Economics of using combine harvesters in the mechanized rainfed schemes of eastern Sudan
Abstract
The effective use of combine harvesters not only needs knowledge about operation requirements, but also needs economic evaluation. The objective of this study was to make economic analysis for combine harvesters used in harvesting mechanized rainfed schemes in eastern Sudan. The data were collected from combine harvesters owners through a comprehensive questionnaire that covered 23 combine harvesters in 2016/2017 season. The collected data included fixed cost items such as purchase price, insurance, shelter and taxes and variable cost items like repair and maintenance, fuel, oil, drivers and supervision. Also, data on harvester working parameters like annual harvested area and working hours, besides custom hiring price and crop yield, were collected. In addition to cost analysis, the breakeven point (BEP), in terms of hectares that have to be harvested annually to cover annual fixed costs; and the payback period (PBP) were calculated. Also, sensitivity analyses were carried out to detect the effect of changing cost parameters on BEP and PBP. The results indicated that the annual harvested area by a combine harvester was found to be 1525 ha in 623 hours. The average fixed cost was found to be 207.5 SDG/ha, which constituted about 16.8% and 68.5% of the purchase price and total operating cost, respectively. Whereas the average variable cost was 95.4 SDG/ha, representing 7.7% and 31.5% of the purchase price and total operating cost, respectively. The results indicated that the depreciation cost was the highest among the fixed cost items and fuel cost was the highest among the variable cost items. The results showed that the average cost for direct harvesting operation was 303 SDG/ha (742.1 SDG/hr). It was found that the BEP was 904 ha and the PBP was 9 years. The sensitivity analysis revealed that increasing the purchase price will increase both the BEP and PBP. The study concluded that the use of a combine harvester in the mechanized rainfed schemes for direct harvesting was profitable for both farmer and investor. When the annual required areas by the combine harvester was satisfied, the estimated profit was 143 SDG/ha. However,it is not advisable to use direct harvesting when crop yield is lower than 450 kg/ha.
References
Buckmaster, D. R. 2003. Benchmarking tractor costs; a technical note. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 19 (2): 151 – 154.
Burton, P. 2005. How to calculate machinery ownership and operating costs? Farm Financial Management. South Dakota State University, USA.
Hossain, M. A., M. A. Hoque, M. A. Wohab, M. A. Miah and M. S. Hassan. 2015. Technical and economic performance of combine harvester in farmers' field. Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Research 40(2): 291-304.
Hunt, D. 2001. Farm Power and Machinery Management. 10th edition. Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, USA.
Isaac, N. E., G. R. Quick, S. J. Birrell, W. M. Edwards and B. A. Coers. 2006. Combine harvester economic model with forward speed optimization. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 22(1): 25-31.
Kepner, R.A., R. Bainer and E. L. Barger. 1982. Principles of Farm Machinery, 3rd edition. AVI Publishing Company, Inc., West Port Connecticut, U.S.A.
Masek, J., P. Novak and T. Pavlicek. 2015. Evaluation of combine harvester fuel consumption and operation cost. Engineering for Rural Development, Jelgava, 20-22.05: 78-83.
Sharanakumar, H., R. U. Udhaykumar and K.T. Ramappa. 2011. Techno-economic feasibility of rice combine harvester. Journal of Engineering and Technology in India 2 (1and2): 13-17.
Soucek, J. and D. Blazej. 2012. Linseed harvests parameters depending on the state of cutting mechanism. Research in Agricultural Engineering 58(2): 46–49.
Spokas, L. and D. Steponavicius. 2011. Fuel consumption during cereal and rape harvesting and methods of its reduction. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment 9(3-4):257-263.
Tahir, A. R., H. K. Faizan and K. Ejaz 2003. Techno-economic feasibility of combine harvester (Class Denominator)-A Case Study. International Journal of Agriculture and Biology 5(1): 57-60.
William, L. 2005. Farm Machinery Economic Cost Estimates. Extension Farm Management Specialist. Nebraska University, USA.
Yousif, L. A. and S. E. A. El-Awad. 2012. Performance evaluation of combine harvester and the P.T.O. tractor operated thresher for stationary threshing of sorghum. AgriculturalMechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America 43(1): 52-56.
