IRRI, Friday, January 5, 2018

Figure: IRRI postharvest engineer Yan Lin Aung being interviewed by Myanmar local channel, DVB TV, during the demonstration.

Leveling rice fields reduces the amount of water used for land preparation and irrigation, improves the application of agronomic inputs such as fertilizers and herbicides, and increases grain yield and quality. According to research in Cambodia, land leveling has increased yield by 24% per hectare.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded project, Closing the Rice Yield Gap with Reduced Environmental Footprint project (CORIGAP), conducted a basic operator’s training and demonstration of laser-assisted land leveling technology in Letpadan, Bago Region Myanmar. More than 80 farmers were given first hand experience in using laser land leveling technology.

According to Carlito Balingbing, one of IRRI’s postharvest and mechanization engineers, “laser-assisted land leveling is a precision technology in agriculture that ensures efficient and accurate leveling of farmers’ fields. It enables uniform distribution of irrigation water and agronomic inputs, which in turn provides better yields and higher income to farmers”.

One of the activity’s highlights is setting up the laser technology system on a tractor. To fully demonstrate, participants needed a proper-sized tractor that has the optimum horsepower to move the scraper bucket around the field. Village leader U Naing Tun volunteered his equipment for the demonstration.

See more: http://news.irri.org/2018/01/myanmar-farmers-gain-knowledge-on-laser.html