49 stories
Daily lifeOmega-3, vitamins D, A and E and selenium for the heart, brain, skin and bones: what the national fish gives — and the classic ways to cook it, from shorshe ilish and bhapa to ilish polao and panta ilish.
FisheriesAlways in demand, content in a small pond and cheap to feed: pond selection, preparation, stocking two-inch fry at 500–1,000 a decimal, a 32 per cent protein feed, 60–70 g fish in six to seven months, and the fungus to watch for.
AgribusinessSeed is the life of farming. Selection, treatment, dry cool storage, the germination test, pre-sowing soaking; dressing, coating and pelleting — and the yield that good seed care returns.
FlowersSecond only to the rose in popularity and a first-rank commercial flower: climate and soil, propagation from suckers and cuttings, the potting mix, disbudding for large blooms, and control of aphids and fungal disease.
FisheriesMarket size in six to eight months, demand all year and low cost: native and Thai pangas, intensive culture, pond selection and preparation, stocking, feed and disease management.
FruitsVitamin C, vitamin A, fibre and potassium at 47 calories a hundred grams; demand all year, easy management and an orchard that pays for decades. Why the orange is a healthy fruit and a profitable crop.
CropsOnce dismissed as the poor man's grain, kaun is protein- and fibre-rich, low-calorie and low-GI, and grows on land little else likes. Soil, sowing, seed rate, fertiliser and the Titas variety.
CropsMore nutritious than rice or wheat and in demand all year for food, feed and industry: soil, sowing time, spacing, seed treatment, fertiliser, harvest and the BARI hybrids that made maize Bangladesh's fastest-growing cereal.
CropsPiperine for digestion, vitamins C, K and A, calcium and iron — and a vine that pays for decades once it is up its pole. Climate, soil, planting, fertiliser and care for black pepper.
VideoAt Bindhara in Panchbibi, Joypurhat, farmers are growing the small, dark 'Black Baby' Chinese watermelon on trellises — a 60-day crop of 4–4.5 tonnes a bigha that beats any field crop for profit.
AgrotechMost of Bangladesh's vegetables come in the winter glut, when prices collapse. Grown under a bamboo or steel tunnel out of season, the same crops fetch double. What tunnel farming is, what it grows, how to build one.
CropsProtein, fibre and iron in every handful, and a winter crop that asks little of the land: seed treatment, spacing, water, pests and the BARI chickpea varieties bred for Bangladesh.
Homestead farmingYellow, white, red and pink, easy to grow and generous in bloom: seven steps to growing chrysanthemums in pots, and how to arrange them by colour, height and light so the roof becomes a garden.
