Two new mechanical devices to be introduced to farmers by Hayleys Agro Products Limited (HAPL) could substantially reduce costs of crop establishment and significantly improve yields of rice paddy from the current Maha and forthcoming Yala seasons.

Locally developed and fabricated with inputs from the Farm Mechanisation Research Centre (FMRC) of the Dept of Agriculture, a mechanised Seeder ready for use from Maha 2009-10 onwards will reduce the seed rate required per hectare of paddy by more than half, while a mechanised Transplanter expected to be commercially available for the next Yala season would also halve the cost of manual transplantation, the company said.

The use of each of these machines in crop establishment, the only area currently not mechanised in Sri Lanka, would increase paddy yields by up to 15 per cent and make pest and weed management very much easier, Hayleys Group Director and Agri Sector Head Rizvi Zaheed said.

"These new machines are good examples of meaningful mechanisation particularly in the context of labour shortages in many paddy cultivating areas, and the need to reduce costs, improve yields and produce better quality," Zaheed said.