Mymensingh, Sept 18 – An annual workshop on ‘Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization and post-harvest practices in Bangladesh’ was held at the Sayed Nazrul Islam conference hall of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) on Wednesday.‘Appropriate Scale Mechanization Innovation Hub (ASMIH)-Bangladesh’ and ‘Post-Harvest Loss Reduction Innovation Lab (PHLIL) – Bangladesh Phase two’ jointly organized the programme.
The Appropriate Scale Mechanisation Consortium (ASMC), ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kansas State University and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) partnered to host the programme.
Emeritus Professor and Ex-VC of BAU Prof Dr M A Sattar Mandal attended as a chief guest while executive director of ACI motors Mr Subrata Ranjan Das was a special guest. BAU VC Prof Dr Lutful Hassan addressed as the Chief Patron. Dean of Agricultural Engineering and Technology Prof Dr M Nurul Hoque chaired the function.
In the traditional way, about 14 percent crop is lost from reaching paddy to table rice. Additionally, drying up the paddy also brings suffering in natural calamities to farmers. BAU-STR dryer was designed to get rid of this condition. One hundred kg of rice can be dried from this machine in just 3 to 4 hours and cost is also low. The dryer has also been experimentally used in various parts of the country. Now the machine needs massive extension, said Prof Dr Md Monjurul Alam on his keynote speech.
BAU VC said that, developing machine parts in the country is important like bringing machine from abroad. – BAU Correspondent
