ASSESSMENT OF FARM MACHINERY MANAGEMENT AND COST ANALYSIS: A CASE OF METAHARA SUGAR ESTATE

Abstract

Factories which are producing sugars have so many types of agricultural machinery that are used for cultivation, applying fertilizer, harvesting cane, transporting of cane from the field and etc. These types of machinery play a great role to prepare inputs for the estate. But, different types of machines in the estate were dropped and many of them became scrap. Some of the machineries are failing frequently and high downtime. The objective of the study was to assess the present status of the agricultural machinery management system in Metahara Sugar Estate. In order to achieve the objective of this study, different methods were used. Data were collected through personal communication with managers, agricultural engineers, operators and mechanics containing information about currently active and purposes of tractors and implements. In addition, Data of farm machinery during the years 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 in terms of individual farm machinery costs; types and number of machinery; machinery specification; field data; rates of work; and power requirements were collected. Data obtained were analyzed using two and one way ANOVA, as the replications permit. Where differences between means were significant at the level of 0.05, Duncan’s Multiple Range mean separation test was used for making a comparison. Results showed that the calculated costs were greater than the actual costs by 64.77% for tractors and 62.62% for implements in the three years. The study suggested that the effect of the rate of work for different implements has no significant difference on the implements rate of work (P> 0.05) and the calculated rates of work (ha/hr) were greater than the actual ones (ha/hr) by 49.26%. The study found that 77.78% of the farm implements in the estate were compatible with the tractors in regard to power demand, while 22.22% of them were not. The study concluded farm machinery cost management needs attention especially for cost items like depreciation, fuel and oil and repair and maintenance as well as, implement power requirement and its compatibility with power sources. Therefore, it is very important to properly record all necessary data related to machinery management to improve the management system