Combine harvester cuts farming cost

Staff Reporter :
Modern Agri-machineries, which are inevitable to ensure food security in the global economic recession, are helping the country’s farmers to cut production cost significantly.
Amid the soaring cost of agricultural labour and others, the government is distributing some 12 categories of machineries in Haor and Coastal areas with subsidized price at 70 per cent and 50 per cent respectively under Agricultural Mechanization Scheme through Integrated Management.
The machines are combine harvesters, reapers and reaper binders, rice transplanters, seeder/bed planters, power threshers, maize shellers, power sprayers, power weeders, dryers, potato diggers and potato chips making machines.
“Some 25,165 agricultural machines have been distributed under the scheme so far. Of them, 7256 are combine harvesters. These are changing the life of agriculture and farmers,” said Tariq Mahmudul Islam, Project Director of the Agriculture Mechanization through Integrated Management project.
He also said that Bangladesh has 57,30,764.2 hectares cultivated land. Of them, 6,42,870.51 hectares or 11.22 per cent land are being harvested by combine harvesters, resulted around Tk 549.21 crore is being saved in harvesting paddy.
The modern agri-machines are also helping the farmers to prevent grain wastage around 2.18 lakh tones, market value of which is about Tk 570.20 crore, the project director said.
Thus the combine harvesters have saved around Tk 1119.41 crore during the transplanting and harvesting season of paddy, he added.
He further said that the farmers spent around Tk 11, 800 for cutting and threshing grains of one acre of land for labours in the traditional method but harvesting and threshing of 1 acre of
land through combine harvester costs only Tk 6,000 (all costs included).
It means the farmers can save Tk5,800 per acre and also post-harvest wastage is 2-3 per cent compared to 10-12 per cent in conventional systems.
Abul Barakat, a farmer of Sunamganj and combine harvester usurer, said that he purchased a Yanmar AG 600 model combine harvester from the Mechanization Scheme at 70 per cent subsidized price.
The harvester machine has changed my life as it helps to reduce production cost, he said, “We had to suffer a lot due to labour crisis during harvesting and planting seasons. It also help to save time and prevent wastage.”