Rapid technological transfer is not possible in agriculture sector of Bangladesh

Q. “Rapid technological transfer is not possible in agriculture sector of Bangladesh” – would you agree? Why or Why not?

The economy of Bangladesh mainly depends on agriculture; the population of Bangladesh relies on this sector for income and employment. Increased productivity of agriculture requires continued support of modern agricultural technology, its usefulness, timeliness and relevance. By using modern technology we can be increase the production of our agricultural products. For the developing countries as well as the countries of the third world, efforts to develop indigenous technology capacity are often obstructed due to problems emanating from 1) the existing conditions of different components of technology; 2) the national climate in which the technology is to grow and operate; and 3) the dependence on external assistance. And also another main reason is to the technology adaptation power of the people employed in agricultural sector. Thus rapid technology transfer is not possible in agriculture sector of Bangladesh. The reasons are given below-

• Lack of education and skills.
• Lack of knowledge about technologies and operating machineries and adoption power of technology.
• Socio-economic status of farmers (low income level, lack of farming land, lack of capital).
• The biophysical constraints like –climate, soil quality, water quality and quantity, pest pressure, weeds which all are natural constraints.
• The development of production uneven spatially. Lack of adjustments in the policies and institutional mechanism pertaining to irrigation, water control structures and seed-fertilizer technology, mechanized cultivation, especially power tillers which needs for better productions.
• Lack of rural infrastructure, inadequate rural infrastructure, particularly, roads, bridges, electricity and necessary water bodies, poor communications facilities are the major constraints reduce technology adaptation power in agriculture sector.
• Limitation in the rural credit market (scarcity of loan able funds, monopoly of moneylenders, high transaction costs for small loans, high default risk etc) constitutes an important barrier.
• Knowledge gap of farmers with new-technology: Weak linkage between agricultural research and extension continues to hamper the rapid diffusion of modern technologies.
• Lack of uninterrupted power supply by DESA/REB resulting in inappropriate processing at the milling level and also the irrigation level.
• Lack of adequate storage facilities resulting in large scale productions by the farmers’ and traders’ during the harvesting season at a lower cost.
• Collaboration problems with public (Government) and private (NGOs) sector help to regenerate agricultural research.

All these are the reasons for which rapid technology transfer would not be possible in Agriculture sector of Bangladesh. If any initiative taken for rapid technology transfer in Bangladesh, without removing these problems the investment for technology transfer would be missing apart from development.