Latest
IslamSaudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah and the Pilgrim Experience Program hold the sixth Hajj Conference and Exhibition in Jeddah from 8 to 11 November. As preparations for the 2027 Hajj gather pace, coordination among service providers is the central question.
AgrotechAn IoT storage system built at Bangladesh Agricultural University uses sensors for temperature, humidity and spoilage gases to switch fans on and off. In an 80-day trial the marketable share of onions rose from 68.22 to 76.81 percent.
VegetablesThe green, yellow, orange and red capsicums in the market are not separate varieties but the same fruit at different stages of ripening. Sweetness and some nutrients change as it ripens, and red costs more because it takes longer on the plant.
EnvironmentMoss on damp walls and old bricks holds water, keeps soil moist, shelters tiny creatures and takes up carbon dioxide. But moss on a house wall is also a sign to look for the source of the damp.
FlowersThree years ago young people in Chhoto Maheshpur village planted red water lily seedlings in a pond beside the Birampur-Nawabganj road. With regular care the whole pond is now covered in blooms.
IslamThe Ishraq prayer, serving one's parents, walking to the mosque for obligatory prayers, seeking religious knowledge and the tasbih after prayers are described in the hadith as deeds of special merit. These voluntary acts are no substitute for the obligatory Hajj.
EnvironmentThe National Adaptation Plan puts Bangladesh's needs to 2050 at about $230 billion. In 2026-27, climate-related allocations across 25 ministries total Tk 51,746 crore, and the government's own Climate Change Trust Fund receives just Tk 100 crore.
HealthA study by the health ministry's Health Economics Unit finds 41.7 percent of people faced financial hardship paying for treatment in 2022, and that these costs alone pushed 7.2 million people below the poverty line that year.
OpinionIn a Down To Earth column, Ranjan Panda argues that India must prepare its farms, village water sources and farm workers now for an El Niño the WMO says is almost certain to last through February 2027.
LivestockMembers of the Commons farming committee told food security minister Stephen Morgan that Defra's proposal to replace CO2 stunning of pigs with argon or electrical stunning is out ahead of the evidence, with 15,000 pigs already backed up on farms.
LivestockSouth Africa's broiler industry, one of the world's cheapest producers after Brazil, warns that failing municipal water and electricity supplies are raising costs, threatening small farmers and opening the door to imports.
EnvironmentThe Tropical Forest Forever Facility, launched at COP30 to pay up to $4 a year per hectare of standing tropical forest, has US$7.8 billion pledged by eight countries against a US$125 billion design, and its first payments are not expected before 2028.
LivestockDemand for KALRO's improved indigenous chicken breeds far outstrips supply, and ILRI argues that livestock breeds and vaccines only reach farmers when hatcheries, financing and delivery systems are built alongside the science.
CropsICRISAT, FAO and Saudi Arabia's Saudi REEF programme tested 27 sorghum and 15 pearl millet entries in Jazan and Abha and picked five dual-purpose candidates; the best sorghum beat the best check by 9.3% in grain and 41.3% in fresh biomass.
AgrotechSOLASTA Bio has submitted its first peptide-based bioinsecticide, aimed at aphids and whiteflies, to the US EPA and California regulators, and showed it in the field in Georgia during a whitefly surge not seen locally in over a decade.
AgrotechUS start-up SAGE, led by former tech executive Bill Veghte, prices crop risk for each field instead of county averages, and will offer "precision crop insurance" to corn and soybean growers in 15 states in 2027 with Aon and AgriCap.
VegetablesThe AfricaBlight Network, launched at the World Potato Congress in Kenya, will pool disease forecasting, surveillance and farmer training against late blight, starting with Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
LivestockA USDA loan guarantee will back a $24.6 million commercial loan for a locally owned beef processing plant in Dimmitt, Texas, set up by 36 cattle-raising investors to process about 400 head a day.
FAO launched updated Guidelines for Integrated Land Use Planning at the UN Biodiversity Conference, a voluntary framework that uses soil data, mapping and digital tools to help countries share out land, soil and water between farming, cities and nature.
AgribusinessPet food maker Royal Canin and its wheat supplier Roquette will co-invest in more than 60 French farms moving to regenerative practices, with Soil Capital verifying the farm data both companies use.
VegetablesFaridpur's murikata onion, which keeps winter supply steady, is being planted amid a DAP fertiliser shortage and rising costs. Onion sets cost Tk 2,800-3,000 a maund; the district's target is 5,885 hectares.
VegetablesGood supply kept vegetable prices steady at Dhaka's Shewrapara and Taltola markets on Thursday. Potatoes fell Tk 5 to Tk 25 a kg, eggs eased, and Sonali cock chicken rose Tk 20.
FisheriesWith the 22-day ban to protect spawning hilsa lifted, fishers are back on the Meghna and Tentulia in Bhola, hoping to clear their debts. Some say influential people's men caught brood hilsa during the ban.
CropsThe government aims to bring about 2.4 crore farmers into its registration, input support and farmer card programme within four years, 43 lakh of them this fiscal year. Data on 19.25 lakh farmers has been collected and 9 lakh bank accounts opened.
Watch
VideoRobert and Mary Troy, the fifth generation milking at Newtownshandrum, won the 2026 NDC and Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards with 425 cows, an SCC of 89,000 cells/ml and a herd in the national top 1% for breeding.
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.
In pictures
GalleryCyclone Arnab flattens ripening paddy and idles fishers on the Andhra coast1 photos
GalleryIn pictures: Dumuria's wholesale vegetable market, from gher-dyke papaya to early beans1 photos
GalleryAn hour of light a day turns cave walls green in Chhattisgarh's Kanger Valley1 photos
GalleryWhy Kashmir's chinar leaves turn red in autumn, and the 'Tree Aadhaar' guarding 28,000 trees1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 26 October: bees on bean flowers, Kaptai's catch, radishes off to market1 photos
GalleryIbises, lapwings and openbills gather at Bogura's Bhepra beel among aman fields1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 25 October: vegetables by boat, okra on a gher bank, date palm jaggerySection
FisheriesShrimp and fish are still being caught with pesticide in the rivers and canals of the Sundarbans. The West forest division filed 34 cases from June to August and arrested 25 people; experts warn of harm to the ecosystem and to human health.
FlowersOsbeckia assamensis, a shrub with clusters of bright pink flowers, has been described from the grasslands of Manas National Park by the botanists Barnali Das and Namita Nath in the journal Phytotaxa.
EnvironmentA Cereus hexagonus at the National Botanical Garden in Mirpur, Dhaka, has passed 25 feet and is held up with six iron bands. The garden's cactus house keeps 72 species.
