Agriculture

Under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), virtually all countries of the world must provide intellectual property rights on plant varieties. Read More »

The untimely rain which hit many parts of the country over the last three days since Thursday is delaying the harvest of locally-grown onion in Faridpur region. Read More »

The farmers produced an all-time record 18.01-lakh tonnes of clean Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) rice (27-lakh tonnes paddy) despite little damage caused to the crop by floods in Rangpur agriculture region this season. Read More »

Over the past half-century, the need to feed a growing world population has led to markedly expanded and intensified agricultural production. This transformation has led to the degradation of the global environment. The loss of biodiversity can disrupt key ecosystem services to agriculture, such as crop pollination and biological pest control, which underpin the final provisioning service of crop production. Read More »

Rajshahi, Dec 16 – Farmers in Chapainawabganj are struggling to contain an unidentified virus ravaging the tomato fields across the district. Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 13 – The lethal Fall Armyworms that arrived in Bangladesh in 2018 after ravaging cornfields of the Sub-Saharan Africa, have attacked cornfields in the district of Chuadanga, and are spreading fast compared to last year, causing worries to farmers. Read More »

Governments spend large public funds on corporations that expand global industrial livestock and feed production. The expansion in factory farms, and loss of smaller, independent producers, is largely responsible for the steady increase in U.S.-based agriculture-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Read More »

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday told farmers that they will not be left behind as the government takes Bangladesh towards development and turn it into an industrialised nation. Read More »

Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque on Wednesday said the government will give over Tk 80 crore as incentives to 687,700 small and marginal farmers for the Rabi season. Read More »

Mymensingh, Oct 19 – An International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture (ICSA) 2019 was inaugurated on Saturday at Syed Nazrul Islam Conference hall of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). Read More »

Dhaka, Oct 17 – Highlighting the negative effects of genetically modified (GM) food on human body, speakers at a convention on Thursday urged the government and other stakeholders to stop the commercial production of GM golden rice being marketed as an ‘healthier alternative’ to regular rice. Read More »

After six months of dazzling visitors with stunning horticultural displays, Expo 2019 Beijing, the AIPH approved A1 World Horticultural Expo, presented one final spectacular show at its official closing ceremony on Wednesday 9th October 2019. Read More »

The award ceremony of the International Competition at Expo 2019 Beijing took place on 8th October, after the closing of the six-month-long AIPH approved A1 World Horticultural Exhibition. At the ceremony, the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) awarded five gardens an AIPH Grand Award. Read More »

A review of some outstanding issues in the negotiation. Will the effort to fix ITPGRFA’s broken benefit sharing system measure up to expectations? Read More »

Dhaka, Sept 27 (UNB) – Stressing the importance of farm mechanisation to boost outputs and save farmers from losses, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque has said farmers will be provided with agricultural machinery. Read More »

By Vandana Shiva New Delhi, Sep 23 2019 (IPS) – The Earth is living, and also creates life. Over 4 billion years the Earth has evolved a rich biodiversity — an abundance of different living organisms and ecosystems — that can meet all our needs and sustain life. Read More »

Organic farming or chemical free farming has changed the lives of many like Kalachand Madbor, who once struggled to make the ends meet and provide for his family. Five years ago Kalachand, 70, and his family including his wife, three sons and two daughters fell on hard times. They migrated to the district town and planned to start vegetable farming. ... Read More »

Cumilla, Sept 1 (UNB) – Growing vegetables usually requires land and arduous labour. So, the Cumilla Agricultural Research Centre has introduced vegetable farming using only water. Ash gourd, cucumber, lettuce can be produced using this system, known as hydroponic system, said Md Ayub Hossain Khan, scientific officer of the centre. Vegetables can be grown in verandas and corridors of high-rises ... Read More »

Cultivation of malta, a high valued citrus fruit, has been gaining popularity as the growers are reaping lucrative outputs from the farming in the region including its vast Barind tract. Read More »

By Nafissatou Diouf Yokohama, Japan, Aug 28 2019 – The Sasakawa Association will work with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to help double rice production to 50 million tonnes by 2030. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the announcement at the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) symposium held on Wednesday during TICAD7. Read More »

Bunol (AP/UNB) — More than 20,000 people are pelting each other with ripe tomatoes in the annual “Tomatina” street battle in a town in eastern Spain that has become a major tourist attraction. The party saw 145 tons of tomatoes offloaded from six trucks into crowds packing Buñol’s streets for the midday hour-long battle Wednesday. The fight leaves participants and ... Read More »

Thailand, July 13 (AP/UNB) — Farmers in eastern Thailand have celebrated the start of the sowing season by racing their buffaloes, whose usual duty is to plow the fields. Read More »

By Isaiah Esipisu Dodoma, Tanzania, Jul 11 2019 (IPS) – Research scientists are studying groundwater resources in three African countries in order to understand the renewability of the source and how people can use it sustainably towards a green revolution in Africa. Read More »

A Manifesto on Food for Health has been produced by the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. It states that it is possible to create good health through good nutrition. Health effects from the current industrial food system adversely affect every stage of human life and range from prevalent and growing undernutrition and malnutrition to a wide ... Read More »

From Danielle Nierenberg Women in the food system and technology sectors face a lot of obstacles. The agriculture sector is rapidly incorporating new technologies and innovations, but the sector often falls flat in incorporating women into AgTech. Women in the sector make on average 61 cents to the dollar in wages compared to their male counterparts, and women-led startups receive ... Read More »

Dhaka, Jun 27 (UNB) – Farmers will be able to take loan at 4 percent interest for producing non-major food grains, said State Minister for Rural Development and Co-operatives Division Shawpan Bhattacharjee in Parliament on Thursday. A project titled ‘Production and Marketing of Nutrition-rich and High Priced Non-major Food Grains aiming to Alleviate Poverty’ will soon be implemented by Bangladesh ... Read More »

Cultivation of bitter gourd on a large scale in different upazilas of the district and fair price of the crop has started changing the fate of several thousand farmers. Most of the bitter gourd farmers are very happy as they getting a double price of their products during the current season, local people said. Farmers of Ghior upazila of the ... Read More »

In April 2018, the FAO hosted the Second International Symposium on Agroecology, following the first in 2014. With the main objective of moving from dialogue to action, the Symposium brought together different stakeholders and catalyzed inter-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration. The proceedings were released in March 2019. Among the Symposium’s outcomes were the launching of the Scaling up Agroecology Initiative, the ... Read More »

With multi-dimensional assistance of the government, farmers have produced an all-time record 21.66-lakh tonnes of clean Boro rice (32.50 tonnes paddy) this season in Rangpur agriculture region. Officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said farmers have exceeded the fixed production target of producing 20.88-lakh tonnes of clean Boro rice (31.32-lakh tonnes paddy) by 3.73 percent or 78,800 tonnes ... Read More »

Most quarters agree that agriculture and food systems urgently need to change to make progress on several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while staying within planetary boundaries. However, two narratives dominate the discussion: incremental steps to improve efficiency in conventional agriculture while reducing negative externalities, versus transformative redesign of farming systems based on agroecological principles. The SDGs offer an opportunity to ... Read More »