Soyabean and wheat prices continued falling yesterday as traders chewed over the implications of the dramatic shifts in agricultural production likely across the US farming industry this year. Both soyabeans and wheat are on course for a large increase in farmland devoted to their production, while last year's rush by US farmers into corn to feed the requirements of the ethanol industry will be partially reversed.

Thailand on Tuesday approved a 399.6-billion-baht (12.7-billion-dollar) loan scheme for farmers, in the government's latest effort to shore up the economy, the finance minister said. The project's centrepiece is a 325-billion-baht loan scheme for farmers to start growing crops like palm oil and cassava, which would be used to make biofuels, Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee told reporters. Despite the ambitious scope of the biofuels project, Surapong gave few details on how it would work.

Farmers will soon get a new highly value added fruit for commercial cultivation, thanks to years of tireless efforts by two persons. Rajshahi University Botany teacher Dr Manjur Hossain evolved a variety of strawberry suitable for cultivation in Bangladesh's climate. Horticulturist Quamruzzaman of Natore commercially cultivated the variety on 1.5 bighas of land this year. The red juicy and nutritious fruit produced by them was supplied to posh markets in Dhaka recently.

Q. We need to create true fiscal and monetary federalism in this country. Do you have any ideas in this direction?

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Sunday called for restructuring the country's agricultural system in a new format to increase production of food grains and ensure food security.

Though a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, a striking red and blue Thomas the Tank Engine made in Wisconsin is not the same as one manufactured in China - the paint on the Chinese twin may contain dangerous levels of lead. In the same way, a plump red tomato from Florida is often not the same as one grown in Mexico. The imported fruits and vegetables found in our shopping carts in winter and early spring are grown with types and amounts of pesticides that would often be illegal in the United States.