The current food crisis has several causes-rising demand for food and feed, biofuels, high oil prices, climate change, stagnant agricultural productivity growth-but there is increasing evidence that the crisis is being made worse by the malfunctioning of world grain markets. Given the thinness of major markets for cereals, the restrictions on grain exports imposed by dozens of countries have resulted in additional price increases. A number of countries have adopted retail price controls, creating perverse incentives for producers.

Eminent agri-scientist National Professor and former Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh Agriculture University Professor Dr. A.K.M. Aminul Haque said that Biotechnology has a potential to alleviate poverty and hunger in developing countries including Bangladesh and deserves an extra focus from concerned scientists and functionaries.

River dolphins, gavial (gharial) and turtles have almost been extinct from the rivers of the country.

When the list of near extinct animals is increasing it is a rare opportunity to watch river dolphins and gavial (gharial) in the rivers of Bangladesh.

As a part of a centrally-sponsored scheme non-recommended pesticides were being distributed to farmers in Rajasthan. Farmers were being forced to buy unnecessary pesticides as a part of the subsidy package under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM). These chemicals have not been approved for use in the crops that were being cultivated in the area.

Bangladesh could double its production of foodgrains by the next five years if the country's farmers are brought under the currently available technology and supplied with quality seeds, agriculture experts said.

They said, use of modern technology is now a must for production of additional foodgrains by using the limited land with a view to facing the food crisis and maintaining their prices at tolerable levels.

Bangladesh could double its production of foodgrains by the next five years if the country's farmers are brought under the currently available technology and supplied with quality seeds, agriculture experts said.

They said, use of modern technology is now a must for production of additional foodgrains by using the limited land with a view to facing the food crisis and maintaining their prices at tolerable levels.

Bangladesh could double its production of foodgrains by the next five years if the country's farmers are brought under the currently available technology and supplied with quality seeds, agriculture experts said.

They said, use of modern technology is now a must for production of additional foodgrains by using the limited land with a view to facing the food crisis and maintaining their prices at tolerable levels.

Some 16 villages were inundated as river erosion damaged the old town protection dam on four points.

While visiting Kachia and Dhania on Wednesday, the UNB correspondent found that hundreds of the marooned people had taken shelter on the cross-dam.

Some affected people took shelter upon bamboo-made platforms inside their houses.

Local sources said the villages went under water as erosion by the Meghna river damaged the dam in Ilisha Murad Shafiullah and Kachia Guramira hat areas.

Biological diversity or biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms: the different plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems they form. This living wealth is the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. The process of evolution means that the pool of living diversity is dynamic: it increases when new genetic variation is produced, a new species is created or a novel ecosystem formed; it decreases when the genetic variation within a species decreases, a species becomes extinct or an ecosystem complex is lost.

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh is increasing in size contradicting forecasts that the parts of the country will disappear under water due to global warming.

Scientists at the Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) say that the country's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (12.5 square miles) annually.

They said that they have studied 32 years of satellite images and found that the country's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres annually during that time.