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Agriculture adviser CS Karim has called upon the seed traders to ensure supply of quality seeds to farmers to help them grow more crops for ensuring national food security.
   ‘We have to solve the problems of our agriculture. Please think about farmers before making profits when you are in seed business,’ he told a BRAC workshop in the city on Saturday, emphasising the importance of self-regulation in making sensitive business of seeds.
   The adviser pointed out that the country could raise agricultural production by 10-15 per cent by using quality seeds, while research programmes were on to develop improved seed varieties to cater to the needs of the farmers, given the climate change scenario.
   ‘Never sell old seeds to farmers. If you do so, you will eventually lose Tk 100 for a profit of Tk 10. You will lose your entire business,’ BRAC adviser Aminul Alam told the workshop titled ‘Role of BRAC in Food Security’ at BRAC Centre Inn.
   Praising the present government for officially introducing hybrid seeds, BRAC executive director Mahbub Hossain, and Channel-i director Shykh Siraj advocated use of hybrid seeds for increasing farm productivity and achieving self-sufficiency in food-grains.
   ‘It is necessary to embark on hybrid to get much better yields on lesser areas of land and achieve national food security. The next government has to take a clear position on this,’ said Siraj, an anchor of television programmes on agriculture and campaigner of modern farming.
   In a rebuttal of the concerns that introduction of hybrid seeds would end farmers’ rights over local seeds, Mahbub said the issue of helping the farmers
   in this regard should be resol-ved instead of rejecting the technology.
   Distributors, dealers and farmers, who were awarded at the workshop for successfully using hybrid seeds, claimed that the productivity of hybrid rice seed was almost double.
   ‘Even if we can cover 40 lakh hectares of our 80 lakh hectares arable land, we can get additional 80 lakh tonnes of grains,’ the BRAC executive said adding that different technologies should also be adopted to reduce costs of farming.
   The country requires about 3.5 lakh tonnes of additional food grains to meet the demand of increasing population at a time when farmland is depleting at more than 1 per cent a year, BRAC researcher Sudhir Chandra Nath said in the keynote.
   He also recommended strengthening of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, formulation of a judicious land use policy, bringing fallow land under cultivation and providing incentives for seed business.

Development actors, economists and leaders of ethnic minority groups have urged the political parties to pledge measures in their respective election manifestos to end the longstanding land disputes in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
   Speaking at a seminar on ‘Jhum (shifting) Cultivation and State Policy: the Land Rights of the Indigenous Residents in CHT’, they also asked the government to establish a permanent land commission with modern outlook to replace the flawed land management system in the country.
   ‘There should be a permanent commission to deal with all land related problems, and resolve them in the shortest possible time’, Abul Barakat, a professor of economics at Dhaka University, told the seminar held at YWCA conference hall on Saturday.
   Land disputes and denial of indigenous people’s access to land resulted in a downward trend in shifting cultivation, considered as an integral part of indigenous culture in the CHT, the speakers said.
   In his keynote paper, Santosh Tripura, a NORAD fellow at Tramso University, Norway, said the shifting cultivation had significantly shrunk in the last century in the CHT.
   ‘By now, the percentage of people engaged in shifting cultivation has come down to 35 from 88 per cent in 2001’, Santosh, who did his research on problems of land rights in Chittagong Hill Tracts, said.
   Referring to the recent baseline survey in the CHT, Abul Barakat said that the number of people engaged in shifting cultivation was less than that was mentioned in the keynote paper. It has been found that generally 19 per cent of the indigenous people are engaged in shifting cultivation.
   The percentage varies among the ethnic groups, he said, adding that 100 per cent people of some of the groups were engaged in such cultivation while it was less in some other groups.
   But, he said, the survey found acute poverty among 65 per cent of the CHT people.
   Organised by the Association for Land Reforms and Development, the seminar was also addressed among others by CHT Regional Commission member Gautam Chakma, Dhaka University professors Ahsan Ali and Ainun Nahar, researcher Barendra Lal Tripura and Utpal Khisha. Khushi Kabir, chief executive of non-governmental organisation Nijera Kori, presided over the session.
   Gautam Chakma gave a brief introduction of jhum cultivation. He referred to the history of the region and said that the shifting cultivation was the main system of farming in Bangladesh some 500 years ago when most part of southern Bangladesh was under water.
   ‘The method of jhum cultivation is not only necessary for the life and livelihoods [of indigenous people] but also necessary for the land [in CHT]’, said Gautam who was the general secretary of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti which fought an armed struggled for CHT self-rule for more than two decades before the signing of the peace deal in 1997.
   Dispelling the general notion that shifting cultivation causes environmental degradation, Gautam said that this method of cultivation was in force in many places and regions, including the Hidukush Range of the Himalayas.
   He called on the government to take pragmatic steps for the people living in the CHT, especially in order to resolve their land related disputes. He alleged that the Bengali settlers, who moved there only a few years ago, were easily getting documents for lands while the indigenous people living there for centuries were deprived of their rights.
   He also urged all concerned to carry forward the movement of the ethnic minorities.

Economists and bankers have stressed the need for a detailed analysis of the global financial turmoil and assessment of its impacts on Bangladesh’s economy to plan proper responses.
   If the US and European financial market crisis prolongs, it will cause short-term negative impacts to Bangladesh’s economy as well as open up new market avenues for the country’s products, they said.
   They felt that the government should be more prudent while dealing with foreign direct investment and should intensify the monitoring of the country’s capital market to ward off any immediate shocks from the global market.
   They were speaking on ‘Global financial crisis and Bangladesh’ at a seminar organised by the Citibank NA and FICCI in Dhaka Saturday.
   Professor MA Taslim of Dhaka University, World Bank economist Zahid Hossain, former ambassador Masud Aziz, Bangladesh Association of Banks president Mahmud Sattar and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute chief Farooq Sobhan spoke at the seminar, moderated by Citibank NA, Bangladesh managing director Mamun Rashid.
   The bank’s executive Sajedul Islam presented the keynote speech.
   Prof Taslim said the real estate sector crunch in the developed countries would continue to get worse and Bangladesh might face some problems in getting FDI and remittance.
   He said the government should keep an eye on the latest developments in the global financial markets and get ready for proper responses in short and long terms.
   Zahid Hossain described the global economic meltdown as an impact of free market economy and said the turmoil probably took place in the western countries because of frantic drives of financial institutions there for quick gains.
   Farooq Sobhan feared that foreign investment and exports might decline dramatically due to the country’s uncertain political situation and global financial crisis. He wondered that the country’s political leaders were still silent about the possible negative impacts of the global financial crisis.
   ‘The country’s economic future will depend on the two elections – national elections of Bangladesh and US presidential election,’ he added.
   ‘Signs of slowdown are seen in Bangladesh and we are going to suffer huge loss from the global recession,’ said Mahmud Sattar.
   To minimise the bad impacts of the global crisis, the government should attach top priority to national food security, he suggested.

The health condition of the detained former law minister Moudud Ahmed, now being treated in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital with multiple ailments, been deteriorated severely, family and hospital sources said.
   He cannot move without other’s help, the sources said.
   A medical board of eight physicians, formed at the directive of the Supreme Court, has recommended overseas treatment for him.
   The board includes surgery department chairman Syed Serajul Karim, physical medicine department chairman Moyeenuzzaman, cardiology department professor Nazrul Islam, medicine department professors Syed Atiqul Haq and ABM Abdullah, hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery department associate professor Zulfiqur, hepatology department professor Noor Uddin Ahmed and endocrinology department associate professor Farid Uddin Ahmed.
   In the report, the board diagnosed Moudud’s ailments as pituitary tumour, hypertension, severe osteoarthritis in the right shoulder with restricted movement, cervical and lumber spondylosis and enlarged prostate with burning micturition.
   Appendisectomy was also done on him on September 16 for acute complicated appendicitis.
   The medical board report has advised shoulder joint replacement for him in any hospital abroad for the osteoarthritis and restricted movement the right shoulder joint.
   Moudud, arrested by the army-led joint forces at his house at Gulshan on April 13, 2007, now faces five cases. Although he has already obtained bail in all the cases in the High Court, he is yet to be released from jail as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed the High Court orders which had granted him bail in the Niko corruption case and in another case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission accusing him of amassing illegal wealth, Moudud’s counsel Mahbubuddin Khokan told New Age on Saturday.

The Rapid Action Battalion unearthed a factory of fake currency at Auchpara under Tongi in Gazipur Friday night.
   The Rapid Action Battalion members also recovered
   huge fake currency and materials for making currency and arrested a man in this connection.
   The police said, on secret information, at 1:30am on Friday a group of the battalion members raided the first
   floor of the house of one Hazi Chand Mia and arrested Mahbubur Rahman, 30, a
   fake currency trader from the spot and recovered huge
   materials for making fake
   currency including notes
   of different denominations worth Tk 4.29 lakh, 38
   pieces of  fake 100 dollar, a laptop, four printers, 115 pieces of colour cartridge of printer, two kilogram chemicals for making fake currency, one dice for making water print on making US dollar  and eight different CDs for making fake notes.
   Rapid Action Battalion sources said the arrested had been
   distributing fake currencies to different areas of the country after printing them at his factory.

The Jatiya Party faction led by Anwar Hossain Manju on Saturday urged the interim government to ensure a level playing field for the forthcoming parliamentary elections on December 18.
   The central executive committee of the party at a hotel in the capital also called on the Election Commission to dispel doubts about holding the polls on the announced date, finalising the delimitation of constituencies, completing the registration of the political parties and lifting the state of emergency.
   The party urged the government to take steps for controlling the hike in prices of the essential commodities.
   The secretary general of the party, Sheikh Shahidul Islam said at a press briefing that the country would face serious political crisis if the parliamentary elections were not held on the announced date.
   Chaired by party’s presidium member, Abdur Rahim, the meeting was attended, among others, by its additional secretary general, Sadek Siddiqui, presidium member, Shah Rafiqul Bari Chowdhury, and Mofizl Haque Benu.
   The national executive committee members of the party from across the county attended the meeting.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh on Saturday formed a six-member nomination board and a 23-member election steering council for the forthcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
   The nomination board is constituted of the party’s president, Monzurul Ahsan Khan, general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, presidium member, Sahidullah Chowdhury, and central committee members, Mahbub Alam, Ruhin Hossain Prince and Laxmi Chokrobarty. The board will nominate the party candidates for the national elections on the basis of the recommendations by the district committees of the party.
   Mujahidul Islam Selim and Mahbub Alam have been appointed chairman and member secretary of the election steering council respectively.
   The decisions were taken at the party’s national council meeting at its central office.
   The meeting demanded holding of the parliamentary polls on the announced date. The country will face a tough time unless the elections are held on the scheduled date, speakers said.
   The meeting also demanded lifting of the state of emergency before the elections.

A WOMAN, who was on a motorbike with her son, was killed in an accident at Bijoynagar on the Jessore–Jhenaidah Road on Saturday.
   The motorbike rider son was injured in the accident.
   The dead was Rahela Begum, 75, of village Dhakatia under sadar upazila.
   Rahela was killed as a bus hit the bike from behind at Bijoynagar leaving her dead on the spot. Her son Nazim Uddin was injured.

The Bangladesh ambassador to the United States, Humayun Kabir, has said national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam could be a veritable bridge of friendship between the people of Bangladesh and those living in the rest of the world.
   ‘The spirit, energy and dynamism that Nazrul embodied in him and the universal appeal that he had created could be a beacon to all oppressed people around the world,’ he said.
   Kabir was making opening remarks at the Second Kazi Nazrul Islam Lecture at the University of Connecticut in Washington DC on Friday. He thanked the University of Connecticut and the Nazrul Committee members to familiarise Nazrul to the audience in the United States.
   The Bangladesh envoy said Nazrul’s undiluted commitment to universalism radiated through his works and indeed his bond with humanity was so profound that without forgetting his own root and background, religion or geographical origin.
   ‘Nazrul identified himself with the world. He visualised a society which always transcends the territorial boundaries and creates a space for humanity,’ he said adding that the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington DC would be happy to work with the university to further expand its cooperation to promote further understanding about the works of other literary figures and the culture of Bangladesh.
   Dr Cathleen Love, associate vice-provost, Office of Multicultural and International Affairs, Nazrul Committee members Dr Gulshan Ara and Dr Kazi M Belal also spoke.
   In his concluding remarks, Dr Rozer N Buckley, professor of history and Nazrul Committee chair, said Nazrul was a man of action and his contribution should be judged in that light.
   A message from Dr Rafiqul Islam, director of the Nazrul Institute, Bangladesh, was read by Jung Mean Lee, a student from the university. A small video presentation also highlighted evolution of life and works of Nazrul.
   Teachers, students, researchers and other lovers of Nazrul gathered at the Dodd Centre of the University of Connecticut on the occasion.

Journalists, including 16 editors, in a statement on Saturday called on the interim government to spare the house of the late politician and writer Abdus Shahid from being acquired by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha which was set to demolish the house under the Integrated Hatirjheel-Begunbari Development Project.
   In the statement the journalists said it was unacceptable that the homestead, the only shelter for the poor family of Shahid, who had dedicated his whole life to the cause of democracy and an exploitation-free society and died in extreme poverty, should be acquired by the government.
   ‘Comrade Abdus Shahid had bought the plot in an extremely backward locality on the edge of the city decades ago and constructed a very modest house with the money he borrowed from friends and donations from well-wishers’, the statement said.
   The helpless family of Shahid, who left nothing for them but this small and half-finished house, will have to face an uncertain future if the house is acquired, the journalists said.
   They hoped that the authorities would take immediate steps to spare Shahid’s house from being acquired so that his poor family could live there in peace.
   The 238 signatories of the statement included Nirmal Sen, Kamal Lohani, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, Ittefaq editor Rahat Khan, Janakantha advisory editor Toab Khan and executive editor Borhan Ahmed, Samakal editor Abed Khan, Inqilab editor AMM Bahauddin, News Today editor Riazuddin Ahmed, the Bangladesh Observer editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Amar Desh editor Ataus Samad, New Nation editor Mostafa Kamal Majumder, New Age editor Nurul Kabir, Jai Jai Din editor in charge Barun Shankar, Amader Shomoy editor Nayeemul Islam Khan, Destiny editor Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, Nawroz editor Shamsul Huq Durrani, Dainik Janata editor Khondaker Mohitul Islam and Dinkal editor in charge Aminur Rahman Sarkar.
   Journalists’ leaders Elias Khan, Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, Omar Faruk and Shah Alamgir also signed the statement.
   Earlier, politicians, journalists and intellectuals, including former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Dr Kamal Hossain, Professor Anisuzzaman, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, National Awami Party president Muzaffar Ahmad, Ruhin Hossain Prince of the CPB and former adviser to the caretaker government Sultana Kamal, had appealed to the government not to acquire the house of Abdus Shahid.
   The Rajuk authorities under the project marked the ancestral house of Abdus Shahid at 58/1, Ulon Road in Rampura in the capital for acquisition. The family of Shahid said the project could be implemented keeping the house unaffected. The alignment of the project has been changed for saving more than 200 houses located at the eastern and western end of Shahid’s house, they said.
   Abdus Shahid, who died on September 8, 1996, was one of the organisers of the historic Khapra ward revolt in which seven political prisoners were shot dead in the Khapra Ward of Rajshahi central jail on April 24, 1950 by the police of the then Muslim League government for protesting against the torture and inadequate food supply in jail.
   Some influential persons in the interim government earlier assured Shahid’s family that the house would not be demolished. But the authorities have already served them with a notice of acquisition and hoisted a red flag upon the house, his family said.
   Shahid’s widow has also sought intervention of the government and the chief adviser to spare the house as the family would have no shelter in the capital if their house was acquired for the Rajuk project.