Farm Machinery and Power Availability for Mechanizing Small-Scale Rice Farming Cultivations in Kampar Region, Indonesia

Farm machinery is one of important power sources for performing various farm operations today. The availability of adequate farm machinery is essential for providing sufficient power on the farm...


Introduction
Agriculture has undergone modernization across the world. Agricultural mechanization is an important element for modernization of the agriculture [1] and plays a key role in improving agricultural production in developing countries [2].
Farm mechanization implies the use of mechanical technology in the varied farming operations [3] and then takes the place of human and animal power in agricultural processes. Essentially, agricultural mechanization represents technological change through the adoption of nonhuman sources of power to undertake agricultural operations [4]. Energy (power) is one of the most valuable inputs in production agriculture [5]. The technical change from human and/or animal power to machine power in agriculture will tend to increase machinery demand of farmers. Power and machinery are an integral part of modern agriculture, so the development of the machines used in the modern agriculture has also brought new demands on farmers [6].
The mechanization of farming, particularly in developing countries, has been very uneven [7]. In Indonesia, agricultural mechanization is currently still in the developing stage and its development speed remains slow and differs across the country.
Slow development process in the country may be caused by some constraints, including socioeconomic, technical, and institutional constraints [8]. Consequently, the level of mechanization in the country was relatively low with an average level of 30% [9]. In Riau Province, Paman, et al. [10] reported that the mechanization degree was only about 28% in 2013. The low mechanization level in the province may be caused by shortage number and application of farm machines by farmers. During a period of 2009-2013, the number of major farm machines in the province, including tractors, water pumps, power threshers and rice milling units, increased from 5,610 units to 6,371 units or increased at about 6% annually use among farmers through primarily financing for farm machinery purchase. It means that the improvement of farmers' economic condition as a result of economic growth will tend to increase demand of farm machinery that has highly powerful and efficiency.
Farm machinery is also required to fulfill an energy requirement for performing various farm operations. A worldwide study has concluded that for optimum yields, there is a need for a power input at least 0.8 hp. ha -1 [12]. In addition, demand for mechanization depends on some factors, such as farming system intensity, the availability of complementary technologies, and the capacity to fully use machines [4] Sufficient availability of the right energy (power) and its effective and efficient use are prerequisites for improved agricultural production [13]. This study attempted to examine the farm machinery and power availability for small-scale rice farming operations in Kampar Region, Indonesia. This is important to meet the needs of farmers of farm machinery as a source of power for effective and efficient farm operations.

Materials and Methods
This study was carried out in Kampar, one of the 12 regions in Riau Province, Indonesia. The region consists of 21 districts and 250 villages with total area of 11.289,28 sq-km. Total population is 371.449 with a density of 30 sq-km -1 . Kampar region is the most important area because it is one of the major rice production area in the province. Farm machines have been used in the area for many years and tend to increase from year to year.
This study was carried out in 15 selected districts from of 21 districts in Kampar Region. A purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the locations. The selected districts are predominantly rice production areas using semi irrigation or rain-fed system. The interviews with involving farmers, government extension staff and machinery suppliers (dealers) were conducted in 2015. The primary data were collected using structured questionnaires. Data collected include paddy field areas, rice production and yield, and type and number of farm machines. Secondary data were obtained from the records of the local government such as statistical bureau, food crop and fishery services, and district offices. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics that were employed with mean and percentage.  Source: Food Crop and Fishery Services [11].  Table 1 and Figure   2. Generally, the number of farm machines increased at about 15% annually. The highest growth was power threshers to about 55% annually, followed by water pumps (23%) and power tillers (13%). Furthermore, RMUs increased by only 1% annually. This machine is used along year with different volume of work for each month [14].  Source: Food Crop and Fishery Services [11].

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Copyrights @ Ujang Paman. Curr Inves Agri Curr Res themselves from dealers. The farm machinery which was owned by a farmer group came from direct government aid through the mechanization development program. The farm machines bought by the government were distributed to farmer groups to be used for custom hiring, especially for servicing group members [15].
The farm machines managed by individual farmers were bought itself and the excess capacity was provided to other farmers for providing the farm machinery hire services. The service charge differed between group farmers and individual farmers, and the group farmers offered lower rates compared to individual farmers.
The machinery hire services are an alternative use to economically adjust ownership of the machines and obtain an additional income from the services. This machine hire business was reported to be profitable under individual management [16] as well as farmer group management [10].

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according to increase the number of available machines. While, both power tillers and water pumps did not show significantly to increase machine density during the period. Generally, the density of the farm machinery has not been enough to achieve full mechanized for rice farm operations. Herdt [17] stated that to achieve full mechanization stage, for example, it requires about 100 power tillers per 1000 hectares (or 10 ha per power tiller). The result showed that the number of available power tillers in Kampar region was no sufficient to achieve full mechanization stage.

Farm power availability
The available power in the region is expressed as a number of horsepower per hectare (hp.ha -1 ). Farm power availability is directly related to the amount of power needed to perform farm operations.
The availability of machine power during a period of [2009][2010][2011][2012][2013][2014][2015] in Kampar region is presented in Figure 5. The total number of machine powers in the region increased from 1,566 hp (1,168 kW) to 6,356 hp (4,740 W) with an increasing rate of about 29% annually. This power sourced from large/medium tractors, power tillers, water pumps, power threshers, rice milling units, combines, and reapers. The water pump had the largest contribution to the power, followed by power tillers and rice milling units. The number of the available power depends strongly on the number of farm machines. Based on the total power availability, available power per hectare also increased from 0.23 hp.ha -1 (0.17 kW.ha -1 ) to 0.61 hp.ha-1 (0.45 kW.ha -1 ) with an increasing rate of 21% annually.
This number is not sufficient to make optimum rice yield which required at least 0.8 hp.ha -1 [12]. Comparing with Iran, for example, the available power has reached at the level of 0.86 kW.ha-1 [18].
The result suggests that the number of farm machines must be increased to meet power requirement for rice farm operations.