INTRODUCTION
Agricultural mechanization is for the world, the mechanism for the development of agriculture and the right answer to the need to meet the demand generated by the population increase of men in society and animals in production. Likewise, the benefits of mechanization that attract the most attention from farmers are the opportunity for field operations, high efficiency, productivity and reduction of heavy work (Pérez de Corcho et al., 2017).
Therefore, it is an agricultural process that requires a work programming and activity control system for both production indicators and economic, technical and technological indicators that allow for increased efficiency (Herrera et al., 2011).
In agricultural mechanization, three levels are differentiated (human, animal and driving) considering the energy source used (Shkiliova et al., 2014; Daum and Birner, 2020; Gavino et al., 2020). In addition, mention should be made of the incorporation of sensors, drones and robots (Marinoudi et al., 2019; Franco et al., 2020) that allowed the optimization of resources, considering this as a new level. The tractor, due to its variability, is the main symbol to measure the mechanization index, whose calculation uses basic information from the production area (Magalhães et al., 2013; Sharifi and Taki, 2016; Kumar and Tripath, 2019).
At an international level, several investigations have been carried out with the aim of diagnosing the level of agricultural mechanization. They were developed through the calculations established for their future planning, having as a premise the knowledge of the amount of agricultural land available and the desired production, in order to be able to make the right decisions (Gutiérrez et al., 2018; Macías et al., 2018; Rodríguez and Orbegoso, 2018; Loor et al., 2019; Hernández et al., 2020; Llano, 2021; Aragundi and Pacheco, 2022).
However, in Angola and specifically in the province of Cuanza Sul, there are no evidences of scientific publications on studies to diagnose or evaluate the level of mechanization of agricultural production companies. Only the report carried out by Gutiérrez et al. (2018), who referred that, in Africa, there is an estimate of 0,6 tractors for every 100 hectares.
Aldeia Nova Farm (S.A.) has a wide range of agricultural machines and tractors, which are designed to tackle mechanized tasks, humanizing work, in addition to increasing the productivity and yield of the different crops grown there. However, despite having modern technology and qualified personnel in the field of mechanization, no evidence was found to demonstrate that they take control of the different indicators of mechanization on the farm. This deficiency does not allow neither carrying out a correct planning of the exploitation of the machinery and tractors and the production plan, nor developing an assessment of whether with the available technique is possible to rationally fulfilling the mechanized tasks. Bearing in mind the above, the present investigation was carried out, which aimed to evaluate the main mechanization indices of the Aldeia Nova Farm in the Municipality of Cela.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Location and Characterization of Aldeia Nova Farm
The investigation was carried out at Aldeia Nova-Waco Kungo S.A. Farm. Its main objective is agricultural production, industry and commerce, located on the right street of Kissanga. It is located in the city of Waco Kungo, Cela Municipality, Cuanza-Sul Province.
Diagnosis of Mechanization Level of Aldeia Nova Farm
For the evaluation of the diagnosis of the Aldeia Nova Farm, the mechanization indicators were determined, following the methodological recommendations established by Jróbostov (1977), Garrido (1989), González (1993), Muñoz et al. (2011) and Azoy et al. (2016) referring to the fundamentals of operating and maintaining the fleet of tractors and machines.
Tractors per Hectares (
Where:
|
is the total number of tractors |
|
is the total hectares of land cultivated with and without mechanization. |
Average Power per Tractor (
Available Power per Hectare (
Where:
|
is the power in kW |
|
is the total hectares of land cultivated with and without mechanization |
Ratio of Machines per Tractor (Ri.t)
Ratio of Arable Hectares per Tractor (Rha.t)
Ratio of Arable Hectares per Harvester (Rha.c)
Technical Availability (DISP)
Technical Preparation (
Where:
|
is the average number of machines in good technical condition during the working period |
|
is trim equipment |
|
is the average number of tractors during the period |
DC: |
is the total number of machines |
Use of the Park (
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tractors per Hectare
Table 1 presents the values of the indicators that characterize the level of mechanization of the Aldeia Nova Farm. For the ratio of tractors per unit of arable land area
IM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0,008 | 108,86 | 0,86 | 2,05 | 126,5 | 631,25 | 75 | 76 | 84 |
Legend:
Average Power per Tractor
As for the magnitude relating the average power per tractor (
Power Available per Hectare
The ratio of power available per hectare (
This indicates that the farm has a higher mechanization rate than many regions of Latin America and even countries like Peru. However, the latter presents a mechanization index that is not 0,75 kW according to Gaetan (2007) cited by Sánchez et al. (2014), it means that it is low. It has the highest yields for major crops such as rice, corn and sugar cane, which denies the thesis supported by researchers who maintain that the highest level of mechanization technology corresponds to the highest yields.
On the other hand, this indicator is lower (Figure 1) than the values reported by Sharifi and Taki (2016) Gutiérrez et al. (2018), Loor et al. (2019) and Aragundi and Pacheco (2022) This is due to the fact that the research carried out by these authors demonstrates that the tractors that are used to tackle agricultural tasks have more power than necessary per unit of area to be worked or worked on. Even so, the value obtained for this indicator is good.
Ratio Machines per Tractor
The machine per tractor ratio
Hectare Ratio per Tractor
The magnitude of the hectare per tractor ratio (
Ratio of Harvesters per Arable Land Area
In the same way, the ratio of harvesters per arable land area behaves (
Technical Availability and Technical Preparation
In the case of technical availability, the value obtained is 75%. This magnitude can be said to be acceptable, as Pérez (2006) and Zingg (2009) reported that this coefficient should range from 70 to 90%. Which indicates that despite the technical failures that occurred, the administration acceptably manages the inputs and spare parts that are required. In our case, it can be seen in Figure 4 a) that the value obtained (75%) is similar to that reported by Azoy et al. (2016).
But it behaved below the value reported by Macías et al. (2018) which was 78%. Although the said value is lower, it is considered acceptable since it is in the same range mentioned by other authors.
Technical Preparation
The coefficient of technical preparation (
Use of the Park
The coefficient of utilization of the park was 84%. Considering this result as acceptable, since it is within the range (80 - 95%) reported by Gutiérrez (2007), result superior to that reported by Macías et al. (2018) ) which is 77% (Figure 5). This result indicates that the management of the use of the park of machines and tractors is better than that carried out in the study of the previous authors. They state that this low result is due to the fact that the days actually worked on machines were below machine per day planned. The cause is attributed to the equipment that were inactive and for not having the spare part to carry out the repair work.
CONCLUSIONS
The level of mechanization of the Aldeia Nova Farm was evaluated through the indices established for this purpose, and it was proved that it is low, because despite the fact that the value of available power per hectare (0.86 kW ha-1) is higher than the 0.75 kW ha-1 established in the specialized literature, the rest of the indicators showed unfavorable magnitudes. Except for the indicators related to technical assistance and the use of the park, which, although not high, are within the range.
The determination of the mechanization indicators under the real working conditions of the farm allows stating that the ratio hectares per tractor is high with a value of 126.5 ha tract-1 behaving above the 50 ha tract-1 established, and the 60% of the tractors are below the 108.86 kW tract-1 of average power, which indicates that to fulfill the tasks, it is necessary to reorient the planning of the tractor park or rent its service.
The ratio of agricultural machines per tractor does not exceed two implements per tractor, which limits the full use of the tractor in an agricultural cycle of the crops grown there, such as corn, soybean and sorghum.