To make rice farming profitable by cutting time and cost, mechanical transplanting of Boro seedlings has begun for the first time in Tarail, Kishoreganj. Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Director General Dr Md Abdul Muyeed formally inaugurated the work.

Local people gathered to watch seedlings planted by a transplanter. BRRI dhan28 and BRRI dhan29 were planted on 50 acres belonging to Barrister Md Golam Kabir Bhuiyan of Borgaon village, Jawar union. After seeing the machine at work, local farmers said they would start using machines in future.

At a farmers' rally, officials urged mechanisation to make farming profitable and promised all support. Dr Muyeed told journalists there is no alternative to scientific machinery to save time and money. Planting rice with a rice transplanter is a milestone for the country's agriculture: with just one litre of fuel, the machine can plant at least an acre in a day, operated by a single farmer, saving time and money and making farmers better off.

The machines are being supplied at a nominal price under a government subsidy, he said; more transplanters will be provided next season, and mechanical harvesting will be arranged for the coming harvest. Farmers called for quality, affordable machines and training in operating them.

The rally was chaired by Saiful Alam, DAE deputy director in Kishoreganj, and addressed by Bibhuti Bhushan Sarkar, additional director for the Dhaka region, upazila agriculture officer Anwarul Haque, Jawar union chairman Ziaur Rahman and farmer Emdadul Haque Ratan.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.