Mechanised Land Tillage And Labour Employment In Crop Production Activities In Bangladesh

This study was undertaken to examine empirically the extent of labour displacement crop-wise due to mechanised land tillage and its impact on land productivity using the recent farm level data covering major agricultural regions of Bangladesh. Machine power used farms were more cost effective in production activities than animal power used farms. Estimated per cropped hectare return was Tk. 11190 for machine power used farms (168% higher than bullock operated farms) and Tk. 6659 for animal power operated farms. Cropping intensity and adoption of seed-fertilizer-irrigation technology were higher for machine power used farms than animal operated farms. Per hectare net gain for using machine power (through yield increase) has been Tk. 2121 and loss of labour income due to displacement of labourer has been Tk. 971 yielding a positive net gain of Tk. 1151 per hectare in terms of social gain in using machine power in land tillage. This supports the view of encouraging uses of machine power in land preparation as much as possible through policy measures.