Mechanization Levels of Some Crops in the Gezira Scheme, Sudan

Agricultural mechanization level means ratio between mechanical energy to total energy (sum of animal, human and mechanical energies) used in crop production. Crop production practices in the Gezira scheme depend on two energy sources, labor and machinery. The objectives of this study were to quantify and compare the level of mechanization for some selected crops in the Gezira scheme. The selected crops were cotton, wheat, groundnut, sorghum, pigeon pea, chickpea and onion. Data about production practices, from seedbed preparation to harvest, for these crops were collected from the farmers and engineers. Labor data included operated area, number of labors and daily working hours. Machinery data included machine type, work rate and fuel consumed. The collected data were entered into excel-sheets and energy was calculated using the standard procedures. The level of mechanization was calculated for two scenarios, the traditional and improved farming systems. The results showed that the level of mechanization in the traditional farming system varied from crop to another, it was 20.4, 25, 26.1, 41.8, 61.4, 80.6 and 96.7% for groundnuts, cotton, onion, pigeon pea, sorghum, chickpea and wheat crops, respectively. The results indicated that there are possibilities to improve level of mechanization by some interventions; this improves to groundnut, cotton, onion, pigeon pea, sorghum, chickpea and wheat will reach 69.1, 62.1, 54.9, 74, 98.7, 99.4 and 98.9%, respectively. However, this improvement requires additional fuel by 99.9, 82.4, 79.7, 74.3, 66.2, 24.2 and 40 l/ha for these crops, respectively. The study concluded that the level of mechanization is weak for some crops and there are opportunities for improvement. Conducting further comparison between the costs of manual and mechanized operations for these crops is recommended.