A fire that broke out in Sundarbans has been brought under control after more than a day’s efforts, according to environment ministry’s announcement at 7pm Sunday. Firefighting activities would continue for a few more days to pre-empt any reemergence of fire. Service personnel are now engaged in cutting trees across five acres of land for expanding the firebreak area and preventing the spread of any potential new fire eruption. The Forest Department has formed a three-member committee to investigate the cause of the fire. Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury and the Secretary of the Ministry Dr Farhina Ahmed have been supervising and coordinating the Sundarbans firefighting operations round the clock. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is also keeping a regular note of the situation.  Chief Conservator of Forests Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury has supervised the firefighting activities on the ground.  He will brief the journalists at the office of the divisional forest officer of Sundarban West Forest Division in Khulna on Sunday at 8:30pm. The fire was first reported at around 3.30pm Saturday at Amarbunia camp of Chandpai range under Sundarban East Forest Division in Morelganj Upazila of Bagerhat district. The fire did not spread to the top of the tree or branches and only spread sporadically above the ground, the environment ministry claimed in a statement on Sunday. Shortly after the outbreak was reported, the people from the forest department as well as the fire service and other related government agencies reached the spot. Forest department personnel started cutting trees around the fire with the help of local community patrolling groups, village tiger response teams and local people to prevent the fire’s spread. However, due to low tide at that time there was no water in the canal so it was not possible to use water for dousing flames.  The forest department's own firefighting equipment and water dispenser were brought in on Saturday night. From early Sunday, the forest department workers, fire servicemen and local people started cutting trees to create a firebreak, and dousing the existing flames with water. At about 2pm Sunday, the air force deployed a helicopter fo sprinkle water from the sky.

Boro paddy harvesting in the low-lying areas of the Haor region is almost over after a month of drought, the Department of Agricultural Extension has said. As much as 97 percent of the wetland region’s paddy has been harvested, according to a press release issued by the agriculture ministry on Sunday.  It means Boro paddy in the low-lying areas of the country has been spared from early rains this time. Boro paddy has been cultivated in 453,400 hectares of wetland in the seven districts under the region. The districts are Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Netrokona and Brahmanbaria. Out of this, paddy has been harvested from 438,000 hectares of land so far.  Overall across the country, 33 percent of the Boro paddy has been harvested. April experienced almost no rains this year as record-breaking temperatures marked the longest heatwave of the country on record  People all over the country started praying for rain to get some respite from the heat, but Haor’s farmers wanted the rainless period to go on at least until harvesting.  The government is implementing multifaceted initiatives to de-risk paddy cultivation in the Haor region. It is providing combine harvesters and reapers to Haor farmers with 70 percent subsidy so that the farmers can take home ripe paddy quickly.  More than 4,400 combine harvesters are being used in the seven Haor districts, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension These include 100 new combine harvesters allocated this year. Combine harvesters have also been brought from other parts of the country to harvest Boro paddy in Haor. The farmers of Bangladesh have cultivated Boro rice on around 5.06 million hectares of land across the country this year, which is about 20,000 more than the target.  The government hopes to increase Boro paddy production to 22.2 million tonnes. In a recent Boro harvesting festival in Moulvibazar, Agriculture Minister Abdus Shahid said Boro contributes to more than half of the total rice production  This is why the government has distributed seeds, fertilisers and other materials worth Tk 2.15 billion for free among the farmers to increase cultivation.

The United Nations food agency's world price index rose for a second consecutive month in April as higher meat prices and small increases in vegetable oils and cereals outweighed declines in sugar and dairy products. The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 119.1 points in April, up from a revised 118.8 points for March, the agency said on Friday. The FAO's April reading was nonetheless 7.4 percent below the level a year earlier. The indicator hit a three-year low in February as food prices continued to move back from a record peak in March 2022 at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of fellow crop exporter Ukraine. In April, meat showed the strongest gain in prices, rising 1.6 percent from the prior month. Higher prices for poultry, beef and sheep meat offset a small fall for pork, which was affected by slow demand in Western Europe and from leading importers, especially China, the FAO said. The FAO's cereal index inched up to end a three-month decline, supported by stronger export prices for maize (corn). Vegetable oil prices also ticked higher, extending previous gains to reach a 13-month high due to strength in sunflower and rapeseed oil. The sugar index dropped sharply, shedding 4.4 percent from March to stand 14.7 percent below its year-earlier level amid improving global supply prospects. Dairy prices edged down, ending a run of six consecutive monthly gains. In separate cereal supply and demand data, the FAO nudged up its estimate of world cereal production in 2023/24 to 2.846 billion metric tons from 2.841 billion projected last month, up 1.2 percent from the previous year, notably due to updated figures for Myanmar and Pakistan. For upcoming crops, the agency lowered its forecast for 2024 global wheat output to 791 million tons from 796 million last month, reflecting a larger drop in wheat planting in the European Union than previously expected. The revised 2024 wheat output outlook was nonetheless about 0.5 percent above the previous year's level.