RAJSHAHI, Jan 15, 2020 (BSS) – Agricultural scientists and researchers
urged the farmers to promote synchronize cultivation technology to make the
farming system more profitable and sustainable through boosting its outputs.
They mentioned that large-scale adoption of the synchronize cultivation
technology including its rice transplanting machine can be an effective means
of facing the existing agriculture related challenges.
The agriculturists came up with the observation while addressing a
farmers’ field day meeting on the issue at Bijoynagar area under Godagari
upazila in the district yesterday.
Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and Bangladesh Rice Research
Institute (BRRI) jointly organized the meeting in order to disseminate
knowledge relating to various aspects of farm mechanization among the
farmers.
DAE Deputy Director Khayer Uddin Mollah and BRRI Chief Scientific
Officer Dr Aminul Islam addressed the meeting as chief and special guests
respectively with Upazila Agriculture Officer Shafiqul Islam in the chair.
DAE Additional Deputy Director Dr Bimol Kumar Parmanik, Agriculture
Engineer Shah Saidur Rahman and Regional Officer of Agriculture Information
Services Abdulllahu-Hil Kafi also spoke as resource persons.
Dr Aminul Islam observed that the region’s agriculture is facing many
challenges including climate change, labour shortage, irrigation water
scarcity and increase of crop cultivation cost. So, promotion of farm
mechanization has become indispensable.
He told the meeting that cropping intensity can be increased to 250
percent even 400 percent from the existing 200 percent through reducing the
existing time gap between the two crops through the best uses of the farm
mechanization.
Dr Islam said average benefits from the farm mechanization have been
estimated at 34 percent labor saving, 31 percent less seed required, six
percent fertilizers saving, 32 percent pesticide cost saving leading to 10
percent lower production cost for many crops.
He urged the farmers to use rice transplanting machine as it is built on
water-saving technology.
He added that the technology saves electricity about 755 kWh per hectare
per year for the existing rice farming system. Portraying a salient feature
of the machine before the participants he said it’s cost effective.