The rice transplanter, an agricultural tool, has brought new hope for paddy farmers in Tangail amid the ongoing labour crisis in the region.
The machine will ease paddy cultivation by saving time and money to a great extent, say officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).
Abdur Razzak, deputy director at DAE in Tangail, said that the farmers had been making losses in paddy farming due to labour crisis and several other reasons.
Realizing the ground reality, the government took an initiative to mechanize agriculture, he said, and expressed hope that farmers would be benefitted with the adaptation of the technology in planting and thrashing crops.
"Their production costs will fall to half and yields will increase to double with the use of the machine, as it saves money and time," he added.
Meanwhile, the DAE arranged an exhibition with field activities on the rice transplanter at Dhonbari upzila under the district recently, aimed at encouraging farmers in using the high-tech machine placing its facilities.
The authorities demonstrated uses of the tool before farmers in the program.
Observing the functioning of the machine, the paddy growers expressed their hope that they would highly benefit from the machine.
Golam Sarwar, a local farmer, said that they could make profit using the rice transplanter.
"If I spend Tk600 for planting crop on a piece of land now. My estimate says it will reduce to Tk150 by using the machine," he added.
"The labourers who work in agriculture sector are moving to the industrial sector because they get high wages there, which is why we are facing labour shortage," he said, adding that it has led to crisis during the crop planting and harvesting season.
"In the last harvesting season, we faced a great shortage of workers," said Hazrat Ali, another farmer, adding that he made so much loss that as a result he could not meet production costs cultivating paddy on 2 bighas of land.
"Hopefully, the machine will bring relief for us," he added.
Ali, however, said that the price of the machine was so high that they could hardly afford to buy it.
The DAE deputy director said that it was true the price of the machine was high, ranging in six-digit figures, especially for marginal farmers.
"The government will help purchase the rice transplanter," he said.
Razzak said that rich farmers could buy the machine and rent it to other farmers. This would create opportunity of another business, he added.
The deputy director informed that the government would launch a project to boost the use of the machine.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque announced that the government would subsidize Tk4,000crore for the machine this year to ease farmers' purchasing.
He came up with the announcement while inaugurating the DAE's rice transplanter exhibition at Tangail.
Features of the tool
A rice transplanter is a specialized tool fitted to transplant rice seedlings onto paddy field.
The machine can plant paddy in six rows at a time and complete .35 hectre planting of land in an hour. It burns 700 gram fuel per hour.
Another advantage of the machine is it plants crops with discipline, which later helps farmers to clean weed, spray fertilizers, pesticides and harvest the crops.