Reaz Ahmad

This has been a bad crop year so far with back-to-back floods inflicting losses on the agrarian economy and seriously affecting livelihood in half the country.

More than a year after the Chinese president's historic Dhaka visit, some of Bangladesh's key development projects have finally gained momentum.

Bangladesh is bracing itself for another less productive rice season as the United States Department of Agriculture predicts decline in acreage and yield of Aman. Aman is the most important rice season in the country after Boro.

Consumers in Bangladesh are still unsure if the vegetables in their daily dishes are safe even though four years have gone by since the Food Safety Act was enacted.

Scientists have long been considering the idea of engineering rice plant in a way that the global production of the cereal gets a dramatic boost. The idea came from the concern that the traditional research, which results in just one percent rise in the yearly yield, would not be enough to meet the ever-growing demand.

The poor's share in the national income eroded further in the past six years, with the richer segment of the population having bigger stakes.

Bangladesh's rate of poverty reduction has slowed down in recent years.

Bangladesh has not had a food year so bad since 2008. That was a year now well marked in history books as the year of global economic meltdown, the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.