Home ›› 10 Aug 2021 ›› Nation
Bogura has emerged as a hub for modernising agriculture across the country with its production of agricultural machinery and equipment.
The machinery and equipment produced in the district now meet over 75 per cent of the country’s demand, said BSCIC Deputy General Manager AKM Mahfuzur Rahman.
Local entrepreneurs in Bogura started producing agricultural machinery and equipment in the early 70s following indigenous methods, which flourished in the 1980s without any assistance from the government.
The sector – which had revolutionized the country’s agricultural advancement – is being led by over 1, 00,000 local entrepreneurs in the district across 978 registered factories, confirmed Mahfuzur Rahman.
A quarter of the factories are located in the compound of BSCIC. At the same time, the remaining 75 per cent have been established outside the area by entrepreneurs on their own initiative, said the BSCIC sources.
The main light engineering industry of the district is located in the Satmatha road intersection, popularly known as the Krishi Market (Agricultural Market). On a field visit, the market comprised of over 100 small workshops buzzing with buyers and sellers, who came from all over the country to buy farm equipment.
There are four types of traders involved in this industry. The first type collect old iron from different household sources. The second type work as middlemen who collect, sell it to other traders or factories. The third kind reshape these irons into blocks and provide it to the fourth kind who make the final products out of these blocks in their factories.
While visiting the market, The Business Post met with the owner of Boby Engineering Workshop, Abdul Latif Pashari, whose products are sold to over 20 northern districts of the country.
His factory mainly produces rice threshing machines. He is successful in the business for delivering good quality products at low prices.
“From my factory, I sell at least 1,000 pieces of machines in each paddy harvesting season and earn Tk 30 lakh to Tk 40 lakh,” he said.
Matin Miah, the owner of another factory in the market, informed The Business Post that he mainly sells power threshers and rice cutter machines, but his factory is popular for a cutting edge harvesting machine which is able to harvest a bigha of paddy, maize, jute, sugarcane just in an hour.
He said: “A local mechanical engineer named Amir Hossain has fashioned the cutting edge machine named “Kaler Kanchi” which has gained popularity among the farmers for its highly productive features.”
“Farmers from all over the country come to my shop for the machine. Other factories are making the machine as well, but we ensure the best quality,” he added.
Mohammad Shaheen, a factory owner who sells tools used for irrigation, said: “Bogura is the hub of agro-mechanical development of the country. Farmers, traders from Dhaka, Barishal, Khulna, Jeshore, come to us for the factory-made tools that they spread all over the country.”
Centrifugal pumps, power tillers, diesel engines, rice mills, tube-wells, threshing machines, spice milling machines, liners and hundreds of other agro-mechanical tools are being made at theses factories.
The factory owner sources said that the tools and machines are being exported to India, Nepal, and Bhutan after meeting the domestic demand.
Abdul Malek Akand, president of Bogura BSCIC Shilpo Malik Samity (BSCIC Industrial Owners Association), told The Business Post that this sector can earn more remittance than the RMG industry, which is currently the largest contributor of the country’s economy.
“The agro-mechanical industry of Bogura is largely ignored by the government. Businesses here fail to avail loans, cash assistance from any private and public organization, which is very detrimental for the growth of the industry,” he said.
