BANGLADESH’S agricultural future will be determined not only by how much food it can produce but also by how it powers that production. For decades, discussions on food security have focused primarily on seeds, fertilisers, irrigation coverage and crop yields. Energy, though central to modern agriculture, has often remained a secondary concern. Yet as fuel prices...
Bangladesh should shift agricultural public spending from broad fertiliser and rice support to research, irrigation, market access, climate resilience, and farmer services to create a more productive and diversified agrifood system, a World Bank report suggested...
FARMERS at Gangni upazila in Meherpur district are facing growing difficulties in securing diesel as fuel shortages and long queues continue at several filling stations, raising concerns over irrigation and agricultural production during the peak cultivation period...
THE use of solar power for irrigation projects in a single season in Rangpur has saved around 7.5 million litres of diesel. This shows that solar projects deliver where they are functional, especially at a time of fuel uncertainty. Amid global energy market volatility triggered by US-Israel war on Iran, the agriculture sector is under strain, especially during the irrigation season...
Amid global energy market volatility triggered by the Iran-Israel-United States tensions and concerns over fuel supply, Bangladesh’s agriculture sector is feeling the strain particularly during the irrigation season, when diesel-dependent farmers face rising costs and uncertainty.
ON A winter morning in Bangladesh’s north, a rice farmer checks his mobile before switching on the irrigation pump. The message that he reads is not from a neighbour or a local trader. It is generated from satellite data orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the earth. It tells him exactly how much water his field needs. In a country where agriculture still employs nearly...
Solar irrigation projects in three upazilas of Manikganj have failed to deliver expected benefits, with all the pumps lying idle due to poor maintenance, weak management and technical faults, forcing farmers to rely on costly diesel amid the ongoing fuel crunch...
A SEVERE shortage of diesel in Jibannagar upazila of Chuadanga has disrupted irrigation during the peak Boro rice season, raising concerns among farmers over potential yield losses...
Farmers in several districts are struggling to irrigate boro paddy fields amid a diesel shortage, raising concerns among agriculture economists about the country’s rice supply in the coming months...
THE Rajshahi district administration has identified 39 open boreholes that were drilled for irrigation. And, the boreholes, drilled mostly by private operators have been left uncovered or flimsily sealed with soil and straw, exposing children and pedestrians to grave risks of accident. Relevant authorities have also been instructed to immediately seal the boreholes identified to...
As part of its corporate social responsibility, Bank Asia established a modern two-tier solar-powered irrigation project in Pirgacha, Rangpur, aimed at supporting marginal farmers by ensuring an adequate water supply for agriculture...
Infrastructure Development Company Limited on Tuesday resumed its financing support for solar irrigation pumps or SIPs, said a press release.
A workshop titled Assessment of the Present Irrigation Efficiency In different Agro-Ecological Zone of Bangladesh was held at the seminar hall of Irrigation Building at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka on Monday...
IN BANGLADESH’S parched boro fields, water is not just a resource; it is the currency of food security and rural prosperity. With over 80 per cent of the country’s cropland now irrigated, primarily during the dry season, irrigation has doubled rice yields since the 1970s and propelled near self-sufficiency in staple foods. Yet this achievement carries hidden economic and...
Farmers are allegedly paying Tk 1,000 an acre for irrigation water supply from the Teesta Irrigation Project although the government has set the rate at Tk 480 an acre throughout the year.
Widespread adoption of the Alternate Wetting and Drying irrigation method can save significant volume of water and can markedly reduce methane emissions during rice cultivation, according to experts and farmers...
The Minor Irrigation Wing of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation on Wednesday organised a workshop on ‘the effectiveness of constructed or to be constructed rubber dams in Bangladesh and minor irrigation survey 2023-24’...
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday and inaugurated a power and irrigation project, unaccompanied by his interior minister who is being sought for arrest over a deadly 1994 bombing...
THE farming of boro rice, the largest rice crop that accounts for 54 per cent of the total rice production, facing an irrigation problem in the north is concerning. Thousands of farmers in northern Rajshahi and Rangpur are reported to be facing...
The cultivation of irrigation-intensive crop boro faces yet another setback as a result of a water crisis amid frequent power outages that, in certain areas, last up to 18 hours.