Why do many Bangladeshi companies import thousands of units of agricultural machinery when some local companies export compressors, home appliances and electronic products, Agriculture Minister Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque said on Monday.
Citing the examples of Alim Industries of Sylhet and Janata Engineering of Chuadanga, the minister said: "Like these agri-machinery manufacturers, other companies need to ensure significant private sector and foreign investment for manufacturing all farming machinery locally, instead of heavily relying on imports.”
Speaking on the first day of a two-day workshop on “Agricultural Mechanization in Bangladesh: The Future” in Dhaka, Dr Razzaque promised all forms of policy support needed to manufacture farming machinery and also made a fervent call to all banks to provide farmers with credit so that they could buy the machines.
He said the government was already providing 50-70% of subsidies on the procurement of machinery by farmers.
Also a Presidium member of the ruling Awami League, Dr Razzaque strongly batted for farm mechanization and the transformation of Bangladesh's subsistence agriculture into commercial agriculture, in order to address labour shortages and make farming more profitable.
Speaking at the same session, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Director General Dr Shahajahan Kabir recommended a tax regime that favoured local manufacturing of farm machinery, a special economic zone for farm machinery manufacturing units, and skilled manpower for after sale services.
He said: "We need 50,000 combined harvesters in Bangladesh, but we have hardly 3,000 right now."
The USAID-funded Feed the Future Bangladesh Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia- Mechanization and Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA), in collaboration with Bangladesh Agriculture University, organized the workshop at a city hotel.
A press release issued by the workshop organizers yesterday said Bangladesh had made great strides in mechanizing many aspects of agricultural production since the early 1980s, when manual labour and animal power were common.
However, there was significant work still to be done in terms of mechanization, as almost all of the 11.5 million hectares of rice that were planted and 50 million tons that were harvested each year followed a manual process, it added.
“Farmers find it challenging to find and afford labour for this purpose [transplanting and harvesting]. The private sector has responded to this through aggressive promotion and sale of mini combine harvesters and rice transplanters and the government through the provision of subsidies on the sale price of a range of machines, including combine harvesters and rice transplanters," the press release further said.
This two-day workshop is reviewing progress made with the introduction of agricultural mechanization technologies and identifying opportunities for appropriately mechanizing crop production operations that are still partly or fully done manually.
The workshop will also address constraints to accelerating the pace of mechanization and required changes in government and private sector policy.
Participants will also address work to support rural women and youth, and ways in which farm mechanization can foster employment in the agricultural machinery sector and establish agricultural mechanization-based businesses.
Finally, innovative ways of financing agricultural machinery manufacture, sales and service provision will be highlighted.
At the inaugural session, Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque was the chief guest while the ministry’s Secretary Md Sayedul Islam spoke as a special guest.
Speakers also included Dr Shaikh Md Bokhtiar, executive chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC); Dr Muhammad Khan, acting director, Office of Economic Growth (USAID); Dr Timothy J Krupnik, country representative, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Bangladesh; and Dr Md Monjurul Alam, Department of Farm Power and Machinery, BAU.
More than 250 people representing different organizations from home and abroad are taking part in the workshop, which will draw to an end this afternoon.
