Govt emphasises making farm machinery locally

Agriculture Minister Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque said the government is giving special importance to manufacturing agricultural machinery in Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory Limited (BMTF) could step in to produce farm machinery. Besides, the BMTF could work in modifying imported farm machinery to make those more suitable for the country," he said.

Dr Razzaque said this while exchanging views with a BMTF delegation at the Secretariat Thursday.

The agriculture minister commented that the local manufacturing of farm machinery will enable farmers to buy those at lower prices. Besides, it will generate employment and save foreign currency.

"Production cost is needed to be reduced through mechanisation of agriculture. We need to produce more crops on limited lands," said the minister.

Alongside, the agriculture minister stressed checking wastage of agricultural produces.

The BMTF is a state-owned limited company under the management of the Bangladesh Army. It is mainly a commercial automobile assembly plant that builds and modifies automobiles, especially for the defence industry.

The company is one of the largest commercial enterprises of its kind in Bangladesh. Dr Abdur Razzaque told the BMTF team that the government had approved a farm mechanisation project worth Tk3,020 crore recently.

"The country's agriculture sector will be changed totally if the project is implemented properly," added the minister.

Under the project, nearly 52,000 farm machinery will be provided to the root-level farmers. The list of machinery includes combine harvester, rice transplanter, power thresher, drier, power weeder, power sprayer, potato digger, and maize sheller.