Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter is about finding and researching related studies about the subject that

can help this research through the entire process making the project reliable. The right

sources can improve the research by understanding and improving previous studies that

tackles similar problems and ideas with this research. Studies that are connected with the

researcher’s goal helps to gain more knowledge to the project.

2.1 Agricultural Machinery

Mechanization of agriculture is fundamental to reducing poverty and improving

lifestyle and food security in the developing world. Large populations are escaping

subsistence agriculture, and there is a broad consensus that conservation agriculture

(CA) is the only sustainable approach to cropping. Equipment for CA could be a major

focus of R&D activity by the global farm machinery industry, but this is not happening.

Land preparation, seeding and harvesting units are the machine tools of agriculture, and

must fit production systems. Tillage might be unnecessary, but tractor tillage-based

systems have been the basis of the farm machinery industry. Conservation agriculture

still lacks seeding equipment that is effective over a broad range of conditions, and

machine-width variability of soil and residues is a fundamental problem. (Tullberg, 2009)

2.2 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Tractors

Not all respondents used tractors continuously after the initial period of use. Some

reverted back to carabaos or used a combination of tillage components, while others who

owned a carabao preferred its use. Others maintained that the tractor custom rate was

too expensive or that they lacked sufficient cash to pay the contract charge. For this

group, tractors were used only to prevent delays in farm operations to enable timely

planting. Conversely, the majority of farmers used tractors continuously after the initial

introduction. Reasons given for their adoption were that carabaos could not finish land

preparation on time; the tractor was faster and easier; and the machine provided a better

quality of tillage, especially when the field was badly infested with weeds. Respondents

also believed rotavation to be better with a four-wheel tractor. Farmers, particularly small

operators, usually use both the tractor and draft animals. Many still retain their carabaos

for operations such as tilling field borders, dike edges and field levelling.

Eighty-eight percent of the tractor users interviewed reported that tractor use

greatly reduced the labor required for land preparation. The actual family labor required

was reduced by 76 percent while hired labor was decreased by 85 percent. Sixty-nine

percent of the respondents reported that the family labor time saved by using tractors was

used to clean and repair dikes and levees. In addition, 45 percent used the extra time to

plant crops earlier. Similarly, 88 percent and 76 percent of the two- and four-wheel tractor

owners, respectively, reported a reduction in labor. Family labor was reduced by 63

percent to 71 percent for two- and four-wheel tractor owners, while hired labor was

reduced by 68 percent for two-wheel and 62 percent for four-wheel tractors. (Maranan,

1980)
2.3 Substitution versus Net Contribution

Suppose that, in an irrigated area, wage rates and bullock costs are so low that it

is economical to maintain a very large labor force and bullock capacity which will allow

double cropping with timely operations. 3 If the substitution view is correct, it may be quite

some time after bullock costs and wage rates start to rise before tractors become the

least-cost technique of production. At constant output prices the sole effect of increases

in wage and bullock costs is an increase in production costs thus making less profitable.

Farmers will attempt to reduce costs by reducing input and output levels, which may partly

be in the form of decreases in the labor force and bullock stock. Profitability of the second

season crop may be affected first and its extent reduced, thus reducing cropping intensity.

The quality of other mechanical operations may also deteriorate. As labor and bullock

prices continue to rise, tractors will eventually become profitable and be substituted for

bullocks and for labor, thus making production costs less vulnerable further wage and

bullock cost increases. (Binswanger, 1978)

2.4 Conservation Agriculture equipment Research and Development Farmers

Beneficiaries

The steady accumulation of economic and production data leaves little room for

doubt that farmers will be beneficiaries of a change to CA. It is nevertheless true that

adoption is not a straightforward process, and farmers have sometimes been defeated by

the difficulties of seeding or weed control in a new system. One tale of economic woe is

always repeated many more times than a dozen success stories, so CA adoption rates
are still too low. Too few farmers see themselves as beneficiaries of CA, particularly in

the developing world. (Tullberg, 2009)