NAWALPARASI: Agricultural works are carried out largely by the manual labour across the country. Modern technology is introduced in few places, especially in the southern plains.

It is a season of paddy plantation, for which farmers need to transplant rice seedling in the mud prepared by plowing fields.

The fields are dug and flattened with manmade plough, and tillers, while transplanting seedlings is chiefly manual. Against this traditional practice, use of modern technology is introduced in the district which unburden people of their time and backbreaking toil.

Also in view of increasing labour shortage in the agricultural sector, increase in production costs and the challenges posed by erratic weather patterns, some farmers in Madhyabindu began opting for rice transplanting machines, replacing the human work.

Mechanization of agriculture is not that new, but use of modern equipment for transplantation of rice seedlings is recent with increasing number of farmers using the machines.

The rice transplanting machine is operated by the Prakriti Agricultural Cooperative Society of Madhyabindu Municipality-1. The machine transplants seedlings in a large field within few hours, which used to take hours or even a day for manual transplantation.

Farmers are encouraged by seeing the quick transplantation, observed secretary at Cooperatives, Om Prasad Pathak. It saves time and reduces production costs, he added.

“Modern technology has made agricultural works easier and convenient,” he said, “Farmers are increasingly confident in agricultural mechanization because they are able to do more works with less labor and time.”

Mayor of Madhyabindu Municipality, Bhim Lal Adhikari, said the local level had accorded top priority on making agriculture tech-friendly for commercialization and production growth.

The local level has been providing various sorts of agricultural equipment like plantation machine, combined harvester and agriculture ambulance at 85 percent grants to the farmers so that they would be attracted and retained in agriculture.

Such schemes would also encourage youths to this sector and boost production, he believed.

The farmers’ groups in the district have been using modern machines through the National Agriculture Modernization Programme Implementation Unit in the district.

An agricultural economist at the Agricultural Development Office, Sanjay Dhakal, said paddy plantation is done in about 19,000 hectares of land in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta Purba) district. He observed number of farmers attracted to adoption of modern agricultural machinery was increased since last year.

“Amid the challenges of labour shortage, rising production costs and climate change, the use of modern technology has become essential for the farmers,” he said.