Losses of Paddy in Harvesting Practices in Bangladesh

摘要

Harvesting practices of paddy is now a major issue among farmers of Bangladesh for minimizing harvesting loss, cost of labor, and cost of production. Significant amount of loss of paddy is occurred due to natural calamities, timeliness of harvesting and harvesting practices. A study was conducted to evaluate the loss of paddy among the harvesting practices in Bangladesh. Mechanical harvesting of paddy was performed using an ACI reaper and a KYM mini-combine harvester during Aman-2016, Aman-201, Boro-2017 and Boro-2018 sessions at Dumuria, Wazirpur, Subarnachar and Kalapara Upazilas of KJiulna, Barisal, Noakhali and Patuakhali districts, respectively for estimating harvesting loss. Manual harvesting losses were also determined alongside of the mechanical harvesting in the above mentioned sessions and locations. Total losses of manual harvesting, carrying, threshing and cleaning were found 6.14%, 6.04%, 5.94% and 6.36%, respectively during Aman-2016, Aman-2011, Boro-2017 and fioro-2018, in contrast,total losses of mechanical harvesting by mini combine harvester (harvesting, threshing and cleaning in a single operation) and reaper (reaping, threshing by power thresher and cleaning) were found i) 1.17%, 4.08%; ii) 1.21%, 4.15%; iii) 1.24%, 4.22% andiv) 1.28%, 4.29%, respectively. Therefore, the total harvesting loss save would be about 1.77 and 0.74 million metric ton per year for using mini combine and reaper, respectively. On the other hand, mini-combine harvester and reaper saved labor 65% and52%, respectively over manual harvesting. These savings could mean an additional investment opportunity in crop, livestock and fisheries sub-sector in rural Bangladesh that would lead to national growth in GDP and the livelihoods of the rural population.