Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzaque said the government is distributing agricultural machineries among farmers with 50-60 percent subsidised prices aiming to accelerate the mechanisation of agriculture in the country. 

"As a result of this subsidy or incentive, the country's agriculture is getting mechanised rapidly," he told the inaugural session of a conference at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB). 

Speaking as the chief guest, Razzaque said the country's scientists have invented many modern agricultural technologies and developed short-duration variety of Aman paddy. 

"So, mustard cultivation is now possible in between the aman and boro seasons, which is an additional crop and a new cropping pattern," he said.

The agriculture minister said the full genome sequence of a salinity- and flood-tolerant paddy variety was unveiled a few days ago. 

"There are two million hectares of saline land in the coastal region of the country. If saline-tolerant paddy is cultivated and harvested there twice a year, the food production system will be sustainable," he said.

 In addition, Bangladesh rice Research Institute (BRRI) has recently invested a rice harvester named "combine harvester" which is much cheaper in price and very suitable for use, said Razzaque, also the Awami League presidium member.

Chaired by IEB vice-president Engineer Nuruzzaman, the function was addressed, among others, by director general of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) Md Benojir Alam, Awami League science and technology affairs secretary Engineer Abdus Sabur and IEB vice-president Md Hossain.