Ensure adequate storage facilities for potatoes, reduce transportation costs

Comprehensive measures needed to address the region's crippling water crisis and attendant problems

Abnormal surge in green chilli prices lays bare poor planning and regulation

The agricultural export from Bangladesh could decline as high as 11 per cent in the nations that are the biggest GSP facility providers following the country’s LDC graduation, according to a new study.

The government yesterday announced that it would allow onion imports to reduce the suffering of lower-income groups amid ongoing inflationary pressure, according to an official of the agriculture ministry.

Saiful Islam has lately been busy preparing his five bighas of land to grow paddy. But he reckons he will have to spend Tk 25,000 more than he did last season for the cultivation as the cost of just about everything has gone up.

Farmers, buoyed by soaring prices of flour in the domestic market because of the decline in imports, have brought more areas under wheat cultivation this season in a welcoming development.  

Once farmers of Pirojpur used to cultivate more than 50 varieties of paddy during Aman season. But currently, only five to six varieties exist as the rests appeared to have vanished, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE).

Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque today urged developed countries, international banks, donor agencies and private entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh’s agriculture sector, which will need Tk 15,000 crore in the next five years.

Paddy farmers in the northern districts have struggled to turn a profit for the past five years, as production costs have risen significantly but rice prices have not increased proportionally.

Md Abdur Rashid, who lives in Jugihuda village under Moheshpur upazila of Jhenaidah, has been enjoying great success in grape farming, which was once thought to be impossible in Bangladesh given the country’s soil and climate conditions.

Bangladesh is likely to buy the bulk of its muriate of potash (MOP) from Canada and other countries to meet its requirement for 7.5 lakh tonnes of the chemical fertiliser to produce rice and other crops for the next fiscal year, said officials of the agriculture ministry yesterday, dispelling concerns of a shortage due to the war in Ukraine.

The country has lost over Tk 263 crore in the agriculture sector due to Cyclone Bulbul, says Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder asks all deputy commissioners to ensure that paddy is procured directly from farmers to meet the target of paddy procurement set by the government.

Although paddy farmers are poised to get a bigger harvest this year, low prices have sapped their joy in the 10 south-western districts of the country. The amount of paddy the government plans to buy directly from farmers would not help them much as well, they said while talking to The Daily Star yesterday.