FEPPCAR

1. Relevance of the Action

Bangladesh occupies an area of 144,863 km². The hilly areas cover about 17,342.km² mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts districts, Chittagong, Habigonj and Moulavibazar. Hills constitute about 12 per cent of the total area of Bangladesh. Chittagong Hill Tracts districts alone covers 13,184 km² which is about 9%.Based on geology and landform, the hills of Bangladesh may broadly be subdivided as:  1. High hill ranges (about 70%) and                              2. Low hill areas (about 30%).   The high hill ranges, about 200-1,000 m above mean sea level (msl),  are steep to very steep hills and usually have a rather youthful soil mantle ranging from a few cm to several metres in thickness over bedrocks. In contrast, the low hill areas, about 15-200 m above msl are nearly flat or rounded topped and usually have old and deep soil. The whole hilly region receives more than 2000 mm precipitation annually about 80% of which receives in 4 months (June-September) and the region was covered by tropical climax forest with diversified flora and fauna just a century back. Due to human pressure, the deep forests were deforested to denuded hills. Moreover, introduction of tillage cultivation practices and uses of chemicals a good number of indigenous flora and fauna have lost their habitats. Read the rest of this entry »

Seminar on Solar Energy for High-Rise Buildings in Urban Areas   Venue: IUBAT Conference HallJuly 30, 2009
Presented by Dr. Mohammed Ataur RahmanDirector, Program on Education for SustainabilityCentre for Global Environmental Culture (CGEC)IUBAT—International University of Business Agriculture and TechnologyUttara, Dhaka-1230, Bangladesh  Solar Energy for High-Rise Buildings in Urban Areas  Dr. Mohammed Ataur RahmanDirector, Program on Education for SustainabilityCentre for Global Environmental Culture (CGEC)IUBAT—International University of Business Agriculture and TechnologyUttara, Dhaka-1230, BangladeshE-mail: ar_forest@yahoo.comWebsite: www.iubat.edu  Introduction

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The present world’s agriculture is passing a very crucial time. With the advancement of high technology, a rapid development has been made to meet the immediate demand of food and many day-to-day essentials for growing the population of the world. However, this quick advancement seldom considered long term effect of the earth’s environment. Industrialization, improvement of crop, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and mechanization of cropping culture has brought rapid changes and has imbalanced/disturbed the spontaneous ecosystems. It is true that cropping/farming is a biased culture which solely depends on the desire of the human being. Moreover, multiple needs have made it commercial i.e. market product for profit/benefit. Obviously market commodities always seek immediate result i.e. more profit. To ensure more earnings, agriculture has become more selective and mechanized and more external input based for which we have lost diversity among and within the species.

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ABSTRACT

Since 1995, an elaborate study was conducted on tea plantations of Bangladesh to evaluate the status of tea production. An effort was made to analyze the reasons for low yield and productivity and to find out easy and sustainable practices to improve the yield and production, to meet the growing demand of tea, considering the habit and habitat of tea plants. Importance of tea was studied from the historical past, present consumption trend and prevailing price and its future forecast on its popularity as a safe natural leaf beverage in the health conscious world.

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Jat/Clones, Cultural Practices and Processing

Introduction

Rubber is one of the most important cash crops, with multipurpose uses. It is produced from the latex of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex Adr. De Juss.) Muell. Arg.), an exotic deciduous rain forest tree species of Family Euphorbiaceae. The British planters first introduced it in Bangladesh in the early twentieth century. But commercial plantation was started in 1961 by the government in Chittagong and Sylhet hilly regions. Later on, plantations were expanded in Chittagong Hill Tracts and Madhupur by the government and public enterprises. The British and some other private companies also planted rubber in the fellow lands of tea estates. At present about 25,000 hectare of land is under rubber plantation in Bangladesh, and annual production is about 7,500 tons against 20,000 tons country’s total demand of natural rubber (NR). Although production of NR is far less than the demand still the price is very low, even less than the cost of production, due to competitive low price of NR and synthetic rubber (SR), a bi-product of crude oil, in the international market.

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Introduction

Spicy food is the tradition of Indian Civilization from the time immemorial. Flavoring food and making it tasty by adding different plant parts during cooking or making paste or salad is a very common practice everywhere. Spices are the symbol for aristocracy, health, tonic, immunity, vigor and stimuli. A Bangladeshi cannot think a meal without use of spice.

Underneath the taste and flavor the spices posses immense nutritional and medicinal value which is proved by the today’s scientists. The Arabians and the western traders realized the value of Indian spices and trading began thousand years back. Global trade in spices is expected to attain higher levels due to anticipated advances in the global food industry, and is posed for a major leap in the 21st century (Singh, 2002).

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Introduction

Crops play a very significant rule in changing environment. Crop is the man made culture involving biological and non-biological activities. Probably it is the product of human’s first biased act on the virgin earth. Crop is the man’s day-to-day needs obtaining from limited source, utilizing merit, labor and natural resources to ensure the continuous supply regenerating as per choice and requirement. It may be for their direct, indirect, primary, secondary and tertiary purposes, e.g. food, fodder, cash crop, medicinal, fiber, forest, agriculture, horticulture, aquatic and marine crops etc.
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Need for a home

From the very beginning of civilization man felt his need for food and shelter and thus made home for living in and around the easily available place for food and other primary requirements of life. As a colonized and socially behaved human being they gradually put off their nomadic habit and established permanent place for living, the home.

Basic criteria for a home: They considered the following criteria for their habitat:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Safety
4. Building materials
5. Easy movement
6. Protection from adverse conditions

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