Introducing mechanical harvesting of rice in polders of coastal Bangladesh

Agricultural mechanization in the coastal zone of Bangladesh is almost absent except the use of two-wheel tractor in land preparation. Undulated topography and waterlogging are considered the main barriers to mechanization. Farmers generally manually harvest their rice which not only quite expensive but also takes significant time before the field can be vacant. This reduces the opportunity to seed dry season crop on time.

In aman season in 2016, the SIIL-Polder project has demonstrated reaper for harvesting rice for the first time at 9 locations within the catchment area of Katakhali regulator in polder 30. The project provided hands-on training to 84 men and 65 women targeted towards developing entrepreneurship within the community. The participants and observers were highly impressed to see the performance reaper in harvesting rice. A few influential farmers especially the youths express their interest in buying reaper and making it as an alternate income source. However, farmers have still concerns on excess soil moisture and poor road networks in the coastal zone as some of the key barriers to adopting reaper.

By: Jayanta Bhattacharya; Ratna Rokhsana and Manoranjan Mondal

Read more at http://irri.org/networks/siil-polder-project-bangladesh