Farm Machinery Hire Services For Small Farms In Kampar Regency, Riau Province, Indonesia

Small farmers in the Kampar Regency are dependent on farm machinery hire services for their farm operations. This study aims to provide an understanding of the management procedures of hire services groups and to determine the seasonal working areas and custom rates of machinery hire services managed by farmer groups. Twenty groups offering custom hiring services in seven districts of the Kampar Regency were visited during the rainy season in 2012, and group managers, mechanics, and operators were interviewed to collect field data. The results showed that these groups comprised 3-11 farmer groups, which in turn comprised 15-25 farm owners each. Each group had a simple organizational structure and managed one or more farm machines of various manufacturers and types. The number of machines owned by each group was not sufficient to deploy across the entire coverage area owned by the group members. The seasonal working area is small due to the limited number of machines owned, short working days per season, small paddy field areas, and low working capacities. The custom rates varied across groups depending on the type of machine and operation, land conditions, and the distance between the field and the hire services center. Suggestions for improving the operational performance of hire services groups have been proposed

Economic Aspects of Machinery Hire Services Managed by Farmer Groups in Kampar Regency, Indonesia.

Farm machinery hire services have become important business groups within a small farming community in Kampar Regency, Indonesia. This research evaluated the economic aspects of the machinery hire services managed by farmer groups with a focus on cost, revenue, profitability, and economic efficiency. A total of 20 machinery hire service groups located in seven districts of the region were purposely selected. Group managers and custom operators were interviewed to collect field data during the rainy (growing) season in 2012/2013. The results showed that the seasonal total work varied across hire service groups and depended on the number and type of machines owned. Seasonal costs among custom operators varied considerably. Depreciation and labor were the dominant fixed and variable costs, respectively. Although having a relatively low profit, the machinery hire service groups were profitable and efficient businesses under current levels of custom rates. The low seasonal total work, due to limited number and type of machines and short seasonal working time, is an important constraint on increasing profitability. Therefore, there is an opportunity to make the hire service groups more profitable and viable businesses by adding several different types of machines

Determining Mechanization Capacity and Time Requirement for Farm Opera-tions: A Case of Small-Scale Rice Mechanization in Riau Province, Indonesia

The successful development of farm mechanization is determined primarily by the transition process from manual tools through animal-drawn implements and finally to the application of mechanical power technologies, which will affect mechanization capacity and time requirement of farm operations. This study attempts to determine the capacity of rice farming mechanization and the time requirement for farm operation practices in Riau province. The study was carried out in two rice centers from two regencies in the province: Kampar and Siak regencies. A total number of 120 sample farmers were selected randomly from both locations and interviewed personally to collect data. As a result, there has been an increasing capacity of rice mechanization in Riau province. The increase was mostly due to increasing availability and utilization of power intensive machines on the farm inthe province. In farming practices, the farm operations which involved machine power include only land preparation, threshing, and milling, while other operations are employed entirely by human labor. Under these conditions, the total time required to complete rice farm operations was 851 h·ha-1, on aver-age, contributed mostly by transplanting, weeding, and harvesting that still use manual tools. Therefore, it suggests that a mechanized farming scheme should be expanded to a wide range of operations to increase capacity of rice mechanization as well as complete farm work in a timely and short time