Determining Mechanization Capacity and Time Requirement for Farm Operations: 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 in the 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 hha-,1 on average, 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.