A three-day agricultural machinery exhibition has kicked off in Dhaka city aiming to raise mechanisation in agriculture to boost production.
Local government, rural development and cooperative minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain inaugurated the Agro Machinery Fair 2018 at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh on Sunday afternoon.
The theme of the event is 'Use agro machinery, save money, time and labour’.
Agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, among others, attended the inaugural ceremony as the special guest with Additional agricultural ministry secretary Nazmul Islam in the chair.
A keynote paper on the passage of agricultural machinery in Bangladesh and government initiative was also presented by Manjurul Alam, a keen observant of the sector.
The paper shows that 68 per cent machinery is import-dependent.
The farm mechanisation project of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) is coordinating the fair.
The fair’s spokesman Mohammad Golam Mawla says a total of 21 companies, both from the private and public sector, are taking part in the fair.
He says some 80 per cent of farmers now plough land by tractors instead of bullock-run ploughs.
But many modern equipment, like combined harvesters, mini harvesters, rotavators, reapers, rice and transplanters, are yet to be introduced to the farmers, according to Mawla.
About this, DAE director-general Mohammad Mohosin says the fair could help make farmers and traders across the country aware of farm machinery.
It costs a farmer Tk 4,500 to cultivate one hectare of land by a bullock-run plough while it is only Tk 1,500 for a tractor user, he adds.
According to the Rural Development Academy, some 35,000 units of tractors are now being used in the country.
The sales of such machinery have been growing at 20 per cent a year, the Academy data shows.
The fair will remain open from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm every day.