Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque Said, Farm Mechanization Is Crucial For Food Sufficiency

Mechanisation in agriculture is very crucial for Bangladesh to maintain food sufficiency as the government aims to ensure that no one goes hungry, said Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque yesterday.

He Mentioned in his Words that the government is now bearing 50 per cent to 70 percent of the cost of farm machinery through subsidies to expedite mechanization. "We have already modernized agriculture significantly.

Agricultural Mechanization in Bangladesh-The Future"

Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque was addressing a two-day workshop on "Agricultural Mechanization in Bangladesh-The Future" organized by USAID-funded Feed the Future Bangladesh Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization and Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) and Bangladesh Agricultural University.

He said, Private banks and financial institutions should come forward to facilitate farmers with modern machinery and development organizations can play a role to teach proper use and maintenance of modern tools. He also said that the country has made great strides in the food processing sector which would enable smooth commercialization of agriculture and increase profitability.

In the workshop, experts said Bangladesh mechanized many aspects of agricultural production since the early 1980s when use of manual labor and animal power were common. There is, though, still a long way to go before agriculture in Bangladesh is appropriately mechanized, they said. For example, almost all of the rice transplanted on 11.5 million hectares of land and the 50 million tonnes of rice harvested each year are done manually.

Sale Of Mini Combine Harvesters and Rice Trans Planters

The private sector has responded to this through the aggressive promotion and sale of mini combine harvesters and rice transplanters while the government provides subsidies to enable their purchase, they added.

The workshop also addressed constraints to accelerating the pace of mechanization and the required changes in government and private sector policies that would make that happen.

The experts said farm machinery can foster employment and enable establishing related businesses with the participation of rural women and youth.

Highlighting the success in Bangladesh's agriculture sector, Md Benojir Alam, director general at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said the country now holds a dominant position in the world in agricultural production.