IN a technology-driven world where new cultivation techniques are being applied in the agriculture sector to maximise output, Bangladesh has not been able to capitalise on such modern technology well within our reach. A Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) study says that while present per annum yield of rice hovers around 3.5crore tonnes, Bangladesh could actually increase production to 7.00crore tonnes through introducing modern irrigation system, proper use of fertilizer and bringing more fallow land under cultivation.

- World Health Organization experts initiated a two-day exercise on Wednesday testing responses to a simulated neurological disease outbreak in Thailand, Vietnam and Canada. "We clarified issues that will serve us extremely well in the future, we now understand the issues extremely well," said David Heymann, Assistant Director-General on Health Security and Environment.

Washington: The World Bank on Tuesday put the blame for rising food prices in South Asia on export controls by India and others. The US also criticized New Delhi's handling of the crisis, stating the trade bans have rattled international markets. Surging food prices have become a serious concern in South Asia where food insecurity is relatively high, the World Bank Report on Global Development Finance said. "The situation has become increasingly acute across the region

The world will face high food prices "in the years to come", the UN food summit said yesterday, but failed to agree how the crisis could be eased. The summit, hosted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, was called to tackle food price rises that have triggered riots in 30 countries, but became embroiled in a bitter dispute over biofuels and export restrictions. Agricultural commodities rose on the news as traders saw no prospect of change in biofuels policies or in the use of trade restrictions by key exporters. Bad weather has also contributed to the recent price rises.

Predictions of food crisis are getting direr, forcing countries to take extraordinary measures (see

Precisely when many in the developed bloc were frantically counting their money at the height of a surreal shock over subprime rate, the globalising world was jolted by a potential crisis of subsistence that would hit the poor and other vulnerable sections very hard. Is there a link, therefore, between the slippery subprime banking rate and the soaring prices of rice and other staples?

India and Vietnam have indicated that their independent restrictions on the export of certain varieties of rice are "temporary, short-term management tools that they need for their own particular situations,' according to the Association of South East Asian Nations Secretary General, Surin Pitsuwan. India, a major dialogue partner of the ASEAN, and Vietnam, a member of the 10-nation group, rank next only to Thailand, another member of this association, as the world's three largest rice-exporters.

India is on a high alert against Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), a causative agent for hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) that has infected over 20,000 children and killed around 40 of them, in at least four Asian countries over the past three months. China, which has recorded over 15,799 cases of HFMD and 28 deaths, has been the worst affected, followed by Vietnam where 3,000 children have been infected and 10 died. Singapore too has recorded around 10,490 cases while Hong Kong recently isolated the virus from two children.