A multi-purpose farm machine called the versatile multi-crop planter (VMP) is offering new hope in the Barind region, where falling groundwater and rising costs squeeze farmers. It looks like an ordinary power tiller but can prepare land, apply fertiliser and sow seed among five jobs done at once, Dinajpur TV's agriculture desk reports.
The machine sows seed directly in a row, places a measured dose of fertiliser and covers the seed neatly with soil, all automatically. Rice, mustard, maize and groundnut are being grown this way in straight lines at low cost; row sowing gives every plant enough light and air, so it grows fast and yields well.
Researchers say conventional transplanting needs repeated ploughing that burns a lot of diesel and releases more carbon dioxide. This minimum-tillage conservation technology cuts fuel costs and does less harm to the environment.
Under the Shakha project, the field research has run in Godagari and Durgapur upazilas of Rajshahi since 2024, with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) as international partner. Its aims are to protect the Barind's shrinking groundwater, make modern farming possible with less seed and labour, and bring synchronised machine-based services to farmers.
Researchers and specialists from Murdoch and Griffith universities in Australia, Bangladesh Agricultural University, BRRI, BARI and the Department of Agricultural Extension recently visited fields in Godagari, looking at the VMP, direct seeding and rice sown with drum seeders, and talking to farmers.
Two years of field research show that rice growth and overall output under direct seeding and mechanised farming are satisfactory compared with conventional methods, researchers say, while farmers' time, labour and production costs fall markedly and their financial capacity to cope with climate risk grows.
Source: Dinajpur TV
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