Agricultural mechanization in Bangladesh – The future: Workshop report

Bangladesh is one of the most mechanized countries in Asia when it comes to land preparation. By contrast, the planting and harvesting of the 11 million hectares of rice grown every year in Bangladesh is still largely carried out by hand. At present, all crops grown in Bangladesh are largely planted, weeded, and harvested manually. Increasing labor costs and shortages of labor make growing these crops increasingly expensive and vulnerable to delayed planting and harvesting. Mechanizing these operations has been recognized by the Government of Bangladesh as an important priority in efforts to maintain national food security and to avoid dependence on imports, particularly of rice. With this objective in mind, the Government has introduced subsidy programs which support businesses to invest in advanced, appropriate crop-planting, and harvesting equipment. This is resulting in the rapid adoption of crop harvesting machinery such as combine harvesters and reapers and the planting of rice using rice transplanters.