Agronomists at a seminar yesterday said Bangladesh's highest annual sea level rise of 7.8 millimeters (mm) due to climate change was recorded in Cox's Bazar coast.

A SEMINAR held recently at the Jatiya Press Club has revealed that some 80 per cent of drinking water supplied by WASA in Dhaka city is misused. In other words, water is wasted in some forms.

Farming of high-yielding onion-seed has been gaining ground side by side with boosting onion production in the region for the last couple of years.

Many farmers, including the seasonal businessmen, are becoming interested in commercial farming of the seed as its market value is high among other crop seeds.

The process for establishing a coal-mining city comprising four thanas in Dinajpur will start this month.

Researchers at Binerpota Agriculture Research Centre here have evolved two new varieties of salinity-tolerant soybean seed ushering in a high hope of providing nutrition to the poor people at lower cost.

Researchers of the Centre under Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, after relentless efforts since 2002, finally evolved BARI Soybean-5 and Sohag varieties of soybean seeds in 2007.

Experts at a discussion here yesterday stated that massive siltation of the Padma river and its tributaries have triggered the flood tendency during the monsoon in the region.

Terming the monsoon flood as the main natural calamity in the region they said many people become victim of the disaster every year.

Telecommunications Minister Razi Uddin Ahmed Razu yesterday stressed the need for encouraging farmers to use modern agricultural technologies to give the country's agro-based economy a firm footing.

Air pollution in capital city Dhaka raised higher than Mexico and Mumbai killing thousands of people prematurely each year, health experts say.

According to the Department of Environment (DoE) the density of airborne particulate matter (PM) reaches 463 micrograms per cubic metre (mcm) in the city during December-March period - the highest level in the world.

The government will procure rice direct from the farmers to provide them price support and protect them from any possible loss for market slump after new arrival of harvests.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled the plan while addressing the officials of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday.

Agricultural scientists at a farmers gathering here revealed that promotion of modern and developed technologies could help enhancing maize production.