HealthAs salt carries iodine and edible oil vitamins, rice and wheat flour should be fortified by law, state minister Mir Shah-e-Alam said, suggesting a start with grain supplied through government food programmes.
Daily lifeFeni municipality has just six open market sale (OMS) outlets for its 18 wards, the same number as 16 years ago; with allocations short, many low-income buyers go home empty-handed after queuing for two or three hours.
CropsAt the Bharat International Rice Conference in New Delhi, traders said South Asia and Africa will account for all demand growth in 2026-27 and that El Niño could cut harvests in Indonesia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines.
A mobile court in Madarganj, Jamalpur, fined a food trader Tk 10,000 and seized 250 kilograms of rice for illegally buying and hoarding VGF rice allocated to fishermen during the hilsa breeding ban.
CookingMobasir Hasan, a chef with a Kolkata hotel chain, blames technique, not the rice: over-soaking, stirring and full boiling before dum. Take the rice off at 70 percent cooked.
AgribusinessFine rice rose by Tk 2 a kg in a week in Dhaka's retail markets and loose soybean and palm oil also went up, while local onion, garlic and broiler chicken fell; vegetables and fish stay dear.
On the Sandhya river at Banaripara in Barishal, a paddy and rice market held from boats has run for about 200 years by local elders' reckoning; traders bring paddy by river from across the south and go home with rice.
CropsLower paddy area and a 26% rainfall deficit in southern India have lifted prices of Sona Masoori, Ponni and Swarna rice by 10-25%, even as government rice stocks stand far above buffer norms.
CropsEU food-safety records show at least six notifications this year of unauthorised genetically modified material in Chinese rice products, from noodles to miso paste.
Farmers in Naogaon have had a good aus harvest but are selling paddy at Tk 650 to Tk 800 a maund, well below cost, and are calling for government procurement in the aus season.
A mobile court fined the warehouse owner Tk30,000 at Kalihati, and locals are asking how rice allocated to the food-friendly programme reached a trader's store.
Artificial intelligence can raise quality and output while cutting costs, labour and pesticide use, and Bangladesh has begun using it through tools such as BRRI's Rice Solution app.
Although government grain stocks are at a record high and Boro procurement beat its target, the government has decided to buy about two lakh tonnes more rice from mills, allegedly under pressure from millers and politicians.
