The domestic corn market is growing due to increased demand driven by changing food habits of our people, animal feed, and the variety of its uses within agro-processing industries. As the crop generates a higher return, the scope of increasing production is also bigger. However, our farmers still use manual labor during different phases of the crop’s production and harvesting. It becomes very challenging as well as inefficient to use manual labor during harvesting, especially for Rabi (winter) crops as manpower is scarce in peak seasons. Moreover, it takes 7-8 workers to harvest 1 bigha (approx 0.33 acre) land of corn in a day. In addition to the tedious work involved during husking and peeling of corn, the farmers do not get appropriate prices due to low quality produce from manual harvesting.
To make the life of our farmers easy, ACI Motors is going to introduce 3 models of Corn Harvesters in Bangladesh imported from China and Turkey. LOVOL, one of the manufacturers of these harvesters, is widely known for its quality and service. The LOVOL harvester can harvest 1 acre of land in just 1 hour by consuming only 7-8 liters of fuel. This will result in about 80% labor hour saving and 60% related cost saving. Apart from harvesting corn grain, it can also harvest rice and wheat by changing kits. Another harvester can harvest corn cob only. Additionally, a tractor-operated single-row corn harvester is being imported from Turkey which will be making animal feed from corn that can cater to the increasing cattle farms of the country. These specialized corn harvesters can now easily solve the labor shortage problem. Besides, they are capable to meet local demands as they can harvest corn in the form of grains, cobs, as well as shredded animal feed. So farmers and agro-processors do not need to process the crop separately. As an added advantage, it lowers the lost corn ratio in the harvesting process. Farmers can get better prices as they will be able to collect better quality corn grains and cobs. Furthermore, tiresome tasks of husking will not be required anymore.
Corn-producing communities will be largely benefited by adopting these machines as there was no such specialized solution available in the country. These harvesters are now available across the showrooms of ACI Motors. Apart from bringing the technology itself, ACI Motors will also serve the farmers with its best in industry, After Sales Service, anywhere in Bangladesh. Currently these harvesters are being sold for BDT 30 lakhs. In future, Government has plans to include these harvesters under their subsidy program.
Dr. F H Ansarey
Managing Director & CEO
ACI Agribusiness
To see a field demonstration of a Corn Harvester, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3CZmOGPmPw