Mostafa Shabuj

The government should set up a hybrid paddy research facility alongside the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) to break the private sector’s monopoly on the seed market and increase rice production, according to Mohammad Masum, chairman of the Supreme Seed Company.

People who subsist on paddy farming in the country’s northern districts, namely Bogura, Joypurhat, Gaibandha and Dinajpur, are currently in a vulnerable situation due to their prolonged struggle to make a profit from the crop amid rising labour costs.

The government continues to help paddy farmers in a variety of ways to increase their output and, by extension, their profits, said Yusuf Rana Mondal, former additional director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bogura region.

For years, farmers have been struggling to profit from paddy farming, and it is only politics that can help them out of this predicament.

Paddy farmers in the northern districts have struggled to turn a profit for the past five years, as production costs have risen significantly but rice prices have not increased proportionally.

Another depression is likely to form over the Bay of Bengal from September 20 to September 25 affecting parts of Bangladesh and West Bengal in India.

International weather forecasting models have predicted the possibility of heavy rainfall for four consecutive days from September 10 due to the formation of a depression in the central Bay of Bengal.

A syndicate has stolen around 126 tonnes of TSP fertiliser during transportation of the goods from Chattogram to Bogura.

A government project undertaken to supply drinking water to locals in Gaibandha’s Gobindganj by re-excavating ponds has been rendered fruitless, with the zila parishad leasing out many of the waterbodies for fish farming.

The government move to increase the price of diesel by a high margin has caught many farmers off guard. 

Farmers who depend on rainwaters to grow Aman paddy in Dinajpur have been left distraught from early July owing to a drought-like situation in the absence of rains. 

It’s rainy reason in Bangladesh and agricultural land is supposed to be wet with monsoon rains by now.  

The government’s paddy procurement drive is far below its target for this year even though two months have gone by since the process began at the end of April.

People in several northern districts have been enduring severe power cuts over the last two-three days.

Naogaon has joined the ranks of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Dinajpur as a major export hub for mangoes with locally grown varieties of the fruit now making their way abroad after satisfying domestic demand.

Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) has forecast another moderate flood in the country’s northern districts after Eid-ul-Azha, which is likely to be celebrated on July 9 or 10.

The locals of Kishamot Doshlia village under Gaibandha’s Sadullapur upazila believe it is possible to earn a good amount of foreign currency by exporting different kinds of saplings to Turkey from the otherwise ordinary village.

Rice prices have edged up in Bangladesh in the last couple of days despite the cut in customs tariffs on the import of the staple food to 25 per cent to increase supply and contain prices. 

Thousands of flood victims in the northern districts continue to fight for survival with little access to relief materials, and the situation is unlikely to improve today.  

Most rice bran oil industries in Bangladesh have either cut or stopped production since the government slapped an export ban a month ago as the edible oil variety does not have a large consumer base locally.