PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LETTUCE PRODUCTION INFLUENCED BY DIFFERENT FERTILIZER APPLICATIONS IN MORINGA BASED AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

Abstract

The demand and production of lettuce in Bangladesh are facing challenges due to suitable land, changing weather and climate. A potential alternative is cultivating lettuce in vertical agricultural production systems i.e. under agroforestry systems, but information about lettuce production systems and fertilizer application in different agroforestry systems is scarce. Therefore, this investigation was conducted to identify suitable lettuce production systems and eco-friendly, cost-effective fertilizers applications to maximize lettuce productivity in different systems. The research was conducted at the Department of Agroforestry and Environment of Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, using two experimental field, one is open i.e. “lettuce sole” and other experimental field with a moringa orchard (variety: Baromashi; age of tree: 6 years; tree spacing: 4m × 4m; Planting orientation: north south). The experiment involved two lettuce production systems (“lettuce sole-S1” and “lettuce + moringa- S2”) and four fertilizer application packages- F1 (chemical fertilizers @ FRG.2014), F2 (cow dung @ 10 t ha-1), F3 (poultry manure @ 5 t ha-1) and F4 (No fertilizer). The experiment was carried out using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The total number of experimental plots of lettuce were 24. All the lettuce seedling in two production systems were sown using spacing of 40m×25cm per plot. The result of the experiment revealed that the different production systems had significant effect on all the growth and yield parameters like Plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf breadth, weight of leaves. Yield of lettuce was also varied significantly, and the best yield (20.39 t ha-1) was recorded from production system S2 (Lettuce + Moringa) whereas, the lowest yield (10.05 t ha-1) was observed from production system S1 (Lettuce sole). In case of fertilizer applications, chemical fertilizer gave the best yield (22.51 t ha-1) while no fertilizer gave the lowest yield (10.52 t ha-1). The maximum dry matter content (14.69%) from S1F1 (Lettuce sole + chemical fertilizer) and ash content (3.37%) was recorded from S1F2 (Lettuce sole + cow dung) and the minimum dry matter content (9.05%) and ash content (0.91%) was recorded from S2F1 (Lettuce with moringa + chemical fertilizer) treatment. From the economic analysis, it was observed that the higher BCR 5.07 was recorded from production system S2F4 (Lettuce + Moringa) with no fertilizer application under moringa based agroforestry system. So, it was interesting about the research between two production systems that lettuce production in open field with no fertilizer application gave lower yield of lettuce than other fertilizer applications, when the economic return of S2 (Lettuce with Moringa) production is combined with economic return of moringa trees gave higher BCR which may be beneficial to moringa garden owner. The lower BCR 3.48 was from S1F2 (lettuce sole) with cow dung application. Finally, it may be concluded that the production system “Lettuce with Moringa” can be cultivated successfully in this region and further research should be done for final packages of fertilizer applications.