EnvironmentAt a policy dialogue in Rajshahi, experts and MPs called for less reliance on groundwater, more surface water, restored canals and wetlands, rainwater harvesting and less thirsty crops.
HealthPosts for their staff have been created and equipment purchases are nearly done, and the five hospitals may be opened together in November or December, the prime minister's health adviser said in Rajshahi.
A gang with chainsaws is felling riverbank plantation trees at the Padma-Baral confluence and government trees along village roads in Charghat, Rajshahi. Environmental groups count at least 5,000 felled in two years; 25 of the upazila's 38 sawmills are unlicensed.
Rooftop farmingSharmin Akter sells seedlings and pots from her three-tier rooftop garden in Rajshahi's Binodpur, earning about Tk 12 lakh a year. The garden won first place for rooftop gardens in the national tree plantation award.
FisheriesThe eight districts of Rajshahi division produce about 600,000 tonnes of fish a year. After local demand, some 150,000 tonnes travel alive by truck to Dhaka, Chattogram and other districts.
CropsTo cut farmers' irrigation costs, Rehan Asif Asad, adviser to the posts, telecom and ICT and science and technology ministries, has told the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority to run all its deep tube wells on solar power.
EnvironmentA Tk 1,203.73 crore project for tube wells, rainwater harvesting and latrines in 123 upazilas of 16 districts in the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions goes before ECNEC on 25 October; experts urge alternatives to groundwater.
CropsMizanur Rahman Mizan of Kamarpur village in Bagmara, Rajshahi, bought seed online and is growing black rice for the first time in the upazila, hoping for Tk 200 to 300 more a maund than ordinary paddy.
HealthMobile court raids on three adulterated jaggery factories in Bagha, Rajshahi, destroyed 45 maunds of gur and imposed Tk 10,000 in fines; 27 sacks of seized sugar were given to an orphanage.
At a 'Safe food and agroecology fair' on World Food Day at the Talukdharmapur Agroecology Learning Centre in Paba, women farmers showed how they save local seed and manage pests organically.
In Nimtala, Godagari, Golam Rasul has lost his land, orchards and half his brick house to Padma erosion; of 188 families hit by erosion in the upazila over five years, only 91 have received help.
The versatile multi-crop planter (VMP), which looks like a power tiller, prepares land, places fertiliser, sows seed in rows and covers it in one pass; field research backed by ACIAR has run in Godagari and Durgapur since 2024.
CropsAt a BAJF and Syngenta Bangladesh discussion, farm-sector representatives, officials, police and journalists said counterfeit and unapproved farm inputs cost farmers money and threaten production, food security and the environment.
EnvironmentThe old courses of the Barahi, Swaramangala and Daya rivers through Rajshahi are now drains carrying untreated hospital, industrial and household waste into the Baranai, where fish have died and riverside residents report skin disease; a treatment plant is still at the planning stage.
About 100 krishnachura trees between Dayrapak and Nader Hajir Mor lost their branches last December for WASA pipe-laying; new shoots have grown in a few months, though one tree has died.
Not one of the 23 municipalities in Rajshahi and Natore has its own dumping station; 22 leave their waste by roads, in rivers and on open land, killing trees and choking the Musakhan River.
Native fish catches from the Padma in Rajshahi fell from 2,283 tonnes to 1,620 tonnes in five years as the river's flow and depth declined; the Rajshahi division's hilsa catch dropped to 473 tonnes.
Vegetable plots on the chars of Pabna upazila in Rajshahi are under water, ruining crops before they could be harvested.
Water from upstream submerged 309.59 hectares in Paba, Bagha and Godagari, including 45 ha of vegetables, 85 ha of black gram and 102 ha of turmeric; farmers at Kasba and Alimganj lost pointed gourd, cucumber, bitter gourd and early cauliflower, while the DAE says raised bunds and drainage saved abo
More 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.
The district's September allocation is almost the same as last year's, yet farmers queue for hours; ponds need 1,334 tonnes each of urea and TSP a month with no allocation of their own, and the whole TSP quota is only 1,045 tonnes.
Under Bangladesh Bank's revolving scheme, farmers and agribusinesses in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions can borrow at no more than 7 percent for four stages of the supply chain, from production and storage to export.
Three years after 102 polynet houses were built at about Tk 2.4 million each, most grow no off-season crop; 10 of 16 farmers interviewed report heavy losses, and only nursery and flower growers say they gained.
Thirty-eight growers from Pabna and Natore, bearing a 16-kilo elephant-foot yam among other crops, raised NGO loan instalments, litchi storage, fertiliser allocation and fines on farm carts.
At the start of the aman season farmers in Rajshahi, Jhenaidah and Kurigram are paying above the fixed price because dealers have no fertiliser, while the government insists 1.365 million tonnes are in stock; agricultural economists say the two accounts cannot both be true.
EnvironmentBangladesh Meteorological Department records kept since 1947 put the country's highest temperature at 45.1 degrees Celsius in Rajshahi on 18 May 1972. In April 2026 meteorologists explained why Rajshahi, Chuadanga, Jashore, Bogura and Ishwardi keep topping the list, and why the highest reading is not always the hardest heat to bear.
A group of educated young entrepreneurs in Arani, Bagha, Rajshahi, is taking farm information and organic fertiliser to villagers' doors to restore soil health.
In Rajshahi, young horticulturist Shaheen Salehuddin has farmed his roof for ten years and turned an indoor plant nursery into a profitable business.
More than 350 students at Sonadighi High School in Rajshahi, many from small ethnic communities, study crammed into dark mud rooms 21 years after the school was founded.
Facing drought and falling groundwater, farmers in Rajshahi's Barind region are growing rice without tillage, halving costs with the same yields.
In Sagarpara, Rajshahi, a family has turned its home into a sanctuary of plants and birds, with a thriving rooftop farm.
At the start of the season, mango growers in Rajshahi fear losses from fixed harvest dates and urge officials not to harm a promising sector.
