Archive for April, 2010

untrue statement of environmentalists -ebne g samad 03.02.10

IPCC, Bangladesh, climate predictions

22.04.2010

Dhaka: Scientists in Bangladesh posed a fresh challenge to the UN’s top climate change panel Thursday, saying its doomsday forecasts for the country in the body’s landmark 2007 report were overblown.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), already under fire for errors in the 2007 report, had said a one-metre (three-foot) rise in sea levels would flood 17per cent of Bangladesh and create 20 million refugees by 2050.

The warning helped create a widespread consensus that the low-lying country was on the “front line” of climate change, but a new study argues the IPCC ignored the role sediment plays in countering sea level rises.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri defended his organisation’s Bangladesh predictions today, warning that “on the basis of one study one cannot jump to conclusions”.

“The IPCC looks at a range of publications before we take a balanced view on what’s likely to happen,” he told a news agency by telephone.

But the IPCC’s prediction did not take into account the one billion tonnes of sediment carried by Himalayan rivers into Bangladesh every year, the study funded by the Asian Development Bank said.

“Sediments have been shaping Bangladesh’s coast for thousands of years,” said Maminul Haque Sarker, director of the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), who led research for the study.

Previous “studies on the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, including those quoted by the IPCC, did not consider the role of sediment in the growth and adjustment process of the country’s coast and rivers,” he told AFP.

Even if sea levels rise a maximum one metre in line with the IPCC’s 2007 predictions, the new study indicates most of Bangladesh’s coastline will remain intact, said Sarker.

PTI

 Northern mat gaining ground in local market

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/oct/20/busi.html 

 Courtesy: New Age

Zakir Hossain . Rangpur

Mats manufactured by financially vulnerable women of Rangpur-Dinajpur region are making room in the market across the country.
Mat promotional activities, an initiative of Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service Bangladesh, an NGO, have so far changed the fortune of thousands of financially vulnerable women in the region.
   The product manufactured by the poor women of the country’s poverty-stricken areas is now being supplied across the country. The initiative has so far created job opportunities for thousands of women.
   About 4,000 women of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts are now engaged in manufacturing mats. Gradually, these women are becoming self-reliant providing additional support to their families.
   RDRS, Bangladesh began mat promotional activities in the worst poverty-stricken areas of the Rangpur and Dinajpur districts. The women of the areas were provided training by the organisation along with supplying raw materials free of cost to prepare mats in their houses. The NGO also took the responsibility of marketing the product.
   Nayon Moni, craft manager of the organisation, said that most of the poor women in the region are not directly involved in any income-generating activities in the lean period. Women in the monga-affected areas pass weeks even months with little work in the lean period when the male members go to other areas looking for job.
   He also said that the organisation began mat production and promotional activities by financially-vulnerable women at village level of the districts in 2005. It provided women 60-day practical training on mat production. Nearly 4,000 women have so far received training.
   The official said that her organisation also buys the finished product from them at the rate of Tk 10 per square foot. Later, RDRS sells the product across the country at 20-25 per cent higher price to maintain staff and other costs.
   Manjushri Shah, women rights coordinator, RDRS, said that mat production, as an income generating activity, is very useful for women, as they can do it at home without compromising other household activities like cooking, cleaning and looking after kids and elders.
   A woman can manufacture 10 to 15 square feet mat in a day that can earn her about Tk 100 to 150, she added.
   Hajera Begum, a 39-year-old woman of Gojoghanta village under Gongachara upazila in Rangpur, said that she along with her husband and three children used to starve or remain half-fed during Bengali months of Aswhin and Kartik, as there was no farm work.
   Having been engaged in mat production after receiving training she is now able to make additional money along with household works, she said adding that her family is now much better-off.

Farmers in north see silent
revolution in litchi farming

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/26/home.html

Litchi makes many growers self-reliant

 Courtesy: Newage, 26.03.2010
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Rangpur

A silent revolution has taken place in litchi farming as hundreds of farmers achieved their economic self- reliance through cultivating the most delicious, juicy and fleshy seasonal fruit in recent years throughout northern Bangladesh.
   The farmers as well as experts and officials are expecting a super bumper litchi production in the region including greater Rangpur and Dinajpur following favorable climatic conditions this season.
   According to officials in the Department of Agriculture Extension, the common people and farmers have been cultivating high yielding and hybrid variety litchi on more land in recent years following repeated bumper production and excellent market prices.
   The litchi farming has been gaining popularity consistently as a cash crop in all areas of the region with excellent marketing facilities though the quality litchis were being produced mainly in the Barind areas and Dinajpur even a decade ago.
   Presently, hundreds of litchi orchards have been set up and the commoners cultivated litchi in their homesteads in Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Joypurhat, Naogaon, Bogra, Pabna and Sirajganj districts.
   Because of its repeated bumper productions and excellent market prices with huge demands, expanded and commercial farming of litchi could bring fortunes to hundreds of the more enthusiastic farmers in the region in coming years, experts said.
   Agriculturists Kamal Shariful Alam and Nur Mohammad told BSS that litchi production would be better side by side with mango in the region this season as the climatic conditions are better for litchi farming and mangoes.
   ’Over 95 per cent of trees have been bloomed and tender litchis are now being formed in all eight districts of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur as elsewhere in the region and the fruits might start arriving in the markets from May next,’ they added.
   According to available sources, there are nearly 70 million litchi trees in 7,500 small, medium and big-sized litchi orchards on over 4,000 hectares land and homesteads in the region to produce plenty of litchi this season.
   Commercial litchi farming has been expanding fast in Sadar, Kaharol, Biral, Birampur, Fulbari, Chirirbandar and Birganj upazilas in Dinajpur and nearby Badarganj, Pirganj, Mithapukur, Sadar upazilas of Rangpur, Pirganj upazila of Thakurgaon in recent years.
   According to the experts, presently there are over 30 million litchi trees in 4,000 different size litchi orchards in about 1,500 hectares land and in most of the homesteads in all 13 upazilas of Dinajpur district alone.
   The farmers are cultivating the Madrazi and Bombay varieties of litchi on about 70 per cent land and the rest varieties like Bedana, China-3, Golapi, Mozaffar and others are being cultivated in the other 30 percent areas, they added.
   Many of the litchi orchards have already been sold to the traders in advance and their appointed people have already started looking after those that will continue till end of the
   harvest in June.
   ’If the things go well, a super bumper production of all variety litchis is likely and a minimum of Tk 3,500 crore litchi businesses will be made this year in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur alone,’ the experts and market sources said.
   The experts told BSS that adequately favorable climatic conditions including early departure of the winter resulted in massive litchi budding and the recent sunny weather helped better flowering amid no hailstorms and tornadoes so far.

ICC-B meet focuses on joint PPP bid to fight power crisis
Courtesy: The Financial Express

14.04.2010

In an effort to cement ties between the public and private sectors, businessmen urged the government to devise a fast-track approach to facilitate their way to participate along with the authorities in the fight against the nagging power crisis.

Investment in power generation and hydrocarbon exploration should be taken on a war footing and the private sector should be encouraged to take part in the process in a realistic manner, the entrepreneurs said at a conference on energy for growth Tuesday.

The conference was organised by International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh at a city hotel. Over 550 participants from different countries attended the programme.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said the government will formulate public-private partnership (PPP) guidelines by this year to pave the way for undertaking energy and other infrastructure projects under PPP.

He said people should be patient as the power crisis cannot be resolved overnight.

In the last one year, the government approved $1 billion projects in power sector but it takes time to materialise the projects, he said.

The problems are complex and comprehensive as there are problems with power generation, pricing, exploration and transmission, he added. “We have primary resources but the problem is extraction and exploration.”

If gas production increases on any given day, power generation would increase by 500 megawatts, he added.

“We have to use coal, explore gas, broaden transmission lines and import electricity through regional trade to ease the power crisis,” he said.

ICC-B president Mahbubur Rahman said the prime minister unveiled an ambitious plan for power generation of 9,276mw by 2015, of which 4,526mw would come from private sector plants.

He said the public and private sectors should work together to achieve the power target.

“For the private sector, it will be a stupendous challenge to fulfil the target set for it,” he said.

The business leader said the government should simplify the power purchase agreement to encourage the private sector to invest in the sector.

“The government has to make the whole process hassle-free so that more private companies become interested in going for power projects.”

“The private sector is with the government, but it is the government which has to deliver the results,” he said adding, “The government should say that it will buy power at certain price whoever will produce it.”

He said the government should offer the right price for power generation, otherwise private players would not be interested.

Banana market size in city over Tk 10m a day this Ramadan

Courtesy: The Financial Express

August 29, 2009

Jasim Uddin Haroon

The city’s banana market size has reached around Tk 7.0 million at wholesale level a day during this holy month of Ramadan, senior banana traders told the FE.

The senior traders said this based on the trucks that arrived each day at the city’s seven wholesale markets.

They also said the market size at retail level during this Ramadan is over Tk 10 million a day in the city.

Md Abdul Kuddus Hawladar, proprietor of Ferojpur Farm at Waisghat in the city said: “Around 35 trucks loaded with bananas enter the city’s wholesale markets each day. Each truck is loaded with bananas worth Tk 200,000 on an average.”

However, the price of bananas remained a record high this time because of bad weather in northern districts especially in Dinajpur, the main growing district.

“We are selling a ‘paun’ (80 pieces) of quality bananas at Tk 400 at wholesale level, which is around 40 per cent up from last year,” Momtaz Mian of Sumi Traders at Tejgaon told the FE.

However, small-sized bananas are being sold at Tk 200 to Tk 220 each ‘paun’.

Last year, its prices dropped, thanks to a surge in the supply.

Currently, local as well as Nepali varieties of Sagar and Chamapa are available and the lion’s share of these bananas comes from Dinajpur and the others from Tangail.

But, traders said, consumption of bananas has not increased this Ramadan as expected due to rainy weather.

“This year demand for bananas has surged to around 15 per cent,” Md Aslam, a trader of ‘Allahar Dan’ at Jatrabari wholesale market, told the FE.

Bananas, mainly of Sagar variety, are now entering the city from greater Dinajpur.

Md Dipu Talukdar, a leading banana trader and proprietor of Masud Traders at Waisghat in the city, said many banana traders are incurring losses this year as frequent rainfall forced them to sell the same below purchase prices.

There are two ways of procuring banana, one is thorough ‘dadan’ or advance lending to the farmers by the traders and the other is the direct procurement from local market of banana growing areas.

Major wholesale markets the city are Waisghat, Buckland Bundh, Badamtoli, Jatrabari, Tejgaon, Mirpur and Natunbazar at Gulshan.