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Rice transplanters slow to penetrate market
Agriculture machinery suppliers believe rice transplanters will sell well in Laos over the coming years despite slow sales over the last 12 months.
Kubota Tractor Vientiane Sales Consultant Mr Khamsu Yang expressed his belief that domestic demand for the machine will increase as it helps farmers speed up processes and reduce production costs.
There are two categories of such equipment available for sale in Laos – hand-operated walking tractor rice transplanters and hydraulic sit-down tractor rice transplanters.
Mr Khamsu said that the walking tractor rice transplanter has a working capacity equal to 17 to 22 labourers per day (one day is considered the time from sunrise to sunset), while the hydraulic tractor is equal to 60 labourers.
Vientiane Agriculture Department is conducting a rice planting experiment at the Nongheo Rice Seed Development Station during the dry season by comparing the walking tractor rice transplanter with the traditional hand-planting method.
“The four people needed to operate the walking tractor can plant one hectare a day using only 4 to 5 litres of fuel, while hand-planting seedlings in the traditional way needs 30 labourers to complete the equivalent work in the same timeframe,” a department official said.
According to unofficial data, planting labourers are paid about 50,000 kip each per day therefore 1.5 million kip is needed to pay 30 labourers.
Mr Khamsu said the walking tractor uses 4 litres of fuel to plant one hectare, and 6 litres are used by the sit-in hydraulic tractor in the equivalent area.
He explained the walking tractor can plant in rows of four with fixed plant spacing but the row spacing can be widened or narrowed as needed.
The number of seedlings planted in each hole can be changed from three to eight seedlings which need to be aged 17 days or over.
The sales consultant stressed the user-friendliness of the technology but added the supplier will provide training to customers and their labourers.
Mr Khamsu said only two rice transplanters were sold by his company last year while 10 machines were sold to an agriculture company when imports of the machines began in 2009.
Kubota Tractor Vientiane plans to give further working demonstrations of the equipment on plantations around Vientiane province and the capital city later this year following recent demonstrations conducted at the Nongheo Rice Seed Development Station and Phonhong District Rice Plantation.
“Rice transplanters are so far selling slowly because farmers are waiting to see yield results from plantations where the equipment has been used – when they see the results I believe they will be interested in acquiring the technology,” Mr Khamsu said.
vientiane tímes
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