Laser land levelling can save 30% water in Boro farming

The promotion of laser land levelling in Boro paddy farming accurately can be the best way of saving 25-30 per cent of irrigation water besides boosting the yield in Barind tract of Rajshahi.

Naturally, the land pattern of the vast Barind tract is uneven meaning that the water usage and uptake by the Boro plant is uneven causing a negative impact on the paddy production as a whole.

To mitigate the arising situation, farmers, in general, should be accustomed to farm mechanisation, including laser land levelling, for their welfare.

Agricultural scientists and researchers came up with the observation while addressing a farmers’ field day titled “Laser levelling of Boro paddy field in Barind Tract for efficiency of AWD method” at Chaitanyapur village under Godagari Upazila in Rajshahi district on Tuesday.

On behalf of its ‘Introducing Water Efficient Technologies to Barind tract Project’, DASCOH Foundation organised the farmers’ meeting supported by Syngenta foundation and Coca-cola Foundation.

Principal Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute Dr Ilias Hossain, Upazila Agriculture Officer Morium Ahmed, Project Director of Dascoh Foundation Fakhrul Basher and Project Manager Shohidul addressed the meeting as resource persons.

In his remarks, Dr Ilias Hossain said laser land levelling is a proven technology in terms of saving 25-27 per cent on irrigation water and fertiliser application procedure and functions in Boro paddy field side by side with increasing yield.

Morium Ahmed mentioned that around 1,500-2,000 litre of water is usually used to produce one kilogram of paddy by the farmers in the conventional method which is excess use of water.

She added that precision laser levelling methods are very important to save water together with more production.

Shahidul Islam opined that laser levelling machine plays a big role in levelling the paddy field as well as saving irrigation water through a precision laser levelling system.

Fakhrul Basher mentioned that large-scale adoption of farm mechanisation can be an effective means of facing the existing agriculture-related challenges in the drought-prone Barind area.