Environment & Ecology

2Jan

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Aman rice and seed sovereignty

Farida Akhter || Saturday 02 January 2021 THIS year, aman rice suffered severe loss due to a series of floods and untimely rain. At the household level, the farmers will have shortage of rice for consumption and selling, while at the national level people will inevitably face crisis of food since aman paddy cultivation provides 35 per cent of the total rice production of Bangladesh. Due to the recurring floods, farmers missed the planting season in the month of August. Most farmers could not prepare the seedbeds. In some areas, floods submerged the paddy fields with saplings of aman paddy. In August 2020, according to the ministry of agriculture, it has happened in at least 37 districts. Published: Newag; Dec 16, 2020 The Moushakathalia village in Tangail is one such un...

13Feb

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Environment & Ecology

Dear honourable environment minister!

Farida Akhter A snapshot of Newshour Extra Talkshow (ATN News) broadcasted on February 4, 2017. WHAT is the role of the ministry of environment and forestry in giving approval to a government project? I wanted to ask the very question to the minister directly in a TV show in which he featured recently. I couldn’t get through. So here I am asking the question for his kind attention. The Newshour Extra Talk show of ATN News on the night of February 4, 2017 invited the honourable minister, Anwar Hossain Manju, ministry of environment and forestry. The talk show is featured sadharaner janya prashna (questions for the public) as ekai eksho (one is as good as hundred). The minister was taking questions from two journalists as well as from the viewers over phone. Munni Shaha conduc...

Replacing urea fertilizer with friendly alternatives

24Dec

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Environment & Ecology

Replacing urea fertilizer with friendly alternatives

Dr. M. A. Sobhan || Thursday 24 December 2015 Bangladesh has achieved a significant success in food grain production in the recent past which has made the country self sufficient in food grain. Bangladesh was food deficit prior to 1971, the year of indepence and continued to be so for long afterwards. However, the country is now self-sufficient in rice. Rice production increased from 11.7 million metric tons in 1974 to 33.54 million metric tons in 2010 (BBS, 2011). One of the keys to this success has been the use of chemical fertilizer, especially that of urea for meeting the need of nitrogen. In 2010-11 cropping season Bangladesh used 26.55million metric tons of urea fertilizer for rice and other crop production.The essential supply of urea exacts a heavy price.Runaway fractions s...

18Mar

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Environment & Ecology

Arsenic Affects Rice Yield and Quality

Dr. M. A. Sobhan || Wednesday 18 March 2015 Arsenic is a poison. It is a significant health risk to millions of people worldwide when it is there in food and drink. It is highly poisonous at higher doses but chronic exposure to lower levels increases the risk of cancer of skin, bladder, lungs, kidney ,liver, colon , prostrate; cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease ,diabetes; diseases of arteries and capillaries ; increased sensitivity to Hepatitis B infection , infertility, and other ailments .Observable symptoms to the arsenic poisoning can be thickening and discoloration of skin, stomach pain ,nausea , vomiting , diarrhea , paralysis and blindness (Islam,M.S. and F.Islam .2007; iwawaterwiki.org ). Arsenic occurs naturally in soil, water, air, plants and an...

Beijing Plus 20 Review: Incoherence in Women and Environment Link!

2Nov

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Environment & Ecology

Beijing Plus 20 Review: Incoherence in Women and Environment Link!

Farida Akhter Policy making in a country like Bangladesh is not an easy task, a meaningful policy position is impossible without serious efforts from the policy makers to involve stakeholders; secondly, it is necessery to involve various groups and organisation active through empirical reserach or programmes that government wishes to address. Without a meaningful base of empirical reseach and participation of relevant stakeholders, a policy document could hardly be of any value. If policy makers ignore these very basic essentialities policy documents are reduced into statements related to few projects, lacking conceptual clarity and coherence with blurred or misplaced objectives. A recent report of Women and Children Affairs Ministry is no exception. This year (May 2014) ...