Untreated effluent from factories in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, reaches the 45km Khiru river through canals and drains; in the dry season the water turns black or blue, no fish survive, and farmers say irrigating with it damages their crops.
FisheriesA study led by Professor Badiuzzaman Khan of BAU found microplastics in the sediment of all 25 fish ponds sampled in Trishal, Mymensingh, averaging 11.04 particles per kilogram, and 90 particles in 150 farmed fish of six species.
Agrotech'The Golden Loop', a team of Bangladeshi students led by BAU, turned waste jute sacks into geotextile to stop pond banks eroding and jute sticks into biochar to clean pond water, reaching the top six of 119 teams in the Food Systems Innovation Challenge 2026 in the Netherlands.
FlowersNature writer Mokarram Hossain introduces two plants: the devil nettle, whose hairs sting for months, and the aquatic pickerelweed, which flowers blue almost all year in a pond at the Bangladesh Agricultural University museum.
LivestockBangladesh produces 25.9 billion eggs a year against demand of 18.55 billion, but feed prices and disease are pushing up costs, a World Egg Day seminar at Bangladesh Agricultural University heard, along with a call for more vets in each upazila.
CropsThe government app meant to let farmers sell paddy straight to state warehouses will not open in Mymensingh, and agriculture officers in all 13 upazilas are reluctant to draw up farmer lists that, they say, food offices ignore.
FlowersIn three months, four young men turned the walls along about 800 feet of road in Bashbari Colony, Mymensingh, into a hanging garden of orchids, flowers and foliage plants grown in discarded buckets, mugs and baskets.
EnvironmentThe government plans to lift this year's target of 50 million trees to between 55 and 60 million, plant all year round, and favour fruit, timber and medicinal species suited to local soil and weather.
EnvironmentBotany professor Chayan Bikash Bhadra of Muminunnessa Government College describes Litsea glutinosa, its flowers, fruit and folk uses, and warns that deforestation has made it far scarcer.
FruitsHard green papayas bought at Tk 10-12 a kilo in the chars are wrapped in paper and trucked off, arriving ripe at Karwan Bazar to sell for Tk 150-200; a trader denies using chemicals.
EnvironmentThe 25-acre garden on the Old Brahmaputra at Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh keeps about 1,800 vascular plant species, including rare and threatened ones.
The NGO Uddipan bought the Bhaluka farm at auction but has no Forest Department licence in its name, so about 400 export-ready skins cannot be sold; no exports are recorded since 2019.
Wildlife specialist Dr ANM Aminur Rahman photographed the lemon pansy, one of Bangladesh's common butterflies, in Chhital Para; it grows from egg to adult in 20 to 35 days.
Mymensingh's SK Hospital treated 20,073 people for animal bites and scratches from January to August, 5,955 of them under 15; vaccine is in stock, but dog vaccination has stopped.
Started with three crossbred goats, the farm now has about 25 Beetals after four years; unlike local Black Bengals, they leave surplus milk after feeding their kids.
Crinum jagus, a bulbous plant from tropical Africa, flowers on Mymensingh's Bisweshwari Debi Road; each stalk carries four to twelve scented white blooms.
LivestockA phytogenic feed additive built on the medicinal plant plantain by Bangladesh Agricultural University has improved omega-3 fatty acids, HDL and iron in broiler meat, and G-2 seed is now being produced in the country.
The Krishak O Khetmojur Sangram Parishad rallied at the National Press Club demanding a stop to solar plants on cropland, enough fertiliser at the government price and rationing, and announced district protests on 5 October.
Darul Islam, a farmer in Fulbaria, Mymensingh, builds rat traps from bamboo, jute rope and discarded bicycle or rickshaw tubes; after catching about 300 rats on his 10 kathas in the Aus season, he sells them at Tk 100 each and neighbours are using them in Aman fields.
LivestockA study by researchers at the University of Connecticut and Bangladesh Agricultural University, based on five years of data from the BAU dairy farm, finds the real carbon footprint of milk on Bangladeshi farms is 27 percent lower than earlier estimates.
FisheriesBangladesh produced 5.119 million tonnes of fish in FY2024-25, but growth fell to 1.85 percent, the lowest in five years, as reliance on commercial farming, rising costs and degraded open waters weigh on the sector.
Of 15,790 tonnes produced in 2023-24, 9,947 tonnes were exported to about 15 countries including Japan, China, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea; researchers at Bangladesh Agricultural University have produced a safe, shelf-stable canned kuchia product on a trial basis.
Opening the DVM 60th batch's internship, a UGC member said the government plans to bring 500,000 students into internships over five years; the dean told the students that knowledge earned with public money must now serve farmers and livestock keepers.
Easy to keep in low light, the peace lily has become a favourite of indoor gardeners; NASA's clean air research found it removes benzene and formaldehyde from indoor air.
At a seminar on shaping agriculture and agribusiness education for climate resilience, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Md Rafiqul Islam Sarder called for technology to be built into research, while coordinator Prof Dr Mohammad Jahangir Alam set out innovation clusters at five universities, curriculum modern
Haji Saral Mia of Mymensingh planted okra, greens and fruit trees on the one-acre bank of his 5.5-acre fish pond; 180 maunds are sold, 200-250 more are coming, and the crop needs no fertiliser and hardly any pesticide.
VideoAfter leaving a garment job, H M Forwardi Palash planted an acre of year-round guava in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, and is working towards GAP certification to supply supershops.
VideoIn Trishal, Mymensingh, two brothers combine ducks and fish to cut commercial feed costs, while struggling with invasive sucker fish in their ponds.
FlowersIn Bhaluka, Mymensingh, a private industrial group went from building polynet houses to marketing gerbera within a year, growing 12 varieties on 12 bighas.
In Bhaluka, Mymensingh, educated young man Babul has turned 30 bighas of leased jungle land into a profitable bottle gourd farm.
A fish farmer in Mymensingh has built a market where farmers from four upazilas sell directly, getting better prices and cutting out middlemen.
Nurul Haque of Brahmaputra Fish Seed Hatchery in Mymensingh has bred the nearly extinct gang magur, raising hopes of reviving the native fish for farmers.
