* Contribution of agriculture to the GDP decreased from 30 percent in 1990s to 22 percent recently. Crop (more particularly, rice) contributes
13 percent, followed by fisheries at 5 percent;
* The GDP grew at 5.38 % in 2005 while agriculture grew at 3.29 %. The GDP per capita was US$470 in 2005;
* Incidence of poverty is higher in rural than in urban areas;
* Small holders primarily dominate farming system, totalling 12 million farm holdings (80% ranging from 0.05 to 2.5 acres);
* Fragmented and decreasing farm size, from 0.81 during 1980s to 0.61 ha recently;
* Machine power mostly used in land preparation, Rice–Wheat thresher, Rice milling, winnower, maize sheller, potato digger and grader.
* Irrigation is mainly dependent on the power-operated pumps & covers more than 50% of the cultivated land;
* Less attractive output price & high capital cost of machinery;
* Policy of open market and privatisation makes local manufacturing of the machinery much more costlier than the imported one.
* Fragmented approach to mechanization and lack of coordination within and between government and private sector in R & D.
* The R & D of Poultry, fisheries and livestock sector is absent and mostly imported machines are used.
* There are about 2000 small to medium size Agri-machinery manufacturing entrepreneurs in the country

Constraints to machinery adoption

* Lack of trained man power
* Inadequate technical know how of manufacturers to fabricate machineries
* Inadequate linkage among researchers, manufacturers and extension personnel
* Lack of awareness among the farmers to use machineries
* Very limited fund available for machinery research
* High price of raw materials
* Poor sale service system
* Absence of product standards and quality certification

Demand of Machines

* Machines for harvesting rice and wheat
* Machines for transplanting rice seedlings
* Low cost and effective drying system for grains and other farm produces
* Rubber-roll hullers of small capacity suitable for small-scale rice mills and itinerant rice hulling vendors to replace the inefficient steel hulling machines.

Upcoming Events

At Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Farmgate, Dhaka 1215 Project launched in the Department of Agriculture Extension of the Government of Bangladesh with an objective to extension of agricultural machinery throughout the country. The title of the project is “Increase production and employment generation in the rural areas through the Extension and Adoption of Agricultural Engineering Technology”. The project will be ended in 2010.