A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1992

A menu driven computer software was developed for optimization of farm machinery system with flexibility to incorporate regional variations in crops and cropping patterns, farm equipment sizes, a nd costs of the resources and outputs. The Decision Support System (DSS) calculates the optimum power required for field, transportation, irrigation and post harvest operations; and selects the optimum power source(s) and matching equipment from those available in the region. It also computes working hours required; energy used; fixed, operating and timeliness costs for t h e farm operations on crop, seasonal and annual basis. The DSS can also compute net returns per ha of crop and per ha of land holding. Two sources of mobile power, tractor and animals; and two sources of stationary power, electric motor and diesel engine were considered. Provision was made to opt for all possible combination of power sources for different stationary operations. For farmers growing three crops a year in each farm field analysis of case studies shows that up to 8 ha of land holding combination of animals and electric motor as power sources was most economical beyond which a combination of tractor and electric motor was most economical. However, depending upon the availability of custom work, a farmer can own a tractor economically with less than 8 ha land holding.