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Articles in Current Issue

Determinants of customer satisfaction of mobile banking and its problems in rural areas of Moulvibazar district

Mobile banking is a latterly added amenity in the banking sector that eases banking via mobile devices. The present study seeks to examine the determinants influencing customers’ satisfaction and problems of mobile banking in rural areas. Data were collected from 140 mobile banking users from Kamalganj and Sreemangal Upazila of the Moulvibazar district by using the simple random sampling procedure. Primary data were collected from the respondents through face to face interview using a structured interview schedule during the period of March-April, 2019. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to analyze the determinants affecting customers’ satisfaction of mobile banking. Major problems faced by the rural mobile banking customers were determined by using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The study showed that the easy and convenient factor of mobile banking had the most positive influence on customer satisfaction, whereas, service charge had a negative effect. Having insufficient digital skills to fully utilize mobile banking was ranked as the highest problem by the respondents. The absence of training facilities, poor network availability and lack of security in transactions were some other constraints faced by the mobile banking users in the study area. Providing with basic training facilities, launching special services for rural communities and developing strong network coverage can improve useful steps for the growth of mobile based banking system. Overall awareness of the rural people should be raised to abate the fraudulent occurrences.

Keywords: Mobile banking, Customer satisfaction, Problems of mobile banking, Rural area

Effects of commercial probiotic on growth and feed utilization parameters of Asian Stinging Catfish (heteropneustes fossilis) fingerlings

Feeding experiment was conducted for 62-days with commercial probiotic “Navio plus” to identify and quantify its effects on growth and feed utilization parameters of Asian stinging catfish (Heteropneustes fossilis). Ten (10) H. fossilis fingerlings (3.63±0.02 g) were stocked in each aquarium and 12 aquaria were divided into four groups (3 aquaria/group). Fish groups were fed without probiotic, 2, 5 and 10g / kg probiotic which was marked as T1 (control), T2, T3 and T4 (treatments), respectively. At the end of the experiment, mean final body weight (FBW) of T1, T2, T3 and T4 was 12.92±0.01, 14.05±0.01, 15.67±0.01 and 16.21±0.01 g, respectively. Similarly, mean weight gain (WG) was 255.83±0.42, 287.05±0.27, 331.68±0.27 and 346.56±0.27%, respectively. Among these results, FBW and WG in all treatments were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than control (T1), where T4 had the highest value among the treatments. Like as FBW and WG, specific growth rate was also significantly increased in all treatment groups. In case of feed utilization parameters, feed conversion ratio and feed efficiency ratio among these diet groups remain unchanged (P > 0.05). However, protein efficiency ratio in T1 (1.30±0.100) was the lowest, whereas, T4 achieved the highest value as found in FBW and WG. Therefore, tested probiotic may be used at a dose higher than its company recommended dose to get higher growth as well as more production for profitable H. fossilis aquaculture in Bangladesh

Keywords: Commercial probiotic, Aquaculture, Growth performance, Stinging catfish, Water quality

Demographic features of aquarium shopkeepers and users in Sylhet division of Bangladesh

The present study was conducted on demographic features of aquarium shopkeepers and users in Sylhet division for a period of six months from December 2017 to June 2018. In Sylhet division, eight upazilas were selected from four districts for data collection. In the Sylhet division, 11 aquarium shopkeepers, 14 aquarium users and 14 other stakeholders were interviewed through questionnaire. Upazilas were Sylhet sadar and Gulapganj from Sylhet district, Sunamganj sadar and South Sunamganj from Sunamganj district, Moulvibazar sadar and Sreemongal from Moulvibazar district and Habiganj sadar and Madhabpur from Habiganj district. Among four districts, Sylhet district had higher number of aquarium shops where Sunamganj district had no aquarium shop and Habiganj and Moulvibazar district had very few number of aquarium shops. In the present study it was found that 36.36% shopkeepers were in the age group of 20 to 30 years and 50% users were in the age group of 20 to 30 years. Around 27.27% shopkeepers were found having experience in aquarium trade for less than 5 years, 36.36% shop keepers were having more than 5 to 10 years and 36.36% shopkeepers were having more than 10 years experiences in this business. Most of the users (60%) was kept aquarium for decoration, 27% hobbyist and 13% customers maintain the aquarium for entertainment. Collected data indicated that nearly 26 fish species were available in Sylhet division. Fish in Sylhet district was higher in number than other districts. All species were exotic except one native species. There was no local aquarium fish hatchery in the study area. Feed used in aquarium were imported from foreign countries such as Thailand, China, Malaysia etc. The price of a pair of aquarium fishes in Sylhet ranged within BDT 50 to 1500. The highest retail price was found for discus fish (1500 BDT per pair) followed by red parrot (1000 BDT per pair) and oscar (650 BDT per pair).

Keywords: Aquarium, ornamental fish, feed, demographic features of aquarium shopkeepers and users, status, Sylhet division

Status of aqua-drugs and chemicals for freshwater fish health management at Rangpur district of Bangladesh

A study was conducted to know the present status of chemicals and aqua-drugs used for freshwater fish health management in Rangpur district. Data was collected via questionnaire survey, individual communication, FGD with fish farmers, company representatives and chemical sellers from May to October, 2019. All interviewed farmers had farming experience (1-24 years) and 76% had training experience (1-160 days). About 37% of fish farmers used chemicals for treating fish seeds before releasing. Several water quality problems were faced such as dissolved oxygen deficiency (95% of farmers), high ammonia (74%), algal bloom (37%), turbidity (28%), pH (19%) and poor phytoplankton (14%). About 88% of the farmers are facing a number of disease problems like EUS (69.32% of farmers), tail and fin rot (59.09%), argulus (55.68%), gill rot (43.18%), dropsy (42.05%) and exophthalmia (13.64%). Lime (100% of farmers), potassium permanganate (52%), salt (61%), phitkari (21%), copper sulphate (16%), urea (86%) and TSP (86%) were used as traditional chemicals. Sumithion (30.19%), engreb (18.87%) etc. for removal of undesirable species; aquapure (24.24%), biopond (19.70%), zeofresh (18.18%) and many others for pond preparation and water quality management. To increase oxygen concentration oxymax (22.08%), oxymore (18.18%), oxylife (12.99%) etc. were used; harmful gasses were reduced by applying gasonil (28.36%), gastrap (19.40%) and others. Timsen (39.24%), virex (17.72%) etc. as disinfectants; renamycin (29.58%), eskamycin (16.90%) as mainstream antibiotics. Aquazyme (26.92%), panvit aqua (23.08%) were used as growth promoters; pond care (30.56%), profs (22.22%) etc. as probiotics. Therefore, it can be concluded that various aqua drugs were available in the study area and farmers used those to maintain water quality and fish health and to treat several diseases.

Keywords: Aquaculture, chemicals and aqua-drugs, questionnaire, fish farmers, Rangpur District.

Innovativeness of the farmers of haor areas in adopting farm technologies towards increased boro rice production avoiding flash flood

This study intends to provide an insight about the innovativeness of farmers of Haor areas in securing safe and increased production of Boro rice which often faces damage by early flash flood at the harvesting stage. Innovativeness was measured on two factors viz., i) earliness of the newly evolved modern technology to produce Boro rice, and ii) area coverage of the used technology. Data were collected from 250 randomly selected farmers using a pretested well-structured interview schedule during 10 March to 29 April, 2018. Results showed an overwhelming majority (90%) of the farmers of Haor areas who had low to medium innovativeness towards adoption of the listed 10 rice farming technologies while only 10% had moderate innovativeness. Depending on innovativeness as categorized by Rogers (1983) 3% of farmers of Haor areas were found innovator, 12.5% early adopter, 34.6% early majority, 34.1% late majority and 15.8% laggard. However, the innovativeness towards individual item of 10 technologies, weedicide (Rifit) and insecticide (Virtako) adoption ranked top two for quick and extensive use by the overwhelming majority of the farmers followed by BRRI dhan28, mechanical harvester, BRRI dhan29, BRRI dhan58, MoP, BRRI dhan64, TSP and BRRI dhan62. It is also revealed that education, annual income, knowledge, training experience, extension contact and attitude of the farmers of Haor areas had significant influence on their innovativeness.

Keywords: Haor, innovativeness, Boro rice, adoption, technology

Assessment of hybrid Summer Tomato production at late winter sowings

An experiment was carried out to assess the influence of two sowing dates on growth and yield of hybrids tomato during summer season at the experimental field of Horticulture department, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet using RCBD with three replications during January to June, 2018. In this study, four tomato hybrids viz., BARI Hybrid Tomato-3, BARI Hybrid Tomato-4, BARI Hybrid Tomato-8 and BARI Hybrid Tomato-10 were grown at two different sowing dates i.e. 2 January and 1 February. Tomato hybrids had showed significant variations on inflorescence characteristics, fruit qualities and yield attributes of tomato during late winter. Almost similar fruit yields were recorded from January and February sowing (43.86 t ha-1 and 43.52 t ha-1, respectively) indicating bright scope of growing tomato in late winter. The highest fruit weight plant-1 as well as fruit yield per hectare and number of fruit plant-1 were obtained from BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 (1.59 kg plant-1, 54.06 t ha-1 and 31.83, respectively) while the lowest yield was found in BARI Hybrid Tomato-3 (1.08 kg plant-1, 36.72 t ha-1 and 19.83, respectively). The heaviest individual fruit was found in BARI Hybrid Tomato-10. The interaction effect had significant influence on growth and yield of tomato production. The highest fruit weight plant-1 and fruit yield per hectare (1.66 kg plant-1 and 56.44 t ha-1 , respectively) was found from BARI Hybrid Tomato-4 on January sowing whereas the lowest was found in BARI Hybrid Tomato-3 on February sowing (1.05 kg plant-1 and 35.70 t ha-1).

Keywords: Tomato hybrids, Sowing dates and Late winter

Yield and yield attributes of Sweet Pepper under different protective structures

A field experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Horticulture Department, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh to find out the suitability of protective structures for sweet pepper (var. BARI mistimorich-1) production during winter season of 2013-2014. Four protective structures viz., polytunnel, polytunnel + net, only net and open field (control) were evaluated for sweet pepper production during winter season under Sylhet condition. Different parameters like plant height, leaf plant-1, fruit diameter, number of fruit plant-1, fruit yield plant-1, individual fruit weight, fruit yield t ha-1 were significantly different among treatments. The highest number of fruits plant-1 was counted from the plants grown under only net structure (13.67) while other treatments were statistically similar. The heaviest individual fruit was observed from the plants of polytunnel + net at each of the harvesting date. Under polytunnel + net protection system had the highest individual fruit weight at 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th harvest were 117.00 g, 144.10 g, 148.10 g and 77.0 g, respectively which were closely followed by only net protection system. The sweet pepper from polytunnel + net had the highest fruit diameter (6.13 cm) among the all protective structures. The highest sweet pepper fruit yield (0.82 kg plant-1) from only net which followed by polytunnel + net (0.77 kg plant-1). Benefit cost ratio revealed that production of sweet pepper under protected condition was much profitable than that of open field condition.

Keywords: Production, sweet peppers, net protection, cost benefit ratio, winter season

Prevalence of duck diseases at Sylhet district of Bangladesh

The study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of duck diseases in Sylhet region of Bangladesh. Total 2235 ducks were examined during 2 years (June i2016- May 2018). Among infectious diseases, highest prevalent was Mycoplasma Colibacillosis Complex (MC Complex) (17.72%) followed by Duck plague/duck virus enteritis (15.48%), Salmonellosis (13.83%), Tape worm infestation (11.90%), Tracheal fluke (5.77%), Mycotoxicosis (5.46%), Duck cholera (3.80%), Duck virus hepatitis (3.62%) and Coccidiosis (2.51%). Nutritional deficiency diseases encounter 19.91% prevalence. According to the age, highest prevalence was recorded in the age group of > 16 weeks old (52.13%) followed by 8-16 weeks (25.06%) and 0-8 weeks old age group (22.82%) of duck. The distribution and proportionate occurrence of diseases in duck of Sylhet indicated that, the diseases frequently occurred in winter season (67.11%) followed by rainy (17.45%) and summer season (15.12%).

Keywords: Disease prevalence, Duck, Bangladesh.

Perception and preference of meat among consumers at Sylhet Agricultural University

With a view to study consumers preference and perception of the different types of meat among teacher, staff and students at Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU), a well-structured questionnaire was constructed and total respondents were 400 including faculty members, staff and students of the SAU. The respondents belong to different categories within the university: faculty members 10%, Academic Staff 15%, Undergraduates 45% and Postgraduates 30%. Out of 400 respondents 45.25% respondents prefer chicken as their first choice of meat followed by beef 33.25%, chevon 11.25%, duck 6.5% and quail 3.75%. But in case of most consumption meat per month, 52.25% respondents consumed chicken meat, 25.75% beef, 9.25% chevon, while 8.5% and 3.75% mostly eat duck and quail meat respectively. Chicken meat is in the first level of priority either it is preference or consumption. Availability 55%, price 18.75%, income 12.5% and taste 7.5% were the factors that influenced respondent’s consumption of meat. 90% respondent’s preferred lean meat with moderate fat and remaining percentage prefer meat from young or middle-aged animals. According to the respondents, beef is comparatively most delicious in taste and chicken meat was believed to be the most nutritious as well as easiest to cook.

Keywords: Meat, Consumption, Perception

Prevalence and therapeutic management of Canine Parvovirus (CPV) in Bangladesh

A study on Canine Parvovirus (CPV) infection in dogs at Dhaka city of Bangladesh was conducted to determine its prevalence and therapeutic responses. A total of 50 (fifty) dogs of different breeds were clinically examined. A total 50 (fifty) fecal samples were collected from sick dogs and screened for the detection of Canine Parvovirus antigen using rapid CPV Ag detection kit. Screening of 50 (fifty) fecal samples revealed 16 CPV positive samples with a prevalence of 32%. The main clinical signs observed among the CPV infected dogs were bloody diarrhea (75%), vomition (97.4%) and severe dehydration (81.2%). The highest prevalence was found among 1-3 months (50%) old dogs followed by 4-6 months (40%), 7-9 months (23.1%) old dogs and over 9 months (10%). Higher prevalence was found among non-vaccinated (55.55%) than vaccinated (4.34%) dogs. Male dogs (38.7%) were more susceptible than females (21.1%). Higher prevalence was observed in Dhaka North City Corporation (37.5%) area than Dhaka South City Corporation (26.9%) area. Variation in prevalence of CPV was also observed in different breeds estimating as indigenous (40%), German shepherd (33.3%), Spitz (33.3%), Lhasa (28.5%), Doberman (25%), Labrador (25%) and Rottweiler (20%). Affected dogs were treated with Ceftriaxone (25-50 mg/kg body weight I/M SID for 7 days), I/V saline, Ondansetron (0.2mg/kg body weight orally q8h for 7 days). Among 16 positive cases 14 dogs (87.5%) were recovered after full course of treatment and 2 dogs (12.5%) died. Further studies should be conducted with large sample size and coverage to investigate the CPV detection rate in vaccinated and non-vaccinated dogs.

Keywords: Canine parvovirus (CPV), detection, therapy, prevalence, Bangladesh

Manihot Esculenta: source of energy and protein for small ruminant feeding

This work was attempted to assess the chemical and nutritive values of cassava foliage and tuber; and used as substitute of concentrate in goat ration. A 75% leaf and 25% tuber mixed cassava was incorporated into T0, T1, T2, T3 and T4 feed at the level of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively for in vitro digestibility trial. The rations were in iso-nitrogenous (13.79g/100g CP) and iso-energetic (9.0 MJ Kg-1DM). The cassava tuber contained more DM (42%) than that of leaf (22%) depending on stage of maturity. The leaf contained 14% CP and 20% Crude Fiber (CF) and no significant variation was found between mature and baby leaves while tuber endocarp possessed only 2.45% CP and 10% CF but tuber pericarp contained better CP (4.37%) and CF (23%) respectively. Extreme addition (100%) of mixed cassava maintained 42% organic matter digestibility (OMD) reducing feed cost significantly (p<0.01) by 50% respectively but 50% inclusion of mixed cassava reduced the feed cost (p<0.01) by 25% with highest OMD (>50%). A 50% inclusion of mixed cassava in ration could be more effective approach for small ruminant feeding.

Keywords: Cassava, Energy, Protein, Small ruminant

Editorial Board

Our editorial board is consist of 13 renowned scientist of Veterinary, Agriculture, Fisheries, Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Economics and Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering fields

Prof. Dr. Syed Sayeem Uddin Ahmed

Director (Research), SAURES

Chief Editor

Prof. Dr. Md. Mahfujur Rahman

Associate Director (Research), SAURES

Executive Editor

Kbd. Dabasish Saha

Deputy Director (Research), SAURES

Managing Editor

Full Editorial Board

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