Commercialization approach for Versatile Multi-Crop Planter: Lessons learnt

A Versatile Multi-crop Planter (VMP) was designed and built for seed and fertilizer application in lines when driven by 2-wheel tractors (2WT) for: single-pass shallow-tillage (SPST); strip planting (SP); zero tillage (ZT); bed planting (BP) and conventional tillage (CT). Land preparation cost by VMP was decreased by up to 75 % for single pass compared to CT (Haque at el., 2011). The VMP was capable of sowing many types of crop seeds from small jute seed up to maize seed. Demand for mechanized planters by smallholder farmers is growing rapidly due to the shortage of farm labour for operations such as planting or transplanting. Despite the promising seeder and planter developments, few of the present planters for 2WT are commercialized in Bangladesh. With the funding support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the VMP commercialization activities commenced in 2012. Initially (2012 to 2014), the VMP commercialization activities were led by International Development Enterprises (IDE) and that approach was followed by a different approach implemented by the Project Implementation Office (PIO) of Murdoch University, Australia. In this paper, we will synthesis the VMP commercialization approaches and outcomes to identify key lessons learnt.