Finance Minister AHM Mustaf Kamal has emphasized on agricultural modernization in a bid to enhance food production and easing labour dependency in this sector.

The government has been providing farmers up to 50–70 per cent subsidies on agro-machinery, he said in his audio-visual budget speech in Parliament on Thursday. 

He said about 71,502 of such machinery have been distributed including combined harvesters, reapers, clippers, and power tillers since 2010.

This has helped the farmers cope with agricultural labour scarcity and lower their production costs.

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Moreover, “we have taken up a project at a cost of Tk3,020 crore titled ‘‘Mechanization of Agriculture Work through Integrated Management’ which has targeted to distribute 51,300 units of agro-machinery of 12 categories between 2020-2025,” the minister said.

Synchronized cultivation has been introduced to take the maximum benefits of farm machinery by transplanting rice seedlings and harvesting in a synchronized manner.