Implementation of Advanced Cultivation Technique- of Water Chestnut in Bangladesh

Abstract

The water chestnut is an annual aquatic minor fruit and available grown in everywhere in watery bog place in Bangladesh. Water chestnut has been considered as a minor crop because of its low yield performance and lack of optimum physiological data and advanced cultivation techniques. There is little information on procedures to improve its cultivation and performance and little effort has been directed to the development of cultivation methods and productions. However, growers now demand information on any improved varieties and their production technology. In order to increase the biological performance and production of water chestnut in paddy fields and mass cultivation in field condition, the first requirement is its mass propagation, seedling quality improvement, possibly involving chemical/hormonal treatment optimization, breeding and micro-propagation through arsenic culture to multiply existing germplasms of water chestnut. To improve the varietals performance and modem cultivation techniques fruits chemical analysis and this relevant study, hormonal treatment and micro-propagation were carried out in different three varieties of water chestnut. Among three varieties red water chestnut produce large sized fruits with rich food nutrients but green water chest optimized as effective variety in different parameters as much number fruit production with average amount of food nutrients, produced much number of lateral branches from cotyledon shoot, much flower initiation and more sensitive to in vitro micro-propagation, overall, it forms excellent vegetative canopy and over fruits production in controlled cultivation field. Green water chestnut rich in protein, lipid, sugar, starch, phenol, fiber, minerals, amino acids and vitamins than the red water chestnut but wild water chestnut shows more antibacterial and anti-fungal activities than both green and red varieties. Green and red water chestnuts are suitable for commercial cultivation while wild water chestnut required to varietals improvement for further commercial cultivation. Besides in plant-lets multiplication and micro-propagation green water chestnut showed better performance to callus induction at I+ I MM BA+GA3, best shoot initiation (at BA), shoot elongation, root formation (best at NAA+GA3), To multiply much branches, enhance shoot initiation and elongation, in physically hormonal treatment in in vitro condition, best shoot proliferated hormone found at l-5ml/l BA, NAA shoot length proliferation performance found at 1mlg/l. These findings could have a considerable socio-economic impact to optimization physical, chemical and micro-propagation has become an important aspect for commercial nursery development and commercial cultivation of water chestnut, and this relevant information needs to be disseminated to more effectively multiply, commercial cultivation on a much larger scale in Bangladesh.