The government has taken measures to gear up the production of agriculture machinery amid high demand during the ongoing Boro harvest in the country, an official said.
Under the move the Ministry of Industries (MoI) has directed the authorities of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) to increase the volume of production of agriculture machinery and light engineering tools during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the country.
“We have taken measures to continue our production of agriculture machineries and light engineering tools considering high demand of the items during the ongoing Boro harvesting season,” Chairman of BSCIC Md Mostaque Hassan told the FE on Saturday.
To this end the industrial units at BSCIC industrial estate in Bogura have been manufacturing agriculture machines and light engineering tools round the clock considering the demand of the agriculture tools among the farmers for quick harvesting of Boro paddy.
The whole country is now under shutdown following the outbreak of Covid-19 disease in the country since March 08 last.
The ongoing shutdown has put a halt on vehicular movement and thus deprived the paddy reapers to travel to different areas for reaping of Boro paddy.
The farmers at haor and other areas where Boro paddy got a bumper production started to depend on agriculture machineries like combined harvesters and others following the shortage of human resources (reapers).
The BSCIC chairman said the officials and workers at all BSCIC industrial estates in Bogura and other parts of the country have been working to produce essential commodities like food, medicines and other items by strictly following safety health guidelines to save themselves from the infection of coronavirus.
There are 45 industrial units at BSCIC industrial state in Bogura.
Mr Hassan (BSCIC chairman) said 35 industrial units out of 45 in Bogura industrial estate have been engaged in producing/ manufacturing agriculture machineries or tools worth around Tk 10 million daily.
“We have been supervising and providing support to the industrial units to ensure smooth production of agriculture machineries and tools,” he said.
Bogura industrial estate is now producing agriculture machineries/ tools like centrifugal pumps, pistons, tubewells, spare parts of jute mills, breaks of motorcycle, drums, nuts and other light engineering tools.
The BSCIC industrial estate in the district provides 70 per cent of the country’s total agriculture machineries demand.
Bangladesh also exports agriculture machineries/ tools to India, Nepal and Bhutan considering their quality and competitive prices.
But export is now halted due to coronavirus pandemic.
The industrial units at BSCIC industrial estate pay taxes worth Tk 1.63 billion to the government revenue board annually.
The Bogura BSCIC industrial estate started its journey in 1964.
Total area of the industrial estate is now around 34 acreages where around 10,000 people have been working at different industrial units of the estate.
