, respectively). For disease control, 62.50% respondents adopted no management practice. The survey conclusively showed that still now IPM is not a popular pest management option over chemical control in Barind areas. 

Keywords: Barind tract, cropping pattern, cropping systems, pesticide use pattern, survey