Make farm machinery affordable
The government should provide at least 80 per cent subsidy to farmers to bring agriculture machinery within their purchasing power.
Representatives of farmers, machinery manufacturers and importers made this call at the "National Workshop on Agricultural Mechanisation Project through Integrated Management" at the Krishibid Institution Auditorium in the capital's Khamarbari yesterday.
To speed up farm mechanisation across the country, they also urged the government to provide bank loans and agriculture machinery to small entrepreneurs in villages.
The government is currently giving 70 per cent subsidy to farmers in the haor areas and 50 per cent subsidy to the farmers in the rest of the country to buy agriculture machinery.
But most farmers cannot afford the rest of the cost to buy machinery like a combined harvester, which costs around Tk 14 lakh to Tk 15 lakh.
Addressing the workshop, Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said the government was planning to provide bank loans to the farmers so that they could afford the rest of the cost.
He said the government wanted to manufacture farm machinery locally to reduce the dependency on imports. Most of the farm machinery is brought in from abroad.
"Besides, we are giving importance to producing spare parts and machinery repairing factories so that the opportunity for jobs can increase locally," Razzaque said.
The government has undertaken a Tk 3,020-crore project with an emphasis on agricultural mechanisation.
In addition, 284 posts of agricultural engineers have been created at the field level to accelerate farm mechanisation, the minister said.
"As a result, agriculture is moving towards mechanisation, and the benefits of mechanisation are being reaped," he added.
Md Monjurul Alam, a professor of the farm power and machinery department of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said a survey should be carried out to assess the usefulness of the agriculture machinery currently in use.
"Moreover, farmers need long-term training to learn about modern machinery," he said.
Women's participation in the agriculture sector is increasing, and the government should pay special attention to them.
About 60,000 more combine harvesters are needed to harvest crops across the country.
Agricultural loans have to be disbursed in a way that makes buying farm machinery mandatory, Alam added.
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