Agricultural Mechanization and Transformation

As has historically been the case in the majority of nations, Bangladesh is no exception. Over time, the proportional importance of income and employment derived from agriculture has decreased. In the years 1973-1974 and 2020-21, respectively, agriculture contributed 56.04 percent and 13.48 percent of GDP to the overall national income. Agricultural sector's relative contribution to GDP has increased nearly 4.5 times, despite a decline in its percentage share. A good example is the average agricultural GDP over the years 2005/06-2008/09 and 2014/15-2018/19, which increased from Tk 96,700 core to Tk 135,000 core (or around 40%) although its contribution to total GDP decreased from about 18% to 14%. Food grain production peaked in 2020 at 45.4 million metric tons, up from 9.9 million metric tons even in 1972. Furthermore, whereas the nation's rice production was 1.06 core tons in 1982-1983, it is now 3.6 core tons (in 2020-21); the production of potatoes was 6.26 lakh tons in 1972-1973; it was approximately one core six lakh tons in 2020-21; and the production of maize was 3.0 thousand tons; it was 57.63 lakh tons in 2020-21. Different crops' productivity has improved by roughly three to four times. Bangladesh's government is now able to consider commercial agriculture as a result. In addition to numerous modern varieties, cutting-edge management technologies, timely government regulations, and the coordinated efforts of many organizations, agricultural mechanization has played and continues to play a significant part in this amazing development of agriculture.

Regarding what we simply mean by "agricultural mechanization," there is some misunderstanding as well. Farm mechanization refers to the development and usage of equipment that can replace human and animal power in agricultural processes. It simplifies and lightens labor-intensive jobs, makes up for a lack of laborers, increases production, and might help with climate change issues.There is no substitute for an agricultural engineer to carry out each of these tasks smoothly at the field level. If we notice, we will see that our agricultural mechanization has started with irrigation machines. Tillage, intercropping, and threshing machinery have been gradually incorporated into agricultural mechanization. Now modern and high capacity agricultural machinery is replacing old agricultural machinery at every stage of crop cultivation. Agricultural engineers should be employed to ensure optimal use of modern technology and sustainability of agricultural products.

Completion of different farm activities in time depends on available power, including the operation of irrigation equipment, tillers, weeder, threshers, sheller, cleaners, graders, and other post-harvest machinery. The amount of power available is one of the most crucial indicators for determining the degree of mechanization in agriculture. Over the previous 58 years, the average power availability in agriculture has increased, going from around 0.24 kW/ha in 1960 to about 3.1 kW/ha in 2022. From 1960-1990, Farm power increased slowly and then it was increased sharply. Still it is increasing tend due to the different governmental program and activities of other research and non-government organization.

Bangladesh's early adoption of agricultural mechanization was made easier by a concentration on small-scale machinery that could be modified to fit the country's socioeconomic circumstances.The second stage of expansion was connected to local spare part production and imported machinery. Bangladesh's farm mechanization is currently in its third phase as a consequence of several government and private initiatives backed by the "National Agricultural Mechanization Policy" created in 2020. It also outlined the requirement for the development and establishment of agricultural machinery service companies as a business model or an entrepreneurship model. According to the scientific community, farm mechanization can support future agricultural growth by ensuring timely operations and lowering associated expenses.

This is especially important in order to decrease the detrimental effects of climate change, of which Bangladesh is the main sufferer. A lot of people have felt that farm mechanization is necessary during times like the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 outbreak. Since the pandemic began, paddy combine harvesters have been hastily adopted in a number of regions of the nation to protect against the imminent threat of an early flood on millions of hectares of mature rice fields under development assistance program. Similar activities in other agricultural fields, such as precision farming, spraying, and transplanting, may also increase the overall agricultural productivity. Therefore, it is important to assess the quantity of machinery that is currently in use and its prospective requirement at each stage of crop production. Because there isn't an accurate or current census of the various farm machinery used in Bangladesh. Diesel engines (>3,700,000 nos.) emerged as the farmers' favorite form of energy in terms of quantity. While they are primarily used to power irrigation pumps, diesel engines are also used for a range of other agriculturaltasks. For instance, the rural transportation of agricultural goods is a major source of dependence for small, locally made boats and trolleys driven by diesel engines.

Power tillers (2WTs>745,000 nos), which are also powered by diesel engines, come in first place on the list of machinery. 2WTs are less expensive than four wheel tractors (4WTs>158,000 nos) and are also simpler to move about the fields. Additionally, 2WT repairs and maintenance are now expertly performed by neighborhoodmechanics around the nation, which motivates farmers to purchase these tools. Currently, 2WTs are used to cultivate around 80% of the nation's land, with tractors and rotary tiller (>7000 nos) used to cultivate the remaining 18%. A total of 1.57 million of LLPs (>181,469), STWs (>1,355,852), DTWs (>37,538) and solar pump (>300) are also being to irrigate nearly about 98% of all cropland. Spraying of pesticides and herbicides in the country has also been mechanized over 95%. Deep-tube-wells are being used in some areas as an alternative to centrifugal pumps as the water level falls. About 888 Axial Flow Pumps (AFP) are used in Bangladesh, where the water level is very low (southern region) and can supply more water than centrifugal pumps used for irrigation. AFPs are becoming popular in the southern districts of the country. Moreover, 9457 km of irrigation canals have been re-excavated in the last 10 years; 13,351 km of irrigation canals have been laid. And 10 rubber dams and 1 hydraulic elevator dam have been constructed.

Despite these success stories, the adoption of other agricultural equipment such as bed makers, seeder, weeder, rice transplanters, and winnowers is still very slow. One of the interesting developments has however occurred in case of transplanting and harvesting machineries. In order to encourage timely planting and harvesting of paddy and wheat before the start of the monsoon, the government has been providing subsidies for 15 categories of different agricultural machinery giving more emphasize to transplanting and harvesting machine since 2016. Under this activities, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is now implementing a project entitle "Farm mechanization through integrated management" from 2020 to 2025. The government has given priorities for mechanization due to the severe labor scarcity, in order to meet planting deadlines and harvest crops before any natural disasters occur at the start of the rainy season. This subsidy program create a momentum in mechanization in Bangladesh. A total of 15000 combined harvesters and 3000 rice transplanter will be provided to farmers under the project. During the last Boro season (2021-22) around 6000 combined harvesters were supplied to farmers. At present more than 9000 combine harvesters and 1000 rice transplanter are being successfully used at farmer level in the country. Briefly, we can say that Paddy, maize and wheat threshing mechanization is made significant progress along with irrigation and rice milling mechanization. But still Bangladesh far behind in transplanting, harvesting and drying mechanization. Mechanization in planting, intercultural operation, harvesting, and processing other cereals and pules crops, vegetables, and fruits is of utmost need in a coordinated-way.

 The good news is that some governmental and private bank came forward to contribute in this sector along with governmental activities. Presently, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi KrishiUnnayon Bank, Islami Bank, Pubali Bank, Dutch Bangla Bank, Bank Asia, Social Islami Bank, NCC Bank etc giving soft loan at the rate of interest 9.0% to the machinery importer while it is 6.0% for the machinery manufacturer. On the other hand, there are approximately 75 importers in the nation, of which 20 import tractors and rotavators from China and India. Only nine of the 20 importers, Metal, ACI, Abedin, Alim, Uttaran, SQ Agril machinery, AADI enterprise, Bangla Mark, EoN Machinery, primarily import rice transplanters, combine harvesters, and reapers from China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and India. ACI, Abedin and The Metal share the combine harvester market at the percentage of about 31, 30, and 29% while others company share only 10% of the total market. Additionally, about 65 of the 75 importers import various types of small agricultural machinery, including power tillers, diesel engines, pumps, knapsack sprayers, and spare parts.

While sprayers (either power or knapsack sprayers) and irrigation pumps are imported from China, South Korea, and India, nearly all power tillers (model names Dongfeng and Sifang) are imported solely from China, where they are used extensively in Bangladesh. Sprayers have now been manufactured locally but a significant number of pump manufactured in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the yearly market for agricultural machinery is estimated to be worth US$1.28 billion in 2019. In addition to importing the machinery, the nation currently has more than 70 foundries, 800 agro machinery manufacturing facilities, 1500 spare parts manufacturing facilities, and about 20,000 repair and maintenance facilities operating in the production and servicing of agricultural equipment and spare parts. A small number of agro-machinery workshops are also working in Bangladesh, including Alim Industries Limited in Sylhet, Rahman Engineering Workshop in Kushtia, Mahboob Engineering in Jamalpur, Comilla Cooperative Karkhana in Comilla, Janata Engineering in Chuadanga, Uttaran Engineering Workshop in Dinajpur, MAWTS in Dhaka,

 The Metal Private limited in Gazipur, ACI in Manikgonj, Advanced agro machinery, Kishoreganj, Anser Energy Ltd. Jamalpure, Bhai Bhai Engineering in Netrakona etc. Similar to these manufacturer, several small producers have been set up throughout the nation to produce items like thresher, winnower, weeder, applicator, solar light trap, irrigation pumps, knapsack sprayers, threshers, seeders, maize shellers, rice milling equipment, and spare parts for engines and power tillers in order to meet local demand with close cooperation of the research institutions. We might conclude that there has been a continuing revolution in agricultural mechanization that is now perceptible everywhere. A striking transformation has also occurred in numerous crop sectors and sub-sectors along with this change. It is anticipated that it would advance synergistically over time and assume a sustainable form in the production of safe food.


Dr. Md. Anwar Hossen is Senior Scientific Officer of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur.