Himu's Window

Agriculture is rarely rewarding when unpredictable weather, pests and diseases often make farming a gamble. But agricultural entrepreneur Shafiqul Islam of Rajshahi’s Bagha upazila defied the odds thanks to a modern farming technology: Polynet house. Leveraging a government project for promoting polynet houses, Islam decided to cultivate mainly capsicum in July last year. He was paid off handsomely as his premium crop found a ready market among foreigners in the region and high-end restaurants. In just the last two months of this year, he earned triple his investment while his harvest will continue till April fetching more. “Polynet house has made all the differences, my harvests exceeded all expectations,” says Shafiqul Islam. “Without its protection, growing high-quality capsicum would be almost impossible. I required less pest control and irrigation initiatives.” Islam is one of a total of 81 agricultural entrepreneurs across eight districts of the Rajshahi division who benefitted f...

Ruhul Amin, who studies textile engineering at the Bangladesh Polytechnic Institute, has successfully used the image implanting method to produce high-quality designer pears at his pond in Chhoto Palsa village under Mohonpur upazila of Rajshahi. Having taken up aquaculture a few years back in a bid to fund his education, Amin began the venture by farming breeds of carp before adding oysters to mix in July 2022 to make more profit. Oysters generally produce pearls when an irritant, such as food particles or a parasite, get lodged in their mantle, where the internal organs are stored. To defend against such foreign bodies, the oysters ooze a type of carbonate mineral and protein that create a material known as nacre, which is the nucleus of a pearl. Layers of nacre are added over time with the pearl growing in size with each excretion. However, it can take up to three years for pearls to reach an adequate size for harvest using this method while the image implanting technique shaves down...