VegetablesPabel Hossain, a young farmer in Boro Gopaldi, Dashmina, Patuakhali, grows bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber on trellises over 33 decimals and has sold Tk 70,000 of vegetables on a Tk 14,000 outlay, using vermicompost and yellow sticky traps.
VegetablesAfter five years of work at its Lebukhali station in Patuakhali, BARI has bred a hybrid sweet pumpkin with thick flesh, a small seed cavity and an average weight of about 4.5 kg; it has been proposed to the agriculture ministry as BARI Hybrid Sweet Pumpkin 4.
Mehedi Hasan of Bauphal, Patuakhali, began a nursery on 33 decimals and now grows saplings of about 3,500 species on 125 decimals, selling around 300,000 medicinal plants a month.
In Galachipa, Patuakhali, farmers are growing off-season watermelons on trellises on fish-farm embankments and high ground; Palash Molla has about 1,450 fruits on 48 decimals for an outlay of Tk 40,000.
FisheriesAt least 30 to 35 boats were seen netting hilsa in the Payra river at Dumki, Patuakhali, on Sunday afternoon during the breeding ban; the upazila fisheries officer says a staff shortage and a single patrol team make it hard to watch every stretch.
FisheriesBuyers crowded Kalapara, Alipur, Mohipur, Chapli and other markets after dark; a 1 kg hilsa fetched Tk 2,500-2,600, and 459.10 tonnes of rice is allotted for the upazila's 18,364 registered fishers.
FisheriesThe fish from fisher Sohel Khan's stake net near Banglar Ghat went for Tk 1.45 lakh a maund; a fisheries scientist at Patuakhali Science and Technology University explains why big hilsa are becoming scarce.
EnvironmentThe Forest Department says 10 to 11-year-old keora, gewa and baen trees were pulled up in its 75-hectare South Char Biswas mangrove plantation and embankments dug across about 200 acres; it has filed a general diary.
About 50 students, teachers and staff at a secondary school in Kalapara, Patuakhali, fell ill with convulsions and breathlessness; the hospital doctor described it as hysteria, a psychological condition.
Daily lifeFourteen production wells supply 10,332 cubic metres a day to 9,482 customers; with the water table falling and old tube wells dead, new wells, tanks and pipelines have been proposed.
FisheriesWith fewer roe-bearing hilsa caught this season, the price of fresh roe has nearly doubled in a year; salted roe sells for Tk 3,000-4,000 a kg.
FisheriesResearchers say silt and submerged shoals building up in upstream rivers after dredging of the Rabnabad channel for Payra port are blocking hilsa migration; the catch has fallen year after year since the 2022-23 record.
Patuakhali Science and Technology University has opened two labs using fluorescence fingerprinting and chemometrics to check the freshness, adulteration and microplastic content of fish and seafood in seconds to minutes.
FisheriesA hilsa of almost two kilograms, caught by a trawler near the last buoy of Payra port, sold at Mohipur market for Tk 3,500 a kilogram.
The MB Mayer Doa-6, a trawler built this year at a cost of about Tk 55 lakh, split its hull in rough seas some 45 km out from Alipur fishing port in Patuakhali; another trawler picked up its 15 fishermen, but the boat has not been found.
With catches already poor in rivers and the sea, a Tk 20-a-litre rise in diesel, kerosene and other fuels has deepened losses for about 70,000 registered fishermen and fish traders on the Patuakhali coast.
With signal No. 3 hoisted for a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of trawlers from across the coast have taken shelter at the Alipur and Mahipur fish landing centres in Patuakhali, and fishermen back from the 65-day ban are losing money ashore.
Eighteen fishermen stranded on a disabled trawler near Sonarchar in Rangabali, Patuakhali, were rescued unhurt on Thursday morning by a trawler their relatives sent.
A fishing trawler from Char Fasson in Bhola has drifted 80-100 km off Rangabali, Patuakhali, since its engine failed early on Saturday, and local agencies say they lack a vessel to reach it.
With the Bay of Bengal depression now a deep depression and signal 3 hoisted at four sea ports, a fishing trawler sank off Rangabali on Tuesday evening; all nine aboard were rescued.
Depressions, monsoon rain and tidal water flooded low-lying parts of the coastal district and damaged Aman seedbeds and summer vegetables, but transplanting is now in full swing; a Bauphal farmer has gone from 60 to 80 kathas, and officials say a favourable season could beat the target and set a pro
After 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.
Kamal Hossain's orchard on the Kuakata-Misripara road stops passing cars; the Kuakata tour operators' president Ruman Imtiaz Tushar sees farming and tourism meeting, and Kalapara agriculture officer Arafat Hossain says the right variety, soil and water management and organic manure make crops possib
The fish fetched Tk3,625 a kilogram at a Patuakhali auction, while researchers warn that large hilsa are becoming scarce.
At Hazir Hat in Patuakhali, Nizam Mridha exhumed his father and grandmother before the river could take them; at least five families have moved their homes, and a graveyard, a school and farmland are next in line.
The 2.7-kilogram fish was landed at an arat at the Mahipur fish landing centre in Patuakhali, but went unsold because nobody recognised it.
