SCREENING OF TOMATO VARIETIES FOR ITS SUITABILITY UNDER LITCHI BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the departmental research field of Agroforestry and Environment (25˚ 13’ latitude and 88˚ 23’ longitude, and about 37.5 m above sea level) of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh, during November 2015 to April 2016 in order to screen four different tomato varieties viz. BARI 2 (V1), BARI 8 (V2), BARI 15 (V3) and MINTU (V4) for their suitability in both under Litchi tree (s1) and open condition (s2). The experiment was laid out with two factors Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The two factors were – factor A: four tomato varieties and factor B: two production system. The results of the experiment revealed that there were a significant effect of both the variety and production system on the growth, yield contributing characters and yield of tomato. In case of main effects of varieties, significantly the highest fruit yield (27.08 t/ha) was found in the variety of BARI 8 (V2) and the lowest fruit yield (15.33 t/ha) was recorded in the variety of MINTU (V4). Again, in case of main effect of production systems, it was significantly variation the highest fruit yield (29.81 t/ha) was observed in the open field (S2) and the lowest fruit yield (13.37 t/ha) was recorded under the Litchi based Agroforestry system (S1). Furthermore, in case of the interaction effect of tomato varieties and production system, it was found that tomato variety BARI 8 (V2) gave maximum yield (37.95 t ha-1) under open field condition i.e. S2V2 treatment combination. MINTU (V4) gave minimum yield (8.53 t ha-1) under litchi based agroforestry system i.e. S1V4 treatment combination. Moreover, among the four tomato variety, BARI 8 gave higher yield. The second experiment was conducted to estimate the quality parameters of tomato both in open and under litchi tree. The results revealed that among the four varieties, maximum TSS, Ascorbic acid and Lycopene contents of fruits were found in tomato variety BARI 15 (V3). Again in case of production system, the maximum Total Soluble Solid content (TSS), ascorbic acid and lycopene content was observed litchi based agroforestry system (S1) and the minimum was observed in sole cropping (S2). From the economic analysis, it was observed that the higher BCR (4.20) was recorded in Litchi + tomato based Agroforestry system (S1). On the other hand, the lower BCR (2.25) was received in sole cropping of tomato (S2). Finally, it may be concluded that out of the four tomato varieties, BARI 8 would be the best variety to be grown under Litchi based Agroforestry systems considering the additional returns as per investment in terms of money and time.