This study was conducted during the period from June to November, 2004 with a view to study the effect of storage relative humidity (RH) on germination and vigour of wheat seed. Four different storage relative humidities (viz. 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%) and two crop varieties (wheat cv. Satabdi and wheat cv. Gourab) were used as treatment variables. Seed moisture content (SMC), germination and vigour test of seeds were done at one months interval starting from 10 July to 10 November 2004, while the initial test for SMC and germination was done on 10 June, 2004. The results showed that storage relative humidity, crop variety and their interaction significantly influenced the seed moisture content, germination and vigour index. The moisture contents of wheat seed in storage were found between 7.9-8.8, 9.5-10.0, 12.0-12.5 and 15.3-16.0%, respectively for 50, 60, 70 and 80% RH against their initial moisture content of 8.4-9.5% just before storage. The germination and vigour of all the varieties decreased with increases RH. For each of the crop variety, the highest germination was obtained at 50% RH. No seed germination was occurred in any of the variety stored at 80% RH after two months of storage. More than 92% seed germination was recorded from all the varieties after 6 months of storage. The seeds kept at 70% RH showed 83% germination in July 2004 that reduced to 74% in November.

An experiment was conducted during the period from June to November, 2004 with a view to study the effect of storage relative humidity (RH) on germination and vigour of soybean seed. Four different storage relative humidities (viz. 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%) and two soybean varieties (namely, soybean cv. G-2 and soybean cv. PB-1) were included as experimental treatment. Seed moisture content (SMC), germination and vigour tests of seed were done one month interval starting from 10 July up to 10 November while the initial test for SMC and germination was done on 10 June, 2004. The result showed that storage relative humidity, variety and their interaction significantly influenced the seed moisture content, germination percentage and vigour index. The moisture content of soybean seed during storage were found between 7.9-8.5, 9.6-9.8, 12.0-12.3 and 15.3-16.1% for 50, 60, 70 and 80% storage RH, respectively against their initial moisture content of 8.4-9.5% just before storage. The germination and vigour of all the varieties decreased with increasing storage RH. For each of the soybean variety, the highest germination percentage was obtained from 50% storage RH and no seed germination was occurred in any of the variety stored under 80% storage RH after two months of storage. More than 92% seed germination was maintained for all the varieties after 6 months of storage. The seed stored under 70% RH showed 83% germination in July that reduced to 74% in November, 2004.

Survey in four districts of Bangladesh namely Mymensingh, Kishorganj, Sherpur and Netrokona were carried out to assess the support needs for capacity building of small agricultural machinery manufacturing workshops. Farmers expressed their confidence on the presently available locally made agricultural machines and equipment by small machinery manufacturers within the country and eager to adopt appropriate machines to few labour intensive and time consuming crop production activities. From the viewpoint of sustaining agricultural production in the county, capacity building of small agricultural machinery manufacturers is a crucial need of the time. The volume of production of agricultural machinery is increasing and different types of machinery are being made locally but most of the agricultural machinery manufacturing workshops are in primary stage. They faced many technical, financial, environmental and so many problems and it is necessary to support local machinery manufacturing workshops to overcome these problems and to build their capacity. Suggestions in this context are proposed to minimize the problems and to build their capacity.

The Hohenheim type solar dryer was invented by the Hohenheim University of Germany. Professor B.K. Bala, Department of Farm Power and Machinery, BAU, Mymensingh, Bangladesh was developed and constructed this dryer with locally available material in the country. This dryer was used for drying fruits, vegetables and fishes. In this paper the jackfruit juice were dried in four experimental runs. The total 22.60 kg of fresh juice were dried in two ways; 15.16 kg was dried inside the dryer and another 7.44 kg was dried in the open sun light outside the dryer. The moisture contents for both cases were 76.84% (wb). The dried weights of jackfruit leather were 3.42 kg and 2.62 kg with moisture contents of 13.23% (wb) and 26.47% (wb) respectively after 3 to 4 days of drying operations. The temperature raised 10^o C to 39^o C over ambient temperatures at the range of solar radiation of 0 to 350 W/ m². The moisture removal rates were 124.96 gm/hr by the dryer and 65 gm/hr from the sample kept outside the dryer. The jackfruit juice for first three runs were extracted by the electric blender machine and the juice for run 4 by traditional hand method used. The dried leather from electric blender machine was seen more attractive. This study was done in Farm Machinery work shop, BAU, Mymensingh in 2002.

Computer software based on different operations of production such as land preparation, tillage (P.T/Tractor) operation, sowing, transplanting, weeding, fertilizer application, threshing, cleaning etc. was developed for the selection of optimum cropping pattern for maximum return (SOCPMR). The program was designed in order to optimize the cropping pattern from different cropping patterns. A study had been under taken to address the issue of labour cost, material cost and cost of products and byproducts to individual cropping pattern. Optimum cropping pattern was considered with regard to cost of productions among the seven different patterns. Maximum profit was achieved from pattern no. six and that pattern was T.aman-Boro-BARIpea-2.