Baniachong in Habiganj is famous worldwide and is said to be the largest village in the world. It is said that Chicago was once the largest village, and later Baniachong was called the largest village in Asia.

That is not the subject here. The report looks at the landscape, biodiversity, way of life and farming practices of Bangladesh's haor region, where sweeping changes have been seen in recent years.

The main reason for coming to Baniachong is this: until a certain time, farmers here grew many local rice varieties before the monsoon, and then varieties developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) arrived. Farmers would harvest before the haor floods, but late varieties were often submerged, so early, short-duration varieties were introduced for them.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Hridoye Mati O Manush. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.