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IslamWriting in Prothom Alo's seerah column, Muhammad Tajammul Haque traces the grave of Abdullah, father of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), to the house of al-Nabigha among the Banu Najjar in Madinah, an area one source says became part of al-Baqi cemetery in 1979.
AgribusinessMarubeni Corporation chief executive Masayuki Omoto told Bangladesh's commerce minister the Japanese group is interested in modernising KAFCO, raising fertiliser output and investing in DAP and TSP production; jute diversification was also discussed.
EnvironmentEggs gathered over two months from homes, a school and other places in Boalkhali, Chattogram, were incubated on sand in jars; every one hatched, and the young cobras are being prepared for release into the wild.
LivestockA Supreme Court lawyer has given the government 15 days to lift the ban on importing live cattle and certified halal frozen beef and to rationalise duties, arguing that beef now selling at Tk 780-850 a kilo could fall to Tk 250.
HealthAt a ministerial round table in Berlin, Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain repeated the pledge to raise health spending gradually to 5 per cent of GDP and hire 25,000 midwives into the public system within a few years.
CropsIntensive farming, climate change and depleted soils are raising the risk that food grains carry fewer nutrients, a BSS special report says, leaving people short of zinc, iron and protein even when they eat enough.
CropsTo close a ginger shortfall of about 120,000 tonnes a year, the government wants self-sufficiency within three years through better varieties, quality seed and ginger grown in sacks around homesteads.
CookingThe fiery flavour of Chattogram's mezbani does not need beef: two kilos of chicken, eight whole spices roasted and ground at home, and four steps of cooking.
CropsA Maryland farmer found less tar spot where fungicide went on with a high-clearance sprayer than by drone, while rain cost a Minnesota grower $25,000 in edible bean quality in one field.
CookingBoil half a teaspoon each of nigella seeds and whole black peppercorns with a third of a teaspoon of chopped ginger in 500 ml of water for 5 to 7 minutes, then strain it over tea leaves.
CropsA dry room, pallets off the floor, no hooks when handling, protection from moisture, careful stacking and first-in, first-out use: advice on cutting fertiliser waste.
VegetablesBuilding on last year's crop and seed production on 30 decimals of fallow char land at Kamarjani, Bangladesh Agricultural University horticulturists have given seed and training to 50 farmers on the Brahmaputra chars.
Daily lifeWhole cumin may be mixed with grass seed and charcoal dust, and ground cumin with sawdust or bran. Your palm, a glass plate and a glass of water can give an early hint, though none of these tests is conclusive.
EnvironmentEnvironmentalists are alarmed that trees have been wrapped from crown to base in LED chains. A Delhi University study found such lighting harms nocturnal animals and birds, and the Bombay High Court has barred lights on trees.
EnvironmentOne of a herd of about 45 elephants gave birth in a field in the Kalaikunda range of the Kharagpur forest division; the mother waited until dawn, when the calf could stand, and led it into the forest.
AgrotechUnder India's Digital Agriculture Mission, each farmer's identity, land and crop records are being linked to a 12-digit Unique Farmer ID so that subsidies, insurance and crop payments go straight to genuine farmers' bank accounts.
FruitsAt an Export Promotion Bureau training in Manikchhari, Khagrachari, EPB chief Mohammad Hasan Arif said hill produce cannot be exported without quality production, and that no charge beyond official tolls is acceptable on the road to the plains.
VegetablesAgainst a target of 1,290 hectares, about 480 hectares fewer have gone under beans in Ishwardi this season, as farmers cite costs, poor prices, fertiliser shortages and absent extension officers.
HealthAt least 624,000 children in the Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char camps need urgent aid. UNICEF screened 169,700 children up to June and treated 6,800 for severe malnutrition, while the WHO-led health sector is 64 percent short of funds.
LivestockBangladesh produces 25.9 billion eggs a year against demand of 18.55 billion, but feed prices and disease are pushing up costs, a World Egg Day seminar at Bangladesh Agricultural University heard, along with a call for more vets in each upazila.
HealthThe government will repurpose money from a 2021 European Investment Bank Covid loan to reach about 47 million women and girls, with early detection of cervical and breast cancer and stronger district hospitals, it told partners in Berlin.
CropsThe Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation turns 65 on 16 October. In 2025-26 it produced 144,000 tonnes of seed, extended irrigation to 22,000 hectares and supplied 75.37 percent of the country's non-urea fertiliser.
IslamIn an age when daughters were thought a shame, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) established the dignity of women. A short account of his four daughters' births, marriages, children and deaths.
HealthPosing as a free health camp, consumer-protection officials in Faridpur upazila, Pabna, caught one business adding a chemical to milk and a dairy making fake milk from jelly and cooking oil.
Watch
VideoIn the latest AgriView episode, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo asks whether the enlarged BRICS bloc is opening real markets for South African produce, or mostly producing talk.
VideoAt Bindhara in Panchbibi, Joypurhat, small dark-skinned Black Baby watermelons hang from bamboo trellises. The 60-day crop needs 50 grams of seed a bigha, yields 1,200 to 1,500 fruits or 4 to 4.5 tonnes, and at Tk 30 a kilo earns far more than other field crops.
VideoShykh Seraj examines the government's first 180 days in agriculture, from farm loan waivers and farmer cards to crop insurance and canal excavation.
In pictures
GalleryDawn to 9am: a banana market on the banks of the Karatoya in Bogura1 photos
GalleryGlimpse: a tomato plot, betel vines, hill papayas and Padma erosion1 photos
GalleryIn pictures, 9 October: mended nets, a scarecrow, kenaf in bloom1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 8 October: jute on a bridge rail, bitter gourd trellises, winter seedlings1 photos
GalleryIn pictures: dawn at Barishal's Port Road fish landing centre1 photos
Gallery24,000 entries: highlights from Bird Photographer of the Year 20261 photos
GalleryIn pictures: Rangpur's sagar banana boom, from orchard to truckSection
OpinionWriting in Prothom Alo, Professor Moinul Islam says the tea association reckons only 50 to 52 percent of the land in Sylhet's 168 tea gardens can grow tea, and that solar panels on the rest could add about 10,000 MW.
EnvironmentEven as the water falls, the Padma and Arial Khan are swallowing homes and cropland in Sadarpur, Faridpur, and farmers are cutting half-ripe paddy as cattle feed before the river takes it.
FlowersIn three months, four young men turned the walls along about 800 feet of road in Bashbari Colony, Mymensingh, into a hanging garden of orchids, flowers and foliage plants grown in discarded buckets, mugs and baskets.
EnvironmentAt Madhutila Eco Park in Sherpur, environment minister Abdul Awal Mintoo said a sanctuary and six India-Bangladesh corridors will be pursued to ease human-elephant conflict, and handed out Tk 1.665 million in compensation.
FisheriesGoonch catfish (baghair) of 30 to 100 kg are taken from the Jamuna on the Madarganj-Sariakandi border and sold almost daily at Balijuri bazar for Tk 1,000 to 1,500 a kg, though the species is protected as critically endangered.
OpinionThe Chakaria Sundarbans once covered more than 21,000 acres and now has a single sundari tree; writer and journalist Khalilullah argues in Prothom Alo that mangroves and shrimp can coexist and that restoring the forest needs political will.
