Mechanising cultivation process stressed

Scientists and researchers on Wednesday underlined the need for mechanising farming process in larger scale to decay agriculture related challenges and boost production in the drought-prone Barind area in the division.

They put the importance while focusing on challenges in the region including climate change, labour shortage, irrigation water scarcity and increasing cost in crop cultivation.

They were addressing the closing session of the two-day long training for farmers and mechanics here.

Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division (FMPED) of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) organised the training at On Farm Research Division (OFRD) in association with the ‘More Profitable through Innovation of Agricultural Machinery and Appropriate Technology’ project.

FMPED Senior Scientific Officer Dr Arshadul Hoque, OFRD Principal Scientific Officers Dr Majharul Anwar and Dr Jagadish Chandra Barman, Senior Scientific Officer Dr Shakhawat Hossain and Scientific Officer Dr Jahidul Islam conducted the training sessions as resource persons.

The trainees were told that the cropping intensity can increase to 250 per cent even 400 percent from the existing 200 percent after the best uses of the farm mechanization.

They were given practical knowledge and ideas on handling, repairing and maintaining agricultural machinery, particularly bed planter, seeder, maize sheller, power thresher, potato harvester, solar pump based solar home system and reaper.