Scientists and researchers today underlined the need for mechanizing farming process in larger scale to decay agriculture related challenges and boost production in the drought-prone Barind area in Rajshahi division.
They put the importance while focusing on challenges in the region including climate change, labour shortage, irrigation water scarcity and increasing cost in crop cultivation.
They were addressing the closing session of the two-day long training for farmers and mechanics here.
Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division (FMPED) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) organized the training at On Farm Research Division (OFRD) in association with the 'More Profitable through Innovation of Agricultural Machinery and Appropriate Technology' project.
FMPED Senior Scientific Officer Dr Arshadul Hoque, OFRD Principal Scientific Officers Dr Majharul Anwar and Dr Jagadish Chandra Barman, Senior Scientific Officer Dr Shakhawat Hossain and Scientific Officer Dr Jahidul Islam conducted the training sessions as resource persons.
The trainees were told that the cropping intensity can increase to 250 percent even 400 percent from the existing 200 percent after the best uses of the farm mechanization.
They were given practical knowledge and ideas on handling, repairing and maintaining agricultural machinery, particularly bed planter, seeder, maize sheller, power thresher, potato harvester, solar pump based solar home system and reaper.
Dr Arshadul Hoque said forty percent labourers are involved in agricultural activity at present which is decreasing day by day. Serious labour crises are being found during the planting and harvesting season in the region, he added.
Importance of mechanization in agricultural is being perceived by all policy makers and stakeholders to overcome the labour crisis, reduce the production cost and improve productivity through timely planting, he said.
So, the government is trying to popularize agri machinery among the farmers and has been giving subsidies to the farmers for farm mechanization. BARI has developed 50 different agricultural machines which are suitable for the small scale farming community of Bangladesh.
Simultaneously, FMPED has been implementing a project to meet the national demand for increasing mechanization level in agriculture.
"We are focusing on development of entrepreneurs of agricultural machinery nbesides increasing the number of manufacturers and adoption level of agricultural machinery," he added.