Productivity and Profitability of Maize and Sesame in Batiaghata Upazila of Khulna District

Productivity and Profitability of Maize and Sesame in Batiaghata Upazila of Khulna District

Introduction

Maize and Sesame are economically important crops in Bangladesh. In Khulna district peoples are attached agriculture 25.11%, fishing 1.66%, agricultural laborer 11.3%, wage laborer 7.15%, industry 16.38%, transport 4.09%, constructions 1.53%, service 18.93%, others 12.22%. The farmers are not familiar with agricultural intensification. Sesame was a popular crop among the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in Khulna district. After cyclone AILA, agriculture condition of the southern region was poor; from that time BRAC introduced hybrid rice and maize in the coastal area for increasing farmers livelihoods and productivity food under the crop intensification program (CIP).

Sesame seed contains on an average of 48% oil, which is embedded with 19.3% protein (Sharma and Chohan, 1983). Sesame oil seed is used for edible purpose, in confectionary, for illumination (Martin and Leonand, 1964), manufacture of soap, paint, margarine, pharmaceutical and perfumery products (Masefield, 1965; Tribe, 1967) and as synergist for pyrethrum to increasing the toxicity of the insecticide (Mellory, 1967).

Sesame oil cake is a very good cattle feed as it contains protein of high biological value and appreciable quantities of calcium and phosphorus. The cake is also used as fertilizer (Cobley, 1967).Annually Bangladesh is producing about 0.16 million tons of edible oil as against the requirement of 0.5 million tons (Wahab et al, 2002). To meet the demand, the country has to import oils and oilseeds to the tune of about 160 millions US dollar every year (Anonymous, 1998). Therefore, it is an urgent need to take steps to save foreign exchange through production of oil seed crops.

Maize is actually cereal crops. It is used as a source of carbohydrate, protein and oil. Maize is a versatile crop producing a range of products. Easily recognizable are sweet corn, corn flakes and pop corn. Less well are its uses in flours that can consumed directly (often in subsistence farming systems), in tortilla and throughout the food processing industry. Maize is also finds its way in various forms into animal feed rations and is industrially processed for the production of starches, syrups and alcohol. All above we can say that maize is used in various things such as maize as human feed, maize use as poultry feed, maize use as fish feed, maize use as raw materials in industry.

Maize use as fuel, maize as a good source of oils. In Batiaghata upazila farmer usually cultivate sesame crops because the cost of sesame cultivation is very less than maize and another crops. And the farmers were not familiar with maize crop. Although maize cultivation cost is high but its yield is high and price of maize is high than sesame. BRAC has shown them the comparison between the two crops maize and sesame, which crops is profitable .BRAC has shown them that maize cultivate is profitable in this climate weather and salinity soil.

Development of appropriate package technologies is utmost necessary for horizontal and vertical expansion of the crop. Among different fertilizer nutrients, the importance of N, P, K and S on soil have been reported by several workers. For the coastal region of Bangladesh, no trial has been carried out to determine the optimum dose of fertilizers for optimum yield of maize and sesame. The farmers of southern Bangladesh usually cultivate rice in the Aman season. Most of the lands remain fallow after the harvest of aman rice. To rehabilitate the victims of cyclone Sidr and Aila, BRAC has been helping farmers to improve their food availability and income for restoring their pre-cyclone livelihoods. This report has shown the farmers’ production practices, yield and benefits from maize and sesame cultivation in the coastal saline soil.

Biological Description of Crops

Sesame:

Sesame is the family Pedaliaceae. Sesame is the second largest source of edible oil next to mustard in Bangladesh (Kaul and Das, 1986). Sesame seed contains on an average of 48% oil, which is embedded with 19.3% protein (Sharma and Chohan, 1983). Sesame oil seed is used for edible purpose.

Table-1. Biological description of sesame.

Scientific name	Sesamum indicum L.
Kingdom:	Plantae
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Pedaliaceae
Genus:	Sesamum
Species:	S. indicum

Fig-1. A view of sesame crop in Batiaghata upazila, Rabi season 2010-11.

Maize:

Maize is short annual C4 grass which produces 4 carbon compound oxalo acetic acid in photosynthesis system. These plants have a specialized mechanism of photosynthesis which enables them to absorb CO2 from the surrounding atmosphere even at every low CO2 concentrations (virtually down 1-2 ppm CO2 ). This is a contrast to what plants of the C3 type can not do. They cease to take up CO2 at concentrations below 50-70 ppm .

The implication of this is that C4 plants are able to photosynthesize even the stomata are nearly closed, whereas C3 plants can not do so. Since stomata close at least to a certain degree during to condition of water stress (they often close very much), the ability of the C4 plants to fix CO2 even under these condition is of obvious advantage for maintaining a high level of productivity. It can tolerate even under a low oxygen concentration. It produces more yield than C3 plants (rice, wheat etc). No other crop has been subjected to such intensive genetics and cytogenesis studies as corn.

Table-2: Biological description of maize.

Scientific name:	Zea mays
Kingdom :	Plantae
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Genus:	Zea
Species:	Z mays

Fig- 2. A maize field in Batiaghata upazila, Rabi season 2010-11.

Objective

The specific objectives of this study were:

· To document the yield of maize and sesame under farmers’ management practices in the coastal saline soil in Batiaghata upazila in Khulna district.

· To compare the crop production practiced of the farmers.

· To compare the benefit of maize and sesame cultivation in the coastal saline environment.

· To identify problems of maize and sesame cultivation in study area.

Review of literature

Many research works have been done on different aspects of rabi crops, like population density, drainage spacing, fertilizer application at different stages of growth and fertilizers management of different non-rice crops. In different parts of the globe considerable literatures in this regard are available. But there are little information on fertilizer management for rabi crops in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. A brief review of literature related to the present study has been given bellow.

Sesame:

Sujathamma el al. (2003) conducted an experiment on the direct and residual effects of fertilizers on sesame copping system and found that yield was the highest with 60 kg N ha^-1. Nitrogen was supplied to sesame at 0, 50, 0r 100% of recommended rates of 60 kg ha-1 but rice nitrogen was supplied as green manure (25%) + urea (75%) , FYM (25%) + urea (75%), green manure (25%) + FYM(25%)+urea (50%), Green manure (50%) + FYM (50%) or urea (100%) and in case of groundnut at 0, 50 or 100% of recommended dose (30 kg N ha-1). They found that, the number of capsules plant-1, seed and stalk yield of maize was height in case of 60 kg N ha-1 (100% of recommended dose) and application of nitrogen as green manure (50%)+ FYM (50%) but highest number of seeds capsules-1 and 1000-seed weight were obtained with the application of 100% the recommended rate.

Subrahmaniyan and Arulmozhi (1999) noticed that each successive increase in dose of nitrogen up to 55 kg ha-1 significantly increased number of branches per plant in sesame. These observations are in line with Prakasha and Gowda (1992) who reported higher values of yield attributes with 60 kg N ha^-1 in sesame.

Sarder and Rosario (1995) found that nitrogen placement had significant influence the number of branches of sesame, irrespective of rate, method application of N fertilizers and manure. N-treated plots had higher branches production compared to the N plots. They showed that maximum number of branches was particularly observed from furrow placement at 90kg N ha^-1, significantly exceeding all other rates and methods. When placed as surface band produced more branches than did by low N rate.

The number of branches of sesame obtained from this experiment was comparable to that reported by Taylor and Chambi (1986) from row planting of sesame in Tanzania. They also noticed that in sesame, the number of branches per plant was found to be an important yield contributing character as capsule formation occurs at each leaf axile. As sing, the number of capsules per plant was highly related to leaf number and thereby number of branches.

Matsunaga el al. (1989) reported that dry matter of sesame increased until the pod filling stage (56 DAS) and decreased rapidly after then. In the other study, Ali el al. (2005), showed that the higher dry matter was produced when they applied 125 kg Urea, 150 kg TSP and 50 kg MoP per hectare, respectively under control i.e. when no salt were added. Babu and Thirumurugan (2001) observed decreased total dry matter (TDM) with the increase of salinity in sesame. Among the cultivars BINA TIL-1 produced the highest TDM while T-6 produced the lowest.

Amin el al. (1996) observed that the highest number of capsules plant^-1 was at 60 kg ha^-1 in combination with 30 kg P2O5, 20 kg K2O and 10 kg S ha^-1. This was statistically identical with all the treatments where 30-90 kg N ha^-1 was added. But capsule number was partially higher in presence of P, L and S with 60 kg N ha^-1.

Pariacha et al. (1998) reported that sesame seed production could be raised 50 percent by way of proper fertilization. Seed yield of sesame also increased with an increased rate of N and K application

Maize:

Sardar and Rosario (1993) observed that placement of fertilizers had greater effects on seedling emergence of maize The number of plants gradually decreased with increasing the rate of N and closer placement of seeds. Higher seedling emergence was recorded by no N and broadcast N plots, in contrast the lower under furrow placement, regardless of N rate. However, N applied as broadcast and surface band did not affect seedling emergence significantly compared with broadcast N. furrow placement had 19 and 31 percent reduction in seedling emergence at 60 and 90 kg N ha^-1, respectively.

Subrahmaniyam and Arulmozhi (1999) reported that higher dose of fertilizers enhanced the vegetative growth and development of yield attributes indicated by higher dry matter production. Prakasha and Gowda (1992) also reported higher values of yield attributes with 60 kg N ha^-1 in maize.

According to Rahman el al. (1998), dry matter production varied significantly with different levels of fertilizers application. They reported that the rate of dry matter accumulation was similar in all the treatments up to 20 DAE, after which it showed significant variations due to different treatments. Tsiung (1978) also reported similar trend of results in respect of dry matter accumulation in sunflower irrespective of fertilizer management.

According to Sparker el al. (1989), significantly more siliqua were obtained in maize plants irrigated at flowering and siliqua filling stages when nitrogen was applied at 120 kg ha^-1. They also observed that the number of filled silique per plant was significantly increased with the increasing rates of nitrogen.

Darker and Rosario (1993) showed that 100-seed weight did not differ significantly either by tillage method or N management and their interaction was also insignificant. Both seed number and seed weight of sesame were found fairly stable characters and considered as genetically controlled factrs reported by Kumer and Sreedhsrsn (1987). But Subrahmaniyan and Arulmozhi (1999) found that each successive increase in N dose up to 55 kg ha^-1 increased seed weight of maize.

Subrahmaniyan Arulmozhi (1999) observed that application of 55 kg N ha^-1 recorded significantly higher maize seed yield over lower levels of N proportionate to the favorable increase in maize yield attributes. The maximum yield was obtained with the highest N dose. These finding are in accordance with those of Balasubramganiyan et al. (1995).

Alom el al. (1999) observed that the treatment of hand weeding at 20 DAE along with fertilizer application irrespective of line or broadcast sowing recorded the highest seed yield due to reduced crop weed competition and also due to supply of sufficient nutrient which favorable influenced yield components and higher dry matter production in maize.

Sarkar el al. (1989) observed that the highest and second highest yields of seed were obtained in plots fertilized with 120 and 80 kg N ha^-1 but their difference was not significant. The lowest seed yield was obtained in plots where nitrogen was not applied at all. The yield of seed plant-1 showed the similar trend as that of the yield of seed plot^-1 of various rates of nitrogen application. Yield of seed per plot was increased due to the improvement of yield components at increasing rates of nitrogen. The increased yield of seed in maize due to increased rates of nitrogen has also been observed by many researchers (vir and Verma, Mudhekar and Ahlwal, 1981; Garcia and Alcantra, 1983).

In the other study, Bhan (1979) reported that application of fertilizer gave good response when one hand weeding was done at 20 DAE. The results may appear due to competition between weed and crop plants for moisture and nutrients results a significant reduction in crop growth and yield components. The results confirm with the finding of Singh and Nema (1979) in which they stated that application of fertilizer only failed to enhance the seed yield of maize

Methodology

Location:

The study was conducted at Kismatfultola kollansree amtola tatultola and Debitola village of Batiaghata upazila under Khulna district (Figure 1) during the Rabi season 2010-11 to document the farmer’s crop management practices for two selected Rabi crops cultivation in the coastal saline environment. The study site was located at latitude of 22⁰47’ and longitude of 89⁰34^’E.It is located in the agro-ecological zone 13 (AEZ 13).

The soil of the study area was silt clay belonging to the soil physiographic unit of Ganges Tidal Flood Plain. The region is characterized by close network of interconnected tidal rivers, channels and creeks. In the southwest these channels are more or less saline throughout the year, although less saline in the rainy season than the dry season.

Fig-3: A schematic map of Batiaghata upazila.

Fig-4: BRAC Batiaghata office.

Climate:

The study area was characterized by subtropical climate with moderately high temperature and heavy rainfall during the Kharif season (April- September) and scanty rainfall with moderately low temperature during the Rabi season (November- March).

Soil:

The study field was medium high land with silt clay soil having pH value of 8.2, termed alkaline. The electrical conductivity of the soil in Batiaghata upazila varies from 3 to 15 d/m.

Study materials:

Traditional cultivar sesame popularly cultivated by the farmers of Batiaghata area and hybrid maize that was cultivated by the farmers was used as the test variety. Two crops farmers are used different level of organic and inorganic fertilizers treatment.

Fig:05:Sesame maturity time observation. Fig6: Sesame cutting observation.

Land preparation:

The field was ploughed by power tiller and then with a country plough by some farmers followed by harrowing to attain a desirable tilt. All weeds and stubbles of the previous crop were removed from the field. Information on land preparation for different crop cultivation is given below:

Sesame:

The land was open during February 5-15, 2011 using a power tiller followed by laddering to obtain desirable tilt. Finally, individual plot was prepared by farmers using spade before sowing of seeds.

Fig7: Sesame gathered observation

Crop Variety:

Sesame

BARI Till-3

Company: BRAC Seed Enterprise.

Crop Variety:

Maize specific 984

Company: BRAC seed Enterprise

Fig8: Maize field organize and discuses with farmer.

Fig9:Maize cob measurement

Fertilizers:

Urea:

i) Chemical formula : CO (NH₂)₂

ii) Color : White

iii) Form/state : Granular, Crystalline

iv) Nitrogen content (%) : 46.6

v) Molecular wt. : 60.06

vi) Maximum moisture content (%) by weight: 1%

vii) Specific gravity : 1.335

viii) Melting Point : 132.7°C

ix) Compatibility : Compatible with most fertilizers and pesticides

x) Solubility : Easily soluble in water.

Fig 10: Urea fertilizer.

TSP

i) Chemical formula : Ca(H₂PO₄)2. H₂O

ii) Color : Grey brown color

iii) Form/State : Pellet Ted or sometimes powder

iv) P₂O₅% : 44-48, 20% (P)

v) Critical relative humidity at 300°C: 93.7%

vi) Maximum moisture content by wt.: 12%

Fig11: TSP fertilize.

MoP

i) Chemical Formula : KCl

ii) Color : Refined red or grayish red

iii) Form/State : Coarse of fine salt

iv) K₂O% : 60%, 50% (K)

v) Max. Moisture content by wt. : 0.5%

Fig12: MoP fertilizer.

Gypsum:

1. Chemical Formula : CaSO₄·2H₂O
2. Color: Colorless to white; with impurities may be yellow brown, reddish brown or gray
3. Form/state: Pearly, fibrous masses
4. Specific gravity: 2.31–2.33
5. Solubility: Hot, dilute HCl
6. Calcium (Ca)%: 23.28
7. Sulfur (S)%: 18.62

Fig13: Gypsum fertilizer

Borax

Boron: 20%

Chemical formula: Na2B4O7·5H2O

Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate

Fig14: Borax fertilizer

Zinc

Chemical formula: ZnSO4

Fig15: Zinc fertilizer.

Cow dong

Nitrogen (N) % : 0.5

Phosphorus (P2O5) % : 0.3

Potassium (K2O) % : 0.5

Calcium (Ca) % : 0.3

Magnesium (Mg) % : 0.1

Organic matter % : 16.7

Moisture % : 81.3

Fig16: Cow dung.

Result and discussion

4.1.1Cultivation procedure:

Land preparation:

Maize: The farmers ploughed their lands mostly during 1 -13 February 2011. They have ploughed their land on an average 3 -4 times and the cost of land preparation varied from Tk.5187– to Tk5591.– per ha. Average cost of land preparation for maize cultivation was Tk5591 –/ha (Table 3).

Table 3. Information on land preparation for maize cultivation in rabi season 2010-11.

Farmer name	Date of land preparation	No of ploughing	Cost of land preparation (Tk/ha)
Kader Mridha	8 Feb 2011	4	6916
Jamini Bala	5 Feb 2011	3	5187
Harun Sheikh	13 Feb 20 11	3	5187
Suchitra Mondal	5 Feb 20 11	4	5480
Suvash Bairagi	1 Feb 2011	3	5187
Mean			5591

Sesame: The farmers ploughed their lands mostly during 1 – 7 March– 2011. They have ploughed their land on an average 3 times and the cost of land preparation varied from Tk.– to Tk.– per ha. Average cost of land preparation for maize cultivation was Tk 4337 –/ha (Table 4).

Table 4. Information on land preparation for sesame cultivation in rabi season 2010-11.

Farmer name	Date of land preparation	No of ploughing	Cost of land preparation (Tk/ha)
Narayan Biswas	1 March 2011	2	4446
Bimal Mondal	3 March 2011	3	4446
Amal Mondal	7 March 2011	2	4446
Tapan Roy	3 March 2011	2	4446
Sushil Biswas	4 March 2011	3	3952
Mean			4347

Seed sowing:

Maize: The farmers of Batiaghata upazila sown the seeds of maize in the first half of February 2011 and harvested the crop in the last week of May 2011 (Table 5). The average growth duration was about 133 days that varied from 126 to 140 days.

Table5. Information on Growth duration of maize cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

Farmer name	Sawing date	Harvesting date	Growth duration(days)
Kader Mridha	12February 2011	18May 2011 (Low)	125 (low)
Jamini Bala	10February 2011	25May 2011	135
Harun shekh	18February 2011(H)	24May 2011	126
Suchtra Mondol	09February 2011(L)	26May 2011(High)	137
Suvash Bairagi	02February 2011	22May 2011	140 (high)
Mean			133

Sesame: The farmers of Batiaghata upazila sown the seeds of sesame in 1-7 March 2011 and harvested the crop in the 8June to 12June 2011 (Table 6). The average growth duration was about 97 days that varied from 1to 97 days.

Table6. Information Growth duration of sesame cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

Farmer name	Sowing date	Harvesting date	Growth duration(days)
Narayan Biswas	2 March 2011(Low)	8 June 2011(Low)	98
Bimal Mondal	5 March 2011	12 June 2011	99(High)
Amol Mondal	8 March 2011(High)	12 June 2011(High)	96(low)
Tapan Ray	4 March 2011	10 June 2011	98
Sushil Biswas	6 March 2011	10 June 2011	96
Mean			97

4.1.3 Fertilizer Application Rate:

Maize: The farmer of Batiaghata upazila use urea TSP MoP Zinc and Boron in the maize field . (Table 7)The average quantity of fertilizer are 174- 112-

8- 2.5 kg, Urea,Tsp,MoP,Zinc and Boron per hacter.

Table7. Information on Quantity of fertilizer use of maize cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

The farmer of Batiaghata upazila use Urea TSP MoP in the sesame field .The average quantity of fertilizer are 83- 16- 15kg Urea, TSP, MOP per hacter(Table 8).

Table8. Information on Quantity of fertilizer use of sesame cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

Farmer name	Urea (kg/ha)	TSP(kg/ha)	MOP(kg/ha)
Narayan Biswas	87	15	15
Bimol Mondal	100 (high)	18 (high)	16 (high)
Amal Mondal	55 (low)	14 (low)	15
Tapan Ray	80	16	14 (low)
Sushil Biswas	94	15	15
Mean	83	16	15

4.1.4 Cost of fertilizer:

Maize: The farmer of Batiaghata upazila use fertilizer. Their average fertilizer cost is 2092 – 2453 – 997 -1081- 1324tk,Urea, TSP, MOP, Zinc and Boron per hacter (Table 9)

Table9. Information on Cost of fertilizer in Maize cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

Farmer name	Urea (tk/ha)	TSP (tk/ha)	MOP (tk/ha)	Zinc (tk/ha)	Boron(tk/ha)	Total (tk/ha)
Kader Mridha	2519	2988	1185	1383	1235	9310
Jamini Bala	1852	1698	694	833	1543	6620
Harun Shekh	2223	2282	926	1383	1235	8049
Suchtra Mondal	1644	3014	822	767	1370	7617
Suvas Bairagi	2223	2282	1358	1037	1235	8135
Mean	2092	2453	997	1081	1324	7946

Sesame: The farmer of Batiaghata upazila use fertilizer. Their average fertilizer cost is Urea 998 tk/ha TSP 343 tk/ha MoP 225 tk /ha All the served farmers need Urea, TSP, and MOP in cultivation sesame .Total cost of fertilizer used in sesame cultivation varied from 1193-1836 tk/ha. Average of which was tk 1567 ha. It was observed that the cost of urea fertilizer was two times higher than total cost of other fertilizers used by the farmer.

(Table 10).

Table 10. Information on Cost of fertilizer in sesame cultivation in rabi season 2010-11

Farmer name	Urea (tk/ha)	TSP(tk/ha)	MOP(tk/ha)	Total(tk/ha)
Narayan Biswas	1044	330	225	1599
Bimol Mondal	1200	396	240	1836
Amal Mondal	660	308	225	1193
Tapan ray	960	352	210	1522
Sushil Biswas	1128	330	225	1683
Mean	998	343	225	1567

4.1.5Harvest:

Maize: The farmer of Batiaghata upazila have sawn the maize seed in the first week of February and harvest their maize in the last week of may. Average growth duration of maize was 133 days. Average yield of maize is 9.99 ton/ha Average yield of Maize in Batiaghata upazila was about 10 ton/ha which varied from 8.78-11.86 ton/ha yield .Data shown that maize can have higher yield potential up to 12 ton/ha in this area. Further study is needed to document this yield potential of maize with optimum measurement in the saline environment.

(Table 11)

Table11. Yield and fertilizer used by the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in maize cultivation, rabi season 2010-11.

sesame: The farmer of Batiaghata upazila saw the sesame seed in the first week of March and harvest their sesame in the first week of June Average growth duration of sesame is 97 days. Average yield of sesame is 1.57 ton/ha.(Table 12)

Table 12. Yield and fertilizer used by the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in sesame cultivation, rabi season 2010-11.

Sesame in cultivated by the farmer of Batiaghata upazila for long time ago .They usually cultivate traditional variety and for the reason yield variability was not observed .Further study is needed with improved variety of sesame developed by BARI to enhance yield of this crops.

4.1.6Production cost :

Maize:The farmer are use different method for Maize production. There first to last production cost is 32950-26757-33626-41648-34758-tk/ha.Average production cost is 33908tk/ha.(table 13).

Table 13 . Production cost (tk/ha) of maize cultivated by the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in rabi season 2010-11.

The farmer are use different method for Sesame production. There first to last production cost is 16582-16841-18853-20417-16873-tk/ha.Average production cost is 17913tk/ha.(table 14).

Table 14. Production cost (tk/ha) of sesame cultivated by the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in rabi season 2010-11.

4.1.7 Benefit Cost Ratio:

Maize: Total production cost of maize varied from 26757-34758 Tk/ha . Average production cost is 33908 Tk/ha. And result benefit cost ratio varied from 4.12-6.99. And average benefit cost is 5.14.(table 13)

Table 15. Gross benefit (tk/ha) and BCR of Maize cultivated by the farmer in rabi season 2010-11

Total production cost of sesame varied from 16582-20417Tk/ha . Average production cost is 17913 Tk/ha. And result benefit cost ratio varied from 3.49-4.00. And average benefit cost is 3.84.(table14)

Table16. Gross benefit (tk/ha) and BCR of Sesame cultivated by the farmer in rabi season 2010-11

Total production cost of sesame varied from 16582-20417Tk/ha . Average production cost is 17913 Tk/ha. And result benefit cost ratio varied from 3.49-4.00. And average benefit cost is 3.84.

 

Fig 17: benefit cost ratio between maize and sesame

Conclusion:

This research paper only discusses about the productivity and profitability of two rabi crops maize and sesame in Batiaghata Upazila under the Farmers Cultivation Practices Salinity water logging area maize and sesame cultivate most importance factors to production of any crop. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has estimated that proper management of fertilizer Labor, seed, pesticide, weeding and maturity and cultivation management practise is increasing crop productivity is about 50 per cent.

The field experiment was conducted in Rabi season, 2010-2011 at kismotfultola, kollansree, amtola, tatultola and Debitola village of Botiaghata upazila under the Khulna district with a local farmers cultivation practice management of two rabi crops each crop takes five farmer field data. Land preparation time, planting time, variety, fertilizer application time and interval and soil condition were recorded from each replicated.

BRAC has estimated that proper fertilizer, labor, seed, pesticide ,weeding and cultivation management is increasing crop productivity is about higher than sesame.

The people of batiaghata upizila of khulna district are very poor because the natural calamity AILA are strike above them again again so the farmer are become very poor .Recently precipitation is very harmful for their cultivation sesame crops. Their maximum field are salinity soil .The sesame crops cultivation is not suitable of the khulna weather, so the farmer of the batiaghata has lost their mind for crop cultivation .At this time BRAC has gone their near and give them contribution and give them all element for crop cultivation .such as seed, fertilizer, pesticide and adviser for help them any problem.

They want to cultivate only sesame because cultivate cost is very low. On the other hand maize cultivation cost is so high. Although sesame cultivation cost is low and maize cultivation cost so high they could not realize that which cultivation is profitable. BRAC has sown them that the cost benefit ratio of sesame and cost benefit ratio of maize. BRAC has compare the cost benefit ratio of maize and sesame .Then they could realize that maize is more profitable than sesame .The farmer of batiaghata upazila of khulna district are happy for the maize cultivation.

Recommendation:

It was observed from our sample study that Maize cultivation is more profitable than Sesame cultivation in Batiaghata upazila.Therefore the farmer could cultivate Maize for higher productivity and income. Moreover Sesame crop is very vulnerable to water logging and the farmers often fail to harvest Sesame due to rainfall at the later stage of the crops .Maize cultivation could reduce farmer vulnerability.

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http://www.fertilizers/info/divsersity/mssd/dp.htm

http://www.cgiar.org/ifpri/divs/mssd/dp.htm

4.1.6Production cost :

Maize:The farmer are use different method for Maize production. There first to last production cost is 32950-26757-33626-41648-34758-tk/ha.Average production cost is 33908tk/ha.(table 13).

Table 13 . Production cost (tk/ha) of maize cultivated by the farmers of Batiaghata upazila in rabi season 2010-11.