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Commercial cultivation of strawberry has begun in Rajshahi with a new variety going on sale in posh markets in Dhaka.
   Dr Manjur Hossain, a teacher of the Botany Department of Rajshahi University, evolved the variety which is suitable for cultivation in local climate.
   He first started growing of the variety on his three bigha land this year.
   The red juicy and nutritious fruit produced by him is now being supplied to posh markets in the capital Dhaka.
   With farmer-level price of around Tk 300 per kg, the commercially potential fruit will have a bigger market locally and benefit farmers enormously, the pioneer said while talking to New Age recently.
   The new variety of strawberry can be harvested within two and a half months of its plantation and a farmer can earn around Tk 4 lakh by farming it on one bigha of land with an expenditure of only Tk 20,000, he said.
   Besides being taken as a fruit, it has a good use in preparing ice-cream, jam, jelly, pickle, chocolate, biscuit, cake or milkshake.
   Dr Manjur had brought home saplings of eight varieties in 1996 while returning from Japan where he completed his PhD.
   He evolved some new varieties through tissue culture at the Plant Breeding and Gene Engineering Laboratory under his department.
   Dr Manjur carried out a field-level experiment at Akafuji Nursery at Bhadra in Rajshahi city.
   In 2003, three varieties yielded encouraging results and were found suitable in local climate.
   Out of the three, RU-3 and Modern-3 varieties were found very impressive in size, taste and flavour.
   ‘We found best results last year in hilly areas at Matiranga Army Zone where the 26 Cavalry Division produced quality strawberries from 200 saplings’, Dr Manjur said.
   Strawberry cultivation is as easy as growing potatoes or aborigines. Saplings can be planted in rows in the period between November and December.
   The plants start flowering within one month of plantation and fruits can be collected till March.
   Each plant bears around 250 to 300 grams of fruit and some 6000 plants can be grown on one bigha of land, Dr Manjur said.
   Now traders import strawberry from Thailand and Australia at Tk 900 to Tk 1200 per kg. Strawberry essence is also imported.
   The country can earn huge foreign currencies from strawberry export if its commercial farming starts at national level, Dr Manjur hoped.

The Jatiya Krishak Samity, an organisation of ethnic minority farmers, on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the Godagari upazila nirbahi officer in Rajshahi, pressing their three-point demand.
   Their demands include cancellation of lease of vested ponds in the Godagari areas and allocation of the ponds among the real farmers.
   Local sources said hundreds of ethnic minority farmers went to the upazila nirbahi officer’s office and submitted their memorandum.
   In the memorandum, they said the farmers are being deprived because of the lease system as the local influential persons are taking the ponds on lease.
   The memorandum was signed by the farmers’ organisation general secretary Rafiqul Islam Piarul, Ajmal Haque, Bimal Chandra Rajoar and Shamsuddin.

A Natore court on Wednesday sentenced a young man to 47 years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and violating a schoolgirl.
   The court also fined him Tk 5,000, in default, to serve six months more in jail.
   The convict is Shahidul Islam, 26, an inhabitant of Char Gobindapur at Barai-gram upazila of the district.
   According to the prosecution, Shahidul made a school girl of Baraigram, unconscious by applying chemicals on January 15, 2003, when she was on her way to school.
   Later, he took her to Dhaka and violated her.
   Mollik Chand, father of the victim, filed a case with the Baraigram police station against Shahidul under Women and Children Repression Act.
   After examining eight witnesses, ASM Zahurul Islam, the judge of the trial court, handed down the verdict in absentia.
   Our Khulna correspondent reports, a Bagerhat court sentenced a man to life-term imprisonment for killing his wife eight years ago.
   Additional district and sessions judge Md Rezaul Karim handed down the verdict on the same day against Sohorab Bepari, son of Ishak Bapari of village Char Sonakur under Kachua upazila in Bagerhat.
   The court also acquitted Sohrab’s brother Rostom Bapari as prosecution failed to prove his guilt.
   According to the prosecution, Sohorab beat his wife Laili Akhter to death on June 6, 2001 over family feud and hanged the body with a tree adjacent to his house in a bid to give it as suicidal shape.
   Assistant sub-inspector Abul Hossain lodged a case with the Kachua police station accusing Sohrab and his brother Rostom.

The police recovered a young man at village Daripara Narsingdi sadar upazila on Wednesday.
   The deceased was identified as Suman, 20, a power loom workers of Bhagdi area in the district town.
   Local people found the body and informed the police about the matter.
   Quoting locals the police said some miscreants Suman at gunpoint when he was returning home from his power loom factory Tuesday night.
   The police suspected the miscreants killed him over previous enmity.
   The body was sent to the Narsingdi General Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   In Comilla, the body of an unidentified female was recovered in the Chokorkhola area under Debidwar upazila on Tuesday.
   An unnatural death case was filed.

A schoolteacher was killed in a road accident at Arpara on the Dhaka-Paturia Highway in Manikganj Wednesday.
   The deceased was identified as Mohammad Ali, headmaster of Shatghar Tewta Government Primary School under Shibalaya upazila of the district.
   Officer-in-charge of Shibalaya police station Azizul Haque said a Jessore-bound private car hit him from behind at about 2:00pm, leaving him dead on the spot.
   He was going to the school by a bicycle, the police said.
   The police recoveed the body and sent it to the Manikganj General Hospiral morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   The police seized the private car and arrested its driver.
   A case has been filed in this connection.

SPEAKERS at a function have called on the government to increase allowances and other facilities for the health workers under the Ministry of Health and Family Planning.
   They made the call at a prize giving ceremony of the best field-level workers at Rangpur General Hospital auditorium Sunday.
   Rangpur Medical College principal Dr Azizul Islam as the chief guest attended the ceremony with civil surgeon Dr Shahadat Hossain in the chair.
   The Civil Surgeon’s Office, Rangpur organised the first ever ceremony in the district for rewarding the field-level workers of the department for their outstanding contribution in providing healthcare service to the rural people.
   A total of 40 field workers in eight upazilas of the district were awarded.