Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu

The alarming Covid-19 situation had badly hampered the sacrificial animal market for Eid-ul-Azha in the last couple of years but cattle farmers are anticipating good business this time around as the situation has greatly improved.

Paddy farmers in the Chalan Beel region of Rajshahi, Pabna, Sirajganj and Natore are concerned about whether they can achieve their expected yields this year as early floods have badly damaged their crops in the vast wetland.

Sweet succulent flesh covered in a prickly red exterior -- litchis, the popular summer fruit have adorned the trees in Pabna’s Ishwardi.

Farmers and entrepreneurs who rear cattle for meat and milk in the country’s northern districts are currently suffering from an abnormal hike in feed prices.

Agriculture engineers of Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute (BSRI) have come up with a new technology of cultivating paddy as co-crop with sugarcane.

On this day, over 200 people were killed, while several hundreds of houses were torched. 

Hailing from Pabna’s Chatmohar upazila, Zannatul Sarkar Champa had to lead a hard life at a very early age. She was born in an impoverished family, at Mollikbain village in Parshodanga union.

Although processed milk prices are rising at the retail level, farmers are yet to see any benefit as there is no sign of an increase on their end.

According to freedom fighters, this massacre by the Pakistan army was the biggest to occur in Pabna. The army along with their local collaborators targeted villages with Hindu population.

Litchi cultivation is on the rise in Pabna, where the seasonal fruit now plays a vital role in agro-economics as farmers in the district are likely to get record production due to the favourable weather conditions in early summer.

After enduring two years of coronavirus-induced losses, shopkeepers in Pabna were eying good sales in the ongoing month of Ramadan as people buy all types of goods as part of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival.

The Pakistan army had occupied Nagarbari Ghat, an entrance to North Bengal on April 9. They marched into Pabna on April 10, setting fire to houses beside roads. In retaliation, the EPR, police and Ansar moved to the north and set up 30 to 40 bunkers on both sides of Paikarhaat village to fight against occupational forces.

Eid holidaymakers heading for northern districts might get caught in gridlocks on both sides of the Bangabandhu bridge due to the expansion work on a 25km stretch of the Elenga-Rangpur highway.

Handloom weavers in Sirajganj are in anything but a festive mood ahead of Eid this year as rising raw material costs coupled with poor sales have brought many to the brink of collapse.

Although onion prices were excessively high just one month ago, farmers in Pabna are now struggling to recover production costs due to a supply glut following this year’s harvest.

Having already faced several cost revisions and deadline extensions, an industrial park of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in Sirajganj is on way to be delayed by yet another year.

A private company has been coercing farmers to sell cropland to set up a power plant at Bhabanipur village in Hemayetpur union of Pabna Sadar upazila, locals have alleged.

The price of dairy feed has climbed rapidly in recent months keeping pace with the price spiral of essential commodities, making farming costlier and raising milk production costs for the millions of farmers in Bangladesh.

In 2015, 15-year-old Tania Yeasmin of Pabna was waiting for her SSC results, brimming with hope for her future.

The price of onion has been surging in Pabna for the last couple of weeks as the level of stock at the farmers’ end is fast-depleting owing to the lack of storage capacity for the perishable item.