Star Business Report
An agriculture technology fair — AgriTECH Bangladesh-2010 — started in Dhaka yesterday to introduce the latest farming machinery.
The three-day fair at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs who are willing to change traditional farming processes by adopting new technology.
Some 30 companies are showcasing agricultural machinery and equipment, solar pumps, agro chemicals, seeds processing machines, food processing and packaging equipment, technology for horticulture and services at the fair.
Agri-tech makers from Bangladesh, India and Korea are participating in the fair, which was inaugurated by Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas.
The adaptation of technology began in the farm sector in the 1990s, overtaking traditional farming with cows and buffaloes and manual irrigation methods.
“We want to show our hidden contribution in Bangladesh’s agriculture sector that has become tech-loving,” said Jasim Uddin, an executive of RS Machineries, importer and distributor of diesel engine and power tiller spare parts.
About 67 percent of 76 lakh hectares of arable lands are irrigated by mechanised means. Power tillers and tractors till nearly 70 percent of the 13.74 million hectares of total cropland, analysts said.
With progress in threshing, almost all maize is shelled by machine and, in the case of rice, threshing by machine is about 50 percent, agronomists said.
Such growing use of technology in the sector encouraged foreign equipment makers to knock the farming market here.
“We are coming to Bangladesh for the first time to explore the market,” said K Ramu, marketing manager of Promech Industries, an Indian farm tech maker.
InGen Technology Ltd is optimistic about introducing solar-based irrigation pumps soon.
source: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=132979
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