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Lack of government monitoring and control over nurseries and horticulture centres has led to their haphazard growth and production of low-quality plants and vegetables.
   As a result, production of horticultural crops like vegetables, fruits, flower and spices, are not increasing significantly to meet the demand, agricultural scientists said.
   The country’s vegetable production stands at 2.5 million tonnes, meeting just one-fourth of the total demand while the production of fruits is 2 million tonnes which needs to increase about three times to meet the demand.
   A person’s vegetable intake per day in the country is only 45 grams against a requirement of about 220 grams while per capita consumption of fruit is only 35 grams against the requirement of 85 grams a day. The statistics show that the production of vegetables and fruits should be increased significantly, said M Abdur Rashid, chief scientific officer and head of vegetable division under the horticulture department of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute.
   To increase production of vegetables, grown mainly in winter, the country needs to adopt ‘protected cultivation methods’ using rain-shelters, plastic-tunnels, poly-house, vinyl covers and green-house so that farmers can grow them round the year, he said adding that such methods were now widely adopted in India.
   Rashid stressed the need for policy formulation, intensive research for developing heat- and moisture-tolerant varieties and development of marketing facilities which, he said, could help ensure production of quality horticultural crops and their export.
   Increased production of vegetables would not only meet up the nutritional demand of the people but also help the growers change their lot.
   Lack of quality seeds, saplings and grafts is hampering the growth of the sector and its export potentiality, agriculturists said.
   Most of the nursery owners do not have adequate knowledge of plant management. They have no mother tree orchards to grow quality plants. They are selling low-quality plant materials, horticulturists said.
   On the other hand, the government runs only 73 horticultural centres located in some 35 districts and the number is far from enough, they added.
   Most of the nurseries in private sector have no capacity to produce plants on their own and so they collect plants and saplings from various sources to sell them to people.
   When asked about the quality of plants and saplings supplied by private sector nurseries, seed federation president BI Siddique said, ‘Formulation of a policy and its strict implementation can strengthen monitoring of the operation of nurseries.’
   Private sector should play a greater role in the development of the sector while the government should pay more attention to the existing state-run horticulture centres and increase their number, said an official of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute.
   The government is finalising the nursery policy-2008 which, if implemented, would impose control over private nurseries to ensure quality of horticultural products, said Abdul Hamid Mollah, deputy director of food crops wing under the Department of Agricultural Extension.

Politicians, academics, women and labour leaders on Saturday termed unconstitutional the recommendations made by Islamic clerics on the proposed national women development policy.
   The constitution has ensured equal rights of men and women and the state must make sure that the rights have been established, said speakers at a roundtable organised by the Left Democratic Front in the capital.
   ‘The recommendations of the review committee comprising Islamic clerics on the proposed national women development policy are unconstitutional’, Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim told the discussion.
   He said that Islamic hardliners and war criminals were opposing equal rights for women to protect their own interests. ‘They are trying to push the country back to the dark age’, he added.
   The government last month formed an 18-member ulama committee, headed by the acting Khatib of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Maulana Nuruddin, to review the proposed policy amid mounting pressure from Islamist outfits.
   The Left Democratic Front organised the discussion on the proposed Women Development Policy 2008, at Mukti Bhaban at Purana Paltan.
   Workers Party politburo member Haider Akbar Khan Rano said that the government had been caught in a trap laid by the religious fanatics and asked it to come out of the trap before it was too late.
   ‘The fundamentalists want the country to lag behind others… they are attempting to create confusion among the people with an ulterior motive…’
   Samyabadi Dal general secretary Dilip Barua said that women who constituted half of the country’s population must be granted equal rights for the development of the country.
   Sammilita Islami Oikya Jote president Maulana Ziaul Hassan said, ‘We cannot keep women behind by giving wrong interpretations of religion. The Quran ordains stringent punishment for rapists and killers. But the Khatib [of Baitul Mukarram] avoided the point deliberately and talked only about what rights women should be granted’, Hassan said.
   LDF coordinator Ruhin Hossain Prince gave introductory speech and conducted the programme.
   Communist Kendra chief Ajoy Roy, National Awami Party faction general secretary Enamul Haque, Gana Azadi League president Abdus Samad, columnist Syed Abul Maksud, women leaders Hazera Sultana, Joly Talukder and others took part in the discussion.

Experts and civil society leaders at a consultation meeting on Saturday stressed the need for undertaking a long-term multi-sectoral adaptation programme to face adverse impacts of climate change.
   Terming Bangladesh most vulnerable to climate change in the world, they laid emphasis on setting up a proficient institutional body creating a block multi-donor climate challenge grant fund to effectively deal with the country’s burning issue.
    Climate change issues should be incorporated in the daily activities of all ministries and departments as well as in all sphere of our national life as the issue has emerged as one of the big challenges for Bangladesh, they said.
   Two draft reports titled ‘Bangladesh Climate Change Stra-tegy’ and ‘Financing Mechanism: Climate Change’, were discussed at the consultation meeting jointly organised by Economic Relations Division and Ministry of Environm-ent and Forest at National Econo-mic Council conference room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
    The environment secretary AHM Reazul Kabir, the ERD additional secretary, Mezba Uddin Ahmed, the BIDS reseach director, Dr M Asaduzzaman, the country director of IUCN, Dr Ainun Nishat, environment ministry joint secretaries Qamar Munir and Rabindranath Roy Chowdhury spoke.
   The chief editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh chairman, Quamrul Islam Chowdury, former UNESCAP environment division chief, Dr Rezaul Karim, BUET professor Rezaur Rahman, CFSD secretary, Mahfuz Ullah, academics, professionals, experts and members of civil society members took part in the consultation.
   Reazul Kabir gave a rundown of the measures and programmes taken by the government to face adverse impacts of climate change but given the most vulnerability of the country. Bangledesh needs massive scale of climate-proof development programmes to ensure food, water, energy and livelihood securities, he said.
   The climate challenge fund, he said, should be in the form of grant since Bangladesh is not at all responsible for climate change rather mere victims of the luxurious lifestyles of the greenhouse gas emitter industrialised countries.
   Mezba Uddin suggested undertaking a 15-year multi billion dollar action plan to face the climate change.
   Dr Nishat said mainstreaming of climate change such as community-based adaptation, sensitisation, disaster preparedness and mitigation needs to be intensified rather than witnessing a huge loss of lives and property caused by climate change.
   ‘Our common property resources, including wetlands and forests, need to be preserved for safeguarding the environment from unfavorable impact of climate change and that is why an efficient institutional body must deal climate change, she added.
   Bangladesh is expected to present a background paper at a high-level meeting on ‘Climate Change: Bangladesh Facing the Challenge’ scheduled to be held in June in London.
   Dr Asaduzzaman said the report which is being prepared to be placed in London has to be formulated in line with the Bali action plan but it should be country-driven and homegrown.
   All the participants raised their voice against loans in combating climate change in Bangladesh and suggested all-grant elements in the proposed climate challenge fund.

A mob beat to death a man suspected of being involved in snatching at Jhopagari in the Bogra district headquarters Friday night.
   Local residents said Ratan, 28, a resident of Jhopagari, attacked a group of three, Sohel, Mirazul and Bhutto, workers of a carpentry shop and snatched Tk 3,200 and three mobiles from them.
   As they cried out for help, a young man named Milon, approached them. Ratan then stabbed him in the head.
   Several hundred people then encircled Ratan and beat him. He was taken to Shahid Zia Medical College Hospital where he died from his wounds two hours after admission to the hospital.
   Ratan’s father-in-law Khoka Mia said Ratan had a mobile servicing centre at the Sharif Uddin Super Market.
   Some local residents said Ratan was killed over previous enmity as a man could not snatch valuables from a group of three.
   A case was filed with the police in this connection.

The Progressive Democratic Party, one of the new political parties formed under state of emergency, has changed its stance regarding the state of emergency, saying that emergency must be lifted at least four months before the election.
   Earlier, the party had repeatedly demanded that the elections must be held under the state of emergency.
   The PDP’s convener, Ferdaus Ahmad Quarishi, announced on Saturday that his party would go to the courts if the Emergency Powers Rules were not relaxed at least four months before any upcoming elections while addressing a press conference at its Segunbagicha central office.
   Quarishi specifically criticised the caretaker administration’s plan to hold the four city corporation elections and ten municipal elections in May this year.
   ’Any attempt to hold any of the elections before the rainy season will be senseless,’ said Quarishi.
   ’We contend that holding city corporation and municipal elections in phases in October will be more logical, with the upazila elections being held in November and the Jatiya Sangsad elections in December,’ he said.
   The PDP leader said that holding city corporation and municipal elections in May, under the state of emergency, would mean that new parties or individuals would have great difficulty taking part in the polls.
   He said established parties, unlike the newer ones, had already selected their candidates, and that an election without indoor politics and access of party members to voters would be undemocratic.
   Quarishi claimed that the caretaker government and the Election Commission were ‘hell bent’ on holding dialogues with the leaders of the two main political parties at the expense of more recent arrivals in the political scene.
   ’This ill-conceived attitude is pushing our national politics to a stalemate.
   It is in this context that the bad politics of pre-1/11 is trying to raise its head again,’ he said.

Two young men were found dead at Nabiabad village under Debidwar upazila in Comilla Saturday morning.
   The deceased were identified as Faruqur Rahman, 30, of Nabiabad and Selim Hossain, 30, of a neighbouring village
   The police said on information, they came to the spot, recovered the bodies and sent them to hospital morgue for autopsy.
   The two young men were found slaughtered at a shallow machine room, they added.
   The police quoting locals said the victims went there Friday night.
   Another report from Laxmipur says: The body of a woman was recovered at Kazirchar village in Raipur upazila here on Friday.
   The identity of the victim, aged about 25, could not be known.
   Local people found the body lying on the bank of a canal in the morning and informed them of the matter.
   Later, the police recovered the body and sent it to sadar hospital morgue for autopsy.
   The police suspected that the woman might have been killed after gang-rape. A case was filed in this connection.