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CropsHugh Earl's team is varying boron, iron, manganese and zinc one at a time to build yield-response curves, because deficiencies can cut yield without visible symptoms.
FisheriesWith the WMO warning of one of the strongest El Niños since 1950, WorldFish says preparedness plans cover crops and livestock but leave out fisheries and aquaculture, and is piloting forecast text messages and pond sensors in Zambia.
HealthGiardia duodenalis turned up in 6.3 percent of more than 157,000 faecal samples from pet cats in the US and Canada, and 18.5 percent of the positive samples carried strains that can infect humans.
HealthAccording to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, one in three women and one in five men over 50 may suffer an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime; diet, exercise and timely testing are the main defences.
Bangladesh Medical University now performs two liver transplants a month and aims for four by the end of next year; its last six were free under government funding, with a 90 percent success rate.
CropsIndian bay leaf trees on homesteads, field ridges and fallow land have become an extra income source in Bajemoskur village of Kaunia, Rangpur; the upazila grows it on 65 hectares and leaves sell for Tk 108 to 112 a kg.
VegetablesMeherpur aims to grow winter vegetables on 5,250 hectares this season and early vegetables already cover about 2,000 hectares, though farmers face labour shortages, higher wages and fertiliser problems.
OpinionWriting in Ajker Patrika, Shykh Seraj notes that 90% of Bangladesh's land is now prepared by machine and about 80% of irrigation is mechanised, but only 10 to 15% of rice is harvested by machine; subsidies should go to small machines for small farmers.
OpinionIn a Down To Earth column, Afsheen Rizvi and V Sujatha say Japan halved food loss by 2023 through law, data, food banks and the culture of mottainai, and that India, wasting 78-80 million tonnes a year, could build the same system now.
EnvironmentAt the Climate and Clean Air Coalition meeting in Bangkok, IRRI said alternate wetting and drying and better residue management exist, but farmers adopt them only when they pay.
CropsThe eighth deposit from the International Rice Genebank includes rice from Madagascar, wild rice from Costa Rica and Nepalese varieties, and brings backup coverage to 99.59% of curated accessions.
AgrotechSam Fryer's A$12,000 thermal drone replaced a helicopter and two bike riders, finds hidden cattle and dingoes, and by his estimate returned 110% in year one.
LivestockFive cases are active in Texas and New Mexico, more than 1.4 billion sterile flies have been released since June, and a Mexican town is protesting the smell of a sterile fly plant.
LivestockThe case in a state with about 15% of Brazil's poultry output raises the prospect of a Chinese import suspension under the trade protocol, the meat industry group ABPA says.
CropsBioPower Energy signed a memorandum with the U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council to source half to all of its feedstock from US suppliers, with a floor of 1 million tonnes of corn a year.
FruitsThe FTA in force from 20 October gives Indian exports duty-free access to New Zealand, ties import quotas for apples, kiwifruit and Manuka honey to productivity plans, and keeps dairy, sugar and edible oils out.
AgrotechThe single-window portal links PM-KISAN, AgriStack and crop insurance with eligibility checks, direct applications and DBT payments, and is built to run on basic smartphones with weak connections.
EnvironmentA Tk 1,203.73 crore project for tube wells, rainwater harvesting and latrines in 123 upazilas of 16 districts in the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions goes before ECNEC on 25 October; experts urge alternatives to groundwater.
AgribusinessBRAC Bank will assess farmers' and input dealers' creditworthiness from their digital transaction histories in a two-year, Gates Foundation-backed pilot reaching 50,000 farmers and 1,500 input sellers; IFPRI will evaluate the impact.
FisheriesResearchers have split the spiny seahorse into three species, naming Hippocampus amandavincentae from two specimens landed at Thoothukudi, and warn that bottom trawling in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea threatens it.
LivestockILRI traces the 'nigongee' egg sold at Nairobi bus stops back to the hens, mostly kept by women, and to research on Newcastle vaccination, improved breeds, enriched feed and food safety.
The Boston startup known for lab-grown cotton multiplies cocoa bean cells in bioreactors, then ferments, roasts and grinds them into cocoa powder for its WunderHaus chocolate, launching in December.
AgrotechUS high-protein whey concentrate cost about $12.25 a pound at the end of August, up 134% on a year, and ingredient firms are launching soy and pea proteins for dairy-plant hybrid products.
CropsBarry Callebaut's Asia Pacific cocoa chief Angela Gubser says volatility will persist, high prices have not always reached farmers, and cocoa in Indonesia now competes with durian, rice and oil palm.
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
GalleryGlimpse: ambarella by boat, bean fields and wading to the Jamuna chars1 photos
GalleryBento, banchan, meze, thali: how seven countries turn serving food into an art1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 19 October: dew on Bogura's bean fields, hill women harvest rice in Bandarban1 photos
GalleryCox's Bazar hotels and resorts run without clearance, some inside a critical area1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 18 October: maize sowing in Faridpur, bitter gourd sold in Rangpur fields1 photos
GalleryMist over green paddy and distant hills: late autumn morning in pictures1 photos
GalleryIn pictures: Sukhpara's betel vines yield leaves 11 months a yearSection
CropsA Rothamsted Research study finds fertiliser manufacture is up to 47% of the energy-related footprint on arable farms, and that best-practice nitrogen use would cut fertiliser-linked energy by 16% to 40%.
EnvironmentThe government is planning a floating LNG terminal at Akram Point, inside the Sundarbans near the Pasur-Shibsa estuary and a dolphin sanctuary; environmental experts warn of fire, oil and chemical pollution and cold-water discharge.
OpinionIn a Prothom Alo column, the paper's climate project manager Khaliullah argues that poison-fishing cases in the Sundarbans collapse in court because the Forest Department has no laboratory of its own.
EnvironmentThrough the Symbiosis Coalition, the two companies will buy 320,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits over ten years from Working Trees, which plants timber and native trees into grazed pasture.
EnvironmentScience and technology secretary Md Anwar Hossain has called for research on treating textile and garment wastewater with modern technology, replacing chemical dyes with local natural materials and cutting groundwater use in dyeing.
EnvironmentPugmarks stretching about half a kilometre were found on a char of the Bhola river at Sonatala village in Sharankhola, Bagerhat, on Monday morning; the Forest Department says the tiger swam over from the Sundarbans and went back, but has told villagers to stay alert.
