COSTS OF TRACTOR OWNERSHIP UNDER DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN NIGERIA

Tractor is an important source of farm energy and power for mechanization of farm operations. It requires high initial capital investment. Tractor costs have great influence on profit. Knowledge of tractor costs for farm operations has a prime importance in making management plans and decisions especially in comparing different tractor types and models thereby assisting in the selection of a more appropriate farm tractor. This paper reports on the various factors that contribute to the ownership costs of farm tractors and the various techniques of estimating tractor costs in Nigeria under three different management systems. These management systems include Tractor and Equipment Hiring Services (TEHS) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Farmers' Co-operative Management System (FCMS); and Private Ownership Management System (POMS). In each of the Management Systems, the costs of three tractor makes namely MF 135; Steyr 768 and Zetor 7711 were investigated and compared. Results indicate that the average units cost per hour were NI20.44; N134.96; andN159.56 for POMS, FCMS and TEHS respectively. In terms of hours of usage per annum, POMS has the highest effective use of 678.92 hours followed by the FCMS with 603.63 hours while TEHS has only 534.4 hour.