SUITABILITY OF MANGO BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS FOR ORGANIC CARROT PRODUCTION

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at the Agroforestry and Environment Research Farm, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur, during January to March 2017 in order to evaluate the suitability of mango based agroforestry systems for organic carrot production. The experiment was laid out in two factorial RCBD with 3 (three) replications. Factor A: was five Fertilizer and Manure Applications viz. F1 = No fertilizer & no pesticide, F2 = Recommended chemical fertilizer & normal pesticide, F3 = 100% cowdung manure + neem oil spray as biopesticide, F4 = 100% poultry manure + neem oil spray as bio-pesticide, F5 = 50%cowdung with 50%poultry + neem oil spray as bio-pesticide and Factor B: was two production system viz. S1 = Open/sole cropping of carrot, S2 = Mango + carrot. So there were ten fertilizer and manure applications combinations such as, S1F1, S1F2, S1F3, S1F4, S1F5, S2F1, S2F2, S2F3, S2F4 and S2F5. The results of the experiment revealed that there was a significant effect of the fertilizer and manure applications consider pesticide managements practices on the growth, yield contributing characters and yield of carrot. In case of main effects of fertilizer and manure applications, the result was found significant variation in respect of plant height, number of shoot, root length, root diameter, weight of root/plot, hulm weight/plot, yield ton/ha respectively but dry weight(g) was varied insignificantly. The highest yield (17.15 t/ha) was recorded when carrot cultivated with chemical fertilizer and the lowest yield (9.58 t/ha) was found when carrot cultivated with no fertilizer. Again the significant effect of production systems was also found on plant height, number of shoot, hulm weight/plot, yield ton/ha of carrot respectively. But root length, root diameter, weight of root/plot, dry weight (g) were not significantly varied. Yield of carrot was lower when it was grown under mango based agroforestry systems, whereas the yield was higher in sole cropping of carrot and it was 25.62% more as compare to mango based agroforestry system. In case of interaction effect of the carrot production systems and fertilizer & manure applications, it was found that yield of carrot was higher when it was grown with chemical fertilizer under open, whereas the yield was lower with no fertilizer in open condition. However, the suitability of the cultivation of carrot considering fertilizer and manure applications under mango based agroforestry systems might be ranked as Chemical fertilizer > Cowdung + poultry> Cowdung > Poultry > No fertilizer. From the economic analysis, it was observed that the higher BCR (3.04) was recorded in Mango + Carrot based agroforestry system where chemical fertilizer was applied. On the other hand, the lower BCR (1.42) was received from the sole cropping of carrot where fertilizer was not applied. Finally, it may be concluded that, the application of organic manure gave less production as compared to chemical fertilizer application. But, if we consider the benefit of organic manure application in terms of environmental benefit, soil health and safe carrot production then cultivation of carrot at the floor of mango orchard with organic manure application like Cowdung + poultry may be a promising orchard based agroforestry system in the northern part of Bangladesh.