A Tk 28 lakh harvester with Tk 14 lakh subsidy earned Tk 2.5 lakh in its first 17 days

A combine harvester cuts paddy, threshes and winnows it, and fills it into sacks all at once. According to a NewsBangla report, a farmer from Agbari village in Basanda union, Jhalokathi Sadar upazila, bought such a machine with support from an agricultural mechanisation project. The machine costs Tk 28 lakh, and under the policy the government gives a 50 percent subsidy of Tk 14 lakh. He bought the machine on 21 April 2021 and began harvesting paddy commercially from 23 April. Taking the machine to various areas, in 17 days he harvested the paddy on 50 acres of land and earned Tk 2.5 lakh. He charges Tk 8,000 per acre; harvesting one acre takes about 12 litres of fuel, which costs around a thousand taka. The work, including operating the machine, has created employment for six people. It was the first such machine in the area, so there was demand as well. One farmer said that harvesting his paddy with this machine cost him half of what it did at other times; another said harvest labourers could not be found in the area. The report gives the figures from the start of the season; it has no information on how the machine will be used for the rest of the year or how much maintenance will cost.