FisheriesA fishermen's cooperative holding a three-year lease on the second section of the Ghasi river in Madhyanagar, Sunamganj, has e-mailed a complaint to the upazila administration accusing a local BNP leader of entering the leased water and taking fish with China duari nets.
EnvironmentAfter the government paid compensation to clear 673 structures from a rebuilt coastal embankment at Kuakata, encroachers are again cutting Forest Department plantings and putting up shops on the slope at night.
CropsThe only bridge across a large crop field at Begungram in Kalai upazila, Joypurhat, collapsed four years ago and has not been rebuilt, forcing hundreds of farmers to spend more time and money getting paddy and potatoes home; the LGED says work will start once funds are allocated.
VegetablesMore than 1,500 farmers from 14 villages of Charghat, Rajshahi, are learning crop care, soil health and pest management hands-on at Syngenta Bangladesh's Farmer School, and brinjal, cabbage and radish growers report rising earnings.
EnvironmentThe Bangladesh Meteorological Department says a low may form over the north Andaman Sea by Saturday or Sunday and could deepen into a depression and then a cyclone; its likely track is toward Odisha, but rainfall over Bangladesh is expected to rise after 23 September.
CropsAt Gabtola bazar in Nageshwari, Kurigram, farmers who arrived at the scheduled hour found the dealer's 80 sacks already gone; they confined a sub-assistant agriculture officer in the warehouse and blocked the road with tree trunks until the UNO freed him around noon.
Market ManagementBBS data show overall inflation fell for a third straight month to 8.26 percent in August, the lowest in ten months, with food inflation at 7.02 percent, below both July and the same month last year.
CropsAt Barind Agro Park in Sapahar, Naogaon, entrepreneur Sohel Rana grows lemongrass commercially, selling fresh and dried leaves and seedlings; agriculture officials say the low-input perennial could become a new cash crop for the dry north-west.
FisheriesThe Department of Fisheries allowed hilsa imports from India at traders' request without the ministry's knowledge; after learning of it, the fisheries minister demanded an explanation and ordered that no further permission be given.
EnvironmentAround 900 trees were cut from the protected Tengragiri and Nalbunia forests in Taltali, Barguna, between 12 and 16 September; residents accuse Forest Department staff of shielding the loggers, and the upazila administration has formed a five-member inquiry committee.
A World Weather Attribution study says human-caused climate change helped create the conditions for the rock and glacier collapse on Langtang Lirung that sent a deadly flood through the Nepal-Tibet border region, where the number of missing has been revised up to 6,150.
AgribusinessPesticide residue, weak traceability and soaring airfreight costs are holding back Bangladesh's vegetable exports, a Swisscontact roundtable in Dhaka heard, with public and private speakers calling for a coordinated effort from field to shipment.
EnvironmentPrime Minister Tarique Rahman has directed coordinated action to stop sewage entering the Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Niketan and Dhanmondi lakes, install sewage treatment plants and raise the number of mechanical boats clearing floating waste from two to ten.
