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Agro

Shrimp farmers facing life on the edge

Coastal Bangladesh is an unlikely place for a fresh water crisis. Mighty rivers carve paths through the landscape, all the way from melting Himalayan glaciers in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. Viewed from above, the countryside is an extensive patchwork of agricultural ponds, glinting in the sunlight. [caption id="attachment_21916" align="alignleft" width="650"]Shrimp Farmer As more farmers convert freshwater fields into shrimp farms the salt from seawater seeps further inland. Photograph: Joanna Lovatt[/capt...

India’s cotton exports to rise

India, the world’s biggest cotton producer, is likely to export 6.8 million bales in the 2015/16 season, up 18 percent from a year ago as demand from Asia is expected to improve, a senior government official told reporters on Tuesday. Higher exports will cap global prices, but raise domestic prices and help bring down government purchases at the support price. [caption id="attachment_20622" align="alignleft" width="540"]s2.reutersmedia.net A farmer harvests cotton in his field at Nani Kadi village in Gujarat, India, October 20, 2015. R...

Fortune and peril in shrimp industry

In the late 1980s, Rizia Khatun saw how her largely agricultural village of Khagraghat, in southern Satkhira district, was losing arable land to a new, burgeoning industry — commercial shrimp cultivation. The new form of livelihood turned many poor landless villagers, like Rizia’s parents, from farmers to shrimp farmworkers. “When I was 10, I used to join my parents as a worker in local shrimp farms. I studied up to grade five, but I was forced to drop out because my parents were too poor to afford my education. I was married at the age of 14,” said Rizia, now 35 and a mother of four.

TEEAL e-resource programme for agri improvement

Sets pertaining to TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library), a programme that helps improve agriculture sector through easy access to research literature, are being placed in universities and research universities in Bangladesh and training is being provided for their use, according to Sathguru Management Consultants, which is supporting the running of the programme along with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Established in 1999, TEEAL is a programme of Cornell University Library’s Albert R Mann Library, in partnership with leading publishers, to provide access to agricultural research literature. It contains almost 500,000 articles from more than 350 highly ranked research journals in agriculture and related biological sciences.

New code of conduct launched for shrimp industry

The Fisheries and Livestock minister of Bangladesh, Mohammad Sayedul Hoque, has launched the updated Code of Conduct for the Bangladesh shrimp industry. He underscored the importance of the introduction and implementation of the Code of Conduct as per internationally recognized norms and standards to ensure the quality and safety of Bangladesh shrimp products, reports NewsHour. MDG : Bangladesh Shrimp industryHe reiterated the commitment of the Government to extend all assistance to the shrimp industry in Bangladesh which is contributing significantly ...

Mega livestock project to change rural lifestyle

The government is going to undertake a project to rear some 5 lakh cows and buffaloes by rural people on cooperatives basis in seven divisions, aiming to meet the country’s growing demand for milk and meat. “A project is being prepared in this regard where the beneficiaries will be provided with cows and buffaloes after training on improved animal husbandry,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told UNB. The Planning Minister said the country’s hilly, river-erosion-prone and char areas will be given preference for implementing this big project by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.