An article for agroforestry development technology.

1. Address
1
Circle Adjutant, 29 Ansar
Battalion, Gossabil, Manikchori
Khagrachori 2
Program Officer
Natural Resources Management
Project, Caritas Fisheries
Program, Mirpur, Dhaka 3
PhD
fellow, Dept. of Crop Physiology
& Ecology, Hajee Mohammod
Danesh Science & Technology
University, Dinajpur 4
Assistant
Director, BADC, Dhaka
5
Assistant Inspector, District
Education Office, Nilphamari
Bangladesh.
Correspondence
Pronay Bala
kbdpronay@yahoo.com
Accepted by 31 January, 2013
PERFORMANCE OF AROIDS GROWN UNDER MULTILAYER AGRO
FORESTRY SYSTEM
M M R Bhuiyan1
S Roy2
P Bala3
A K Azad3
M N Nasir4
and N C Barmon5
Abstract
Growth and development of vegetables were evaluated under five different light
levels i.e. open field condition or production under full sunlight (100%) condition
(T1) Sissoo + Guava based agro-forestry system (T2) which allowed 65-75% of
photosythetically active radiation (PAR), Sissoo + Lemon based agro-forestry (T3)
which allowed 35-45% of PAR, Coconut + Guava based agro-forestry system (T4)
which allowed 70-80% of PAR and Coconut + Lemon based agro-forestry system
(T5) which permitted 25-30% of PAR at the Germplasm Centre (GPC), Fruit Tree
Improvement Project (FTIP), Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural
University, Mymensingh during March to December, 2009. The study was
undertaken to know the performance of Pondial kachu and Panchamukhi kachu
grown under multilayer agro-forestry system under Randomized Complete Block
Design (RCBD). The result of the study revealed that plant height and length of
leaves of the vegetables increased gradually with the decrease of light levels. The
longest plant and the highest length of leaves were found under treatment T5. The
maximum yield was found under partial shade condition (T4). Coconut + Guava
based agro-forestry system (T4) had significant effect on most of the parameters of
the treatments. The highest yield of Pondial kachu (32.27 t/ha) and panchamukhi
kachu (30.60) was recorded from Coconut + Guava based agro forestry system
(T4). Coconut + Lemon based agro-forestry system (T5) had great effect on the
yield.
Key words: agro forestry, aroids, multilayer trees
Introduction
To maintain the environmental equilibrium and rate of
socio-economic development at least 25% area of a
country should be covered with forest. In Bangladesh
the total forest area covers about 13.36% of the land
area (BBS, 2010) which is very low compare to other
countries like Japan (67%), Mayanmer (48%), Srilanka
(36%) and India (20%). It can not fulfill the
requirements of the people’s fuel and timber or to
stabilize the climatic condition. About 80,000 ha of
agricultural land per year are going out of crop
production.
Under this alarming condition, it is necessary to find
out a suitable alternative to overcome this situation.
Since there is neither scope for expanding forest area
nor sole crop areas, the country has to develop
combined production system integrating trees and crop
which is now being called multilayer agro-forestry
system (Nair, 1993). Vegetables are consider as one of
the most important group of food crops due to their
high nutritive value, labor intensive production,
relative higher yield and higher return. The daily per
capita availability of vegetables excluding tubers crops
is only 36 gms against the required amount of 200
gms. However, this system is one kind of insurance of
the farmers against the risks of total crop failure in
case of mono cropping system. Shade loving/tolerant
vegetables e.g. aroids grown well as under storied crop
in agro-forestry system. Aroid is a common and
popular vegetable in Bangladesh. It is rich in vitamins
and minerals specially vitamin A and iron. The edible
aroids which include Pondial and Panchamukhi kachu
are grown in about 14,570 hectares of land in
Bangladesh. With an annual production is 1,40,000
metric tons (BARI, 2006). Though the land area and
production of Pondial and Panchamukhi kachu has not
been mention separately in the report just refereed, it is
quite known that a remarkable portion of it is occupied
by this crop. In Bangladesh especially in late summer
the availability of vegetables becomes very limited. In
that period aroids can play an important role as
vegetables (Basak and Maleque, 1992).
Under multistoried agro-forestry system, aroids are
compatible crop due to their shade loving / tolerant
nature and easily grown habit in all homesteads. In this
way, production will increase per unit area. It ensures
better use of natural resources as well as maintains
natural equilibrium. It also ensures biodiversity.
Although some sporadic studies for some vegetables
were done, but no systematic information is available
on growth under agro-forestry system. So, it is needed
to evaluate the growth and development of different
vegetables grown under agro-forestry system.
With this view, the present investigation was
undertaken to meet the following objectives:
Eco-friendly Agril. J. 6(01): 01-05, 2013 (January)

2.  to maintain biodiversity with vegetable
 to utilize natural resources properly
 to know the performance of vegetables grown under
multilayer agro-forestry system.
Materials and methods
The study was conducted on the existing multilayer
garden at the Germplasm Centre (GPC) of fruit Tree
Improvement Project (FTIP), Bangladesh Agricultural
University, Mymensingh during March to December
2009. The Experimental field is located at 24°25´N
latitude and 90°50´E longitude at an elevation of 18 m
above the sea level and climate is characterized by
heavy rainfall during the months from April to
September and scanty rainfall during the rest period of
the year.
The soil of the experimental area was silty loam in
texture belonging to the Old Brahmaputra Floodplain.
It was a medium high land, fertile well drained and
slightly acidic with pH varying from 5.5 to 6.8 and the
amount of organic carbon, total N, available P, and
available K were 0.835%, 0.068%, 18ppm and 0.28
meq/100g of soil samples, respectively (UNDP &
FAO, 1988).
Vegetables e.g. Ponchamukhi kachu and Pondial
kachu were laid out on the Randomized Complete
Block Design (RCBD) with single factor experiment.
Five treatments were used in this study. Three
replications were followed for each treatment for each
crop. Total 30 (5×2 ×3) plots were set up. Individual
plot size for vegetables was 24m×2m. Adjacent plots
and neighboring blocks were separated by 0.5 and 2m
respectively.
Treatments of the study
 T1 = Vegetables grown under open condition
 T2 = Sissoo + Guava + vegetables based agro-
forestry system (partial shade condition)
 T3 = Sissoo + Lemon + vegetables based agro-
forestry system (severe shade condition)
 T4 = Coconut + Guava + vegetables based agro-
forestry system (partial shade condition)
 T5 = Coconut + Lemon + vegetables based agro-
forestry system (severe shade condition)
In treatment T1 sunlight was allowed to fall over the
vegetables without any barrier which was consider as
100% photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). PAR
of 65-75%,34-45%,70-80% and 25-30% was allowed
for T2,T3,T4 and T5 treatment, respectively.
The land was prepared thoroughly by ploughing and
cross ploughing with power tiller followed by
laddering to obtain a good tilth. The weeds and
stubbles were removed from the field and bigger clods
were broken into smaller pieces. Finally, the soil
particles were pulverized and the land was leveled
uniformly.
The cut corm pieces of Punchamukhi and Pondial
kachu with at least one eye were used as seed in the
experiment. The planning materials were shown at the
spacing of 60×50 cm. Weeding was done periodically
whenever necessary. Earthing up was done throughout
the whole growing period. The first earthing up was
done after 60 days of planting. The second earthing up
was done after 90 days of planting and third earthing
up was done after 110 days of planting. Some aroids
were affected with leaf blight disease caused by
Phytophtohora colocasiae, which was controlled by
spraying of Ridomil MZ 72 WP at the rate of 25g/10
liter of water.
The doses for the medium fertile soil which are
recommended for mukhi kachu were applied to the
experimental plots of Pondial and Panchamukhi kachu
(Anonymous, 1997). Manures and fertilizers were
applied at the rate of 2000kg of cowdung, 105 kg of
urea,71 kg of Triple Super Phosphate(TSP), 82 kg of
Muriate of Potash(MoP) and 53 kg of Gupsum per
hectare.The entire amount of cowdung, TSP, MoP and
gypsum were added to the soil at final land preparation
of 7 days before planting. Urea was top dressed in two
equal installments at 10-20 and 40-45 days after 80%
emergence.
Aroids were harvested on November 2009 when the
plant height was found about 90 cm and leaves become
pale yellow after 245 days. The crop was harvested
when the pseudo stem (succulent leaf sheath arise from
underground rhizome) of the plant was almost dried.
Data on yield and yield attributes were taken from 10
randomly selected plants from each plot. The plot yield
was first recorded and then converted to per hectare
yield. Data in respect of various characters e.g. plant
height, number of leaves, breadth of leaves, length of
the corm, diameter of the corm, number of eyes per
corm, weight of corm per plant, yield per hectare were
recorded from the average of ten plants and
statistically analyzed to find out significance of the
experimental results. Ten plants were collected
randomly from each plot. Data were statistically
analyzed by analysis of variance using MSTAT-C. The
treatment means were compared by LSD test at P=0.05
level of significance (Gomez & Gomez, 1984).
Result and Discussion
The results observed from this study have been
presented with the following heads and data were
presented in Table 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Pondial Kachu
Plant height
The plant height of pondial kachu was increased
gradually with the increase of shade levels (Table 1).
The longest plant (105.31 cm) was found under heavy
Bhuiyan et al. Multilayer agroforestry for aroids
Eco-friendly Agril. J. 02

3. shade condition of treatment T5 (coconut + lemon
based agro forestry production). The shortest plant
(74.61 cm) was recorded under full sunlight. Under
partial shade of T2 plant height was 82.45 cm which
was statistically similar to plant height (82.82 cm) of
T4. Plant height at severe shade condition of T3
(Sissoo+ lemon based agro forestry system) was found
(97.18 cm). Leonardi (1996) cited that shading (60%
light reduction) enhanced plant height in peppers.
Probably, the presence of shade compelled the plant to
become taller in receiving natural light. It is vital to pin
point that the enhancement in plant height was coupled
with long internodes only, not for the number of
internodes. Nasiruddin et al. (1995) also showed the
similar result in tomato plants.
Number of leaves per main plant
The highest number of leaves (4.89) was observed
under severe shade condition of T5 followed by T3
(4.87) , T4 (4.62) and T2 (4.56). The lowest number of
leaves was found at full sunlight of T1 (4.33). There
was no statistically difference among the treatments.
Due to lower production of photosynthate under low
light conditions for a longer period lowest number of
leaves per plant produced at the heaviest shade
condition (Miah, et al., 1999).
Number of daughter plants per hill
The highest number of daughter plants (2.87) was
found under severe shade condition of T5 followed by
T3 (2.42) which were statistically similar to T2 (2.40).
The lowest number of daughter plants observed at full
sunlight of T1 (2.13). Similar result was reported by
Miah (2001).
Number of leaves per daughter plant
Number of leaves per daughter plant increased with
the increase of shade. The maximum number of leaves
(2.59) was found at T5 followed by T3 (2.58), T2 (2.51),
T4 (2.43) and T1 (2.34). There was no significant
difference among the treatments. Similar result was
reported by Ali (1999).
Total number of leaves per hill
Total number of leaves was increased gradually with
the increase of shade levels. The highest number of
leaves (14.56) observed at severe shade condition of T5
followed by T3 (14.04) and there was no significant
difference. The lowest number of leaves (9.91) found
in T1.
Leaf length
Leaf length was increased gradually with the increase
of shade levels. The longest leaf (32.85cm) was found
under heavy shade condition of T3, which was
statistically similar to T5 (32.45). The shortest leaf was
recorded under full sunlight (24.21cm).
Leaf breath
Leaf breath was increased gradually with the increase
of shade levels. The highest leaf breath (27.38cm) was
recorded under severe shade condition of T5, which
was statistically similar to that of T3 (26.65cm).
Significantly the lowest leaf breadth (18.23cm) was
observed under T1.
Length of main corm
Length of main corm increased gradually up to a
certain level of shade condition i.e. treatment T4
(16.64cm) followed by T2 (14.29cm). The lowest
length of corm was observed under T5 (9.45cm).
Diameter of corm
The highest diameter of corm (4.23cm) was recorded
under treatment T4. The lowest diameter of corm
(3.27cm) was found at sever shade condition of T5
which was statistically similar with T1 (3.36cm), T2
(3.72cm) and T3 (3.45) treatment.
Weight of corm per hill
The highest weight of corm per hill was recorded
under T4 (855.7g) followed by T2 (732.6g). The lowest
weight (409.7g) of corm was found under full sunlight
(T1).
Yield (t/ha)
The yield of Pondial Kachu was significantly
influenced by different levels. Partial shade condition
had positive effect on Pondial Kachu. Severe shade
condition decreased yield drastically. The highest yield
(32.27 t/ha) was recorded under partial shade condition
of T4. Significantly the lowest yield (22.58t/ha) was
recorded under severe shade condition of T5. In partial
shade condition, yield increased due to presence of
favorite conditions such as more photosynthesis and
there by more translocation. Oswald (1994) reported
the similar results in sweet potato.
Panchamukhi Kachu
Plant height
Aroid cultivation under shade grew more vigorously
than those grew in open field. It exhibited significantly
longer height irrespective of shaded treatments. With
the decrease of light intensity plant height increased
significantly. The shortest plant (79.52cm) was found
in open field condition and the tallest plant (99.23cm)
was recorded under the heaviest shade condition of T5
treatment (Table 3).
Number of leaves per main plant
The highest number of leaves per plant (4.91) was
recorded in severe shade condition of T5 which was
statistically similar with T4 (4.45), T3 (4.82), T2 (4.73)
and T1 (4.42) treatment.
Bhuiyan et al. Multilayer agroforestry for aroids
Eco-friendly Agril. J. 03

4. Length of leaves
Leaf length of Panchamukhi Kachu was increased
gradually with the increase of shade levels (Table 2).
The longest leaf (32.89cm) was found under heavy
shade condition of T5 which was statistically similar to
leaf length of (31.85cm) of T3. The shortest leaf
(22.08cm) was recorded under full sunlight of T1. This
might be attributed due to the situation of cellular
expansion and cell division of leaves under shaded
condition (Schoch, 1972).
Breadth of the leaf blade
Leaf breadth was increased gradually with the increase
of shade levels. The highest leaf breadth (27.42cm)
was recorded under severe shade condition of T5.
Significantly the lowest leaf breadth (17.50cm) was
observed under T1.
Number of leaves per sucker
The maximum number of leaves per sucker (2.39)
found under severe shade condition (T5) and lowest
number of leaves observed (2.29) under open
condition. There were no significant differences
among the treatments.
Length of the corm
Length of the corm found highest under partial shade
condition of T4 (7.45cm) followed by T2 (7.32cm). The
lowest length of corm was observed under T5
(7.01cm).
Diameter of the corm
The highest diameter of corm (13.35cm) was found
under partial shade condition of T4 which was
statistically similar to that of T2 (13.02cm) and T3
(12.55cm). The lowest diameter of corm (10.25) was
found under heavy shade condition of T5 which was
statistically similar to diameter at full sunlight T1
(10.87cm).
Number of eyes per corm
The highest number of eyes per corm was found under
treatment T4 (10.53) followed by T2 (10.21). The
lowest number of eyes observed at treatment T5 (9.04).
Weight of corm per plant
Corm weight per plant is affected by different light
level. The highest weight of corm per plant observed
Table1: Growth characters of Pondial Kachu under different light levels
Treatments (%
of PAR)
Plant
height (cm)
No. of leaves
per main plant
No. of daughter
plant per hill
No. of leaves
per daughter
plant
Total no. of
leaves per
hill
Leaf length
(cm)
Leaf
breadth
(cm)
T1 (100) 74.61d 4.33a 2.13c 2.34a 9.91c 24.21c 18.23c
T2 (65-75) 82.45c 4.56a 2.40bc 2.51a 10.67bc 27.56b 21.27b
T3 (35-45) 97.18b 4.87a 2.76ab 2.58a 14.04a 32.85a 26.65a
T4 (70-80) 82.82c 4.62a 2.42bc 2.43a 10.81b 28.41b 21.34b
T5 (25-30) 105.31a 4.89a 2.87a 2.59a 14.56a 32.45a 27.38a
LSD (P=0.05) 3.368 0.8483 0.3949 0.4375 0.8420 2.526 1.684
Table2: Yield contributing characters of Pondial Kachu under different light levels
Treatments (% of
PAR)
Length of main
corm (cm)
Diameter of corm
(cm)
Weight of corm per
hill (g)
Yield (t/ha)
T1 (100) 9.56c 3.36b 409.72d 25.86d
T2 (65-75) 14.29b 3.72b 732.56b 30.56b
T3 (35-45) 10.16c 3.45b 662.77bc 27.74c
T4 (70-80) 16.64a 4.23a 855.71a 32.27a
T5 (25-30) 9.45c 3.27b 573.17c 22.58e
LSD (P=0.05) 1.114 0.4375 101.1 0.8420
Table 3: Growth characters of Panchamukhi kachu under different light levels
Treatments
(% of PAR)
Plant height
(cm)
No. of leaves per
plant
Length of leaves
(cm)
Breadth of leaf
blade (cm)
No. of leaves
per sucker
T1 (100) 79.52b 4.42a 22.08d 17.50e 2.29a
T2 (65-75) 81.57b 4.73a 25.05c 19.25d 2.34a
T3 (35-45) 97.23a 4.82a 31.85a 25.67b 2.35a
T4 (70-80) 82.46b 4.45a 27.14b 20.32c 2.31a
T5 (25-30) 99.23a 4.91a 32.89a 27.42a 2.39a
LSD (P=0.05) 4.210 0.7145 1.458 1.031 0.4688
Bhuiyan et al. Multilayer agroforestry for aroids
Eco-friendly Agril. J. 04

5. Table 4: Yield contributing characters of Panchamukhi kachu under different light levels
Treatments (% of
PAR)
Length of
corm (cm)
Diameter of
corm (cm)
No. of eyes per
corm
Weight of corm
per plant (g)
Yield ton per
hectare
T1 (100) 7.11a 10.87b 9.95ab 1156b 25.48b
T2 (65-75) 7.32a 13.02a 10.21a 1206a 30.37a
T3 (35-45) 7.23a 12.55a 9.94ab 1095c 27.83b
T4 (70-80) 7.45a 13.35a 10.53a 1215a 30.60a
T5 (25-30) 7.01a 10.25b 9.04b 1083c 22.56c
LSD (P=0.05) 0.8620 1.031 0.9820 41.20 2.520
under partial shade condition of T4 (1215g), which was
followed by T2 (1206g). The medium weight of corm
found under full sunlight of treatment T1 (1156g). The
lowest weight of corm (1083g) was recorded under
heaviest shade condition of T5, which was statistically
similar to treatment T3 (1075g).
Yield (t/ha)
Yield of Panchamukhi kachu significantly influenced
by different light levels. Partial shade condition had
positive effect on Panchamukhi kachu. The highest
yield (30.60 t/ha) was recorded under partial shade
condition of T4, which was statistically similar that of
production under T2 (30.37 t/ha). Significantly the
lowest yield (22.56 t/ha) was recorded under T5.
Conclusion
From the above experimental findings, it could be
concluded that, in Pondial Kachu, plant height was
increased with the decrease of light intensity. The
highest yield was recorded under partial shade
condition. Panchamukhi kachu cultivated under shade
grew more vigorously then those grew in open field.
With the increase of shade levels plant height
increased significantly. Partial shade condition had
positive effect on yield of Panchamukhi Kachu.
However, the findings of the present study were
achieved based on one season trial, which may not be
sufficient to assess the sustainability of the results. So,
similar experiments should be repeated for
recommendation.
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