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South Africa's farm lobby endorsed mandates on land, water, labour, rural safety and trade at its 14 October congress, citing 30% irrigation losses, a record $15.1bn in exports and R4.2bn lost to port inefficiency.
LivestockFerrero Bonsmaras took the champion and reserve champion individual beef carcass titles at South Africa's 2026 Royal Show, with Beefmaster and Santa Gertrudis winning other classes.
AgribusinessShobha Shetty of the World Bank-hosted GAFSP told SciDev.Net that digital farm tools only help women when loans, repayment and payment channels fit them, citing a women's potato cooperative in Bangladesh.
India's food regulator has sanctioned prosecution of the makers of Priyagold biscuits, Dodla Dairy milk and Ueir Organic Foods raisins, and served notices on three other firms for hygiene and licensing lapses.
AgrotechGoogle has put its India-built Agricultural Understanding models into public preview for developers and researchers, and says a Gujarat state platform using them has sent more than 900 million SMS advisories to over 600,000 farmers.
WorldA JPY 300 million grant will let WFP serve school meals to 57,000 pupils in the Republic of Congo and support refugees and asylum seekers from the DRC and Central African Republic.
EnvironmentDoodh Ganga, the Jhelum tributary that supplies much of uptown Srinagar, is losing snow and glacier melt while construction has buried part of its course, leaving households with dry taps for days.
Homestead farmingWriting in Down To Earth for World Food Day, Anushka Gurung and Sonam Yangchen Bhutia describe how Sikkimese households dry and store seed in everyday domestic spaces, and why that knowledge matters as hybrids spread.
LivestockIndia's National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics has extended its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation to 28 tests covering lumpy skin disease, PPR, African swine fever, brucellosis and antimicrobial resistance.
FlowersThe Directorate of Floricultural Research in Pune has released three chrysanthemum varieties, a gladiolus, a technology that extends the vase life of cut flowers and an ornamental-basil air freshener.
AgrotechAGCO chief executive Eric Hansotia told Farms.com that camera-guided spraying, machines that learn from field conditions and AI-assisted support will make the coming ten years agriculture's most innovative.
EnvironmentA Council for Agricultural Science and Technology paper released on 16 October finds farmers carry disproportionate regulatory, economic and reputational burdens when 'forever chemicals' turn up on their land.
OrganicUniversity of Minnesota Extension now sets manure nitrogen for non-irrigated corn at 0.7 lb per bushel after soybeans and 0.9 lb after corn, replacing a flat 1.2 lb, on the strength of more than 230 trials.
CropsWith phosphate fertiliser prices well above last year's, a 16-year University of Nebraska-Lincoln trial finds that applying phosphorus by crop removal paid best, while very high soil levels added cost but not yield.
IslamThe historic Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, Syria, reopened on 8 October after restoration that officials say preserved its historic features.
FruitsOmar Ali of Nilphamari Sadar planted 6,000 King Sugar and Surya Dim watermelon seedlings on trellises across three bighas after watching videos online; he has spent about Tk 3 lakh and hopes to sell Tk 9 lakh worth.
Scientists have described an aromatic shrub with blue and white flowers, growing on rocky slopes about 2,400 metres up in Peru's Andes, as a new species and named it Salvia messii after Lionel Messi.
CropsEarly aman is being cut on Dhusmara char in Kaunia, Rangpur, with four harvesters in the fields as labour runs short; despite two floods, yields reach 12 to 14 maunds per 25 decimals.
IslamMufti Abdul Qayyum says a phone may be used in the mosque for real needs while keeping its etiquette, but entertainment, idle social media use and disturbing worshippers should be avoided.
HealthA liver cancer clinic run by BMU's hepatology department on trial since August was formally opened; more than six departments will give coordinated care.
IslamVerse 61 of Surah An-Nur tells believers to greet one another when entering a house; a Sarabangla feature says the habit closes distances within families and builds warmth.
Daily lifeTCB's procurement programme is worth Tk 8,000 crore this fiscal year; it says digital systems now run from beneficiary checks to delivery, while experts stress picking the right beneficiaries.
CookingCabbage, flour, eggs and thinly sliced meat, all easy to find in Bangladesh, make a home version of okonomiyaki, Japan's popular thick savoury pancake.
CookingRaffinose and fibre in lentils cause gas for many people; washing, soaking and cooking dal thoroughly makes it easier to digest. Red lentils need half an hour to an hour, kidney beans 8 to 12 hours.
Watch
VideoIn the latest AgriView episode, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo asks whether the enlarged BRICS bloc is opening real markets for South African produce, or mostly producing talk.
VideoAt Bindhara in Panchbibi, Joypurhat, small dark-skinned Black Baby watermelons hang from bamboo trellises. The 60-day crop needs 50 grams of seed a bigha, yields 1,200 to 1,500 fruits or 4 to 4.5 tonnes, and at Tk 30 a kilo earns far more than other field crops.
VideoShykh Seraj examines the government's first 180 days in agriculture, from farm loan waivers and farmer cards to crop insurance and canal excavation.
In pictures
GalleryIn pictures: Sukhpara's betel vines yield leaves 11 months a year1 photos
GalleryA desert elephant carried a dead calf for hours, but it was not her own1 photos
GalleryDucks at play in Bogura's 'lotus pond', where the lotuses are long gone1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 14 October: nets on Kaptai Lake, a bee on sponge gourd, a barbet on moringa1 photos
GalleryBefore winter, Rajshahi's sap tappers start shaving date palms1 photos
GalleryLate-autumn mist settles over Sylhet's haor in the afternoons1 photos
GalleryFrom a sack to a campus lake: 14 lesser whistling ducks freed in PabnaSection
EnvironmentRezaul Kibria Babul, imam of a mosque in Char Fasson, Bhola, sold family land to start a nursery and has planted 50,000 to 60,000 saplings and 25,000 to 30,000 palm seeds over 34 years.
Writer and researcher Gawher Nayeem Wahra argues that from a poultry farm beside a Jhenaidah madrasa to charcoal kilns burning jute sticks, air pollution is spreading well beyond Dhaka.
Out to watch foxes in Thakurgaon, Professor Tuhin Wadud saw a jungle cat beside a riverside thicket and sugarcane field; photographer Rezaul Hafiz Rahi photographed one for the first time.
A national strategy targets a 50 per cent cut in high blood lead levels among children by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035; a Dhaka seminar called for funding, laboratories and clean-up of contaminated sites.
FisheriesBARCIK data show Netrokona's haors held at least 115 native fish species six decades ago; 61 are found today and 29 have vanished from the area.
EnvironmentThe Forest Declaration Assessment 2026 counts seven million hectares of forest lost in 2025, the sharpest annual drop since 2018-20, but a shortfall of 10.7 million hectares against the path to halting deforestation by 2030.
