Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzaque on Thursday said the government is distributing agricultural machineries among farmers with 50-60 per cent subsidised prices aiming to accelerate the mechanisation of agriculture in the country.
"As a result of this subsidy or incentive, the country's agriculture is getting mechanised rapidly," he told the inaugural session of a conference at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) here.
IEB and ExpoNet Exhibition (Pvt) Ltd jointly arranged the three-day conference titled “Use of Power and Energy Saving Technology for Sustainable Development of Agriculture” marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of the country's independence.
Speaking as the chief guest, Razzaque said the country's scientists have invented many modern agricultural technologies and developed short-duration variety of Aman paddy.
"So, mustard cultivation is now possible in between the aman and boro seasons, which is an additional crop and a new cropping pattern," he said.
The agriculture minister said the full genome sequence of a salinity- and flood-tolerant paddy variety was unveiled a few days ago.
"There are two million hectares of saline land in the coastal region of the country. If saline-tolerant paddy is cultivated and harvested there twice a year, the food production system will be sustainable," he said.
In addition, Bangladesh rice Research Institute (BRRI) has recently invested a rice harvester named "combine harvester" which is much cheaper in price and very suitable for use, said Razzaque, also the Awami League presidium member.
Urging the agricultural scientists and engineers to reach these technologies at field level, he said: "It is a big challenge now to bring our technologies to the field level. The new technologies are going to the field at a very slow pace".
Chaired by IEB Vice-President Engineer Nuruzzaman, the function was addressed, among others, by Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Md Benojir Alam, Awami League science and technology affairs Secretary engineer Abdus Sabur and IEB Vice-President Md Hossain.
