TRACTOR AND TRACTOR OPERATOR/OWNERS CHARACTERISTICS AND WHAT INFLUENCE TRACTOR CHOICE IN THE GA WEST AND YILO KROBO

DISTRICTS OF THE GREATER ACCRA REGION

Baryeh E. A. and Nelson L eabaryeh@ug.edu.gh, bar4zone@yahoo.com Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Ghana, Legon

Abstract A study was conducted on tractors, tractor operators and tractor owners in the Ga West and Yilo Krobo Districts of the Greater Accra Region to ascertain their characteristics and what influences the tractor owners in their choice of tractors. The tractor operators and owners ranged in age from below 30 years to 60 years. They were all married except those below 30 years and had low education. More than 50% had been in farming for 11 to 20 years. The tractors studied ranged in power from 25 to 80 kW. Most of the respondents had one tractor. The tractors were used for ploughing, harrowing, making ridges and transportation. They were acquired by savings (44%), loan (23%), cash (23%) and installment (10%) payments. Sixty seven percent of the tractors were purchased new, while 33% were bought used. For 60% of the tractor owners the mode of payment did not influence their choice but for 40% it did. The most popular tractors were Massey-Ferguson and Farmtrac which together made up 73.3%. Twenty seven percent of the tractors were operated by the owners themselves, 33% by hired operators and 37 by company workers. Only 23.3% of the tractors were used throughout the year making the majority underutilised. The most important technical features owners consider in

purchasing a tractor are fuel consumption, availability of parts and features of transmission in the order of importance. The most important economic and social factors they consider are brand of tractor, price of tractor and physical appearance of tractor in order of importance.

Keywords: Tractor, operator, owner, characteristics, purchase

Introduction Agricultural mechanisation is a complementary factor for increasing the efficiency and economic use of other farm technologies as well as for improving work conditions of farm operations (Aybek and Boz, 2006). Besides these characteristics, mechanization takes the largest share among all agricultural investments within a farm operation (Aybek and Boz, 2006).

The most important and versatile farm machine is the tractor. According to Yadav and Lohan (2006) the tractor is the main unit of farm machinery and ensures better quality of farm operations, timely completion of farm activities, better management supervision and dignity of labour. It is manufactured in various physical and power output sizes to enable it to execute both field and non-field operations or both stationary and non-stationary operations It serves

as a major power unit or component on mechanised farms (Liljedahl et al). Different makes are manufactured in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia and each manufacturer identifies its make with a peculiar colour paint.

Modern farm tractors employ large diesel engines, which range in power output from 15 to 480 kW. Those found in developing countries often have up to about 70 kW. According to Moses and Frost (1982), tractors can be generally classified as two-wheel drive, two-wheel drive with front wheel assist, four-wheel drive (often with articulated steering). Most tractors have a means to transfer power to other machines such as a mower.

The usage of tractors by farm operators is varied and therefore every farm operator or tractor owner is influenced by certain factors when it comes to choosing a tractor. The selection of an appropriate tractor for a farm is crucial because the selection of an inappropriate tractor can lead to increased production cost per hectare of land. Machinery costs constitute about 50% of the total farm production costs (Baryeh, 1989). Therefore, machinery owners and farm managers need to be very careful in the selection of tractors in order to maximise their profits. Many items have to be taken into consideration in the selection of a tractor. Some of these are farm size, relevant farming practices, crops produced, environmental conditions, soil structure, production system, duration of production processes, land structure, financial status of tractor purchaser, land structure, fuel cost, availability of tractors, duration of production process (Jones, 1966; Moses and Frost, 1982). If farmers consider these carefully before selecting a tractor, they will select the appropriate tractor for their situations and increase the efficient use of their available resources, decrease production costs, increase the quality and quantity of their agricultural production and influence positively the economic sustainability of farm operations. According to Grisso et al (1993), economic sustainability of farm

operations depends partially on the ability of managers in the proper selection and management of farm machinery. Yadav and Lohan (2006) have suggested that when

purchasing a tractor, farmers should consider the power and annual use of the tractor with proper consideration given to farm size and mechanised operation. The objective of this study is to determine tractor and tractor operator/owner characteristics in the Ga West and Yilo Krobo Districts of the Greater Accra Region in Ghana and what influences tractor owners choice of tractors.

Materials and methods The study area was the Ga West and Yilo Krobo Districts of the Greater Accra Region. The Ga West District lies within latitude 50 29 North 50 48 North and longitude 8 West and 30 West. It covers a land area of 692 square kilometres consisting of gentle slopes interspersed

with plains in most parts and generally undulating at less than 76 metres above sea level. The slopes are mostly formed over the clay soils of the Dahomeyan gneiss with alluvial areas surrounding the coastal lagoons generally flat. It lies wholly in the coastal savannah agroecological zone. The relief is generally undulating at less than 76 metres above sea level. The Rainfall pattern is bi-modal with an annual mean varying between 790 mm on the coast to about 1270 mm in the extreme north. The annual average temperature ranges from 25.10C to 28.4 0C. February and April are the hottest months. Average humidity figures are 94% and 69% at 6:00 and 15:00 hours GMT respectively. Crop farming is the principal agricultural activity in the district. The main crops grown in the district are maize, cassava, yam, cocoyam and plantain. A wide range of vegetables like tomatoes, garden eggs, pepper and okro are also grown. All these crops are cultivated largely on small-scale basis. The Yilo Krobo District is located between latitude 60 0 North and 60 30 North and between longitude 30 West and 10 West. It covers an area of 805 square kilometres. The predominant soils are loose, sandy and loamy with low water-holding capacity, which have been developed from the underlying Voltarian sandstone. The steep slopes are excessively drained whilst the flat lowlands are poorly drained and waterlogged during the rainy season. The district lies within the equatorial climatic zone. The temperatures range from 24.900C to 29.900C. Relative humidities of 60% to 93% are characteristic of the district. It enjoys double maximal rainfall with the two peaks occurring in May to June and September to October. Annual rainfall ranges from 750 mm in the southeast to 1500 mm on the slopes of the ranges in the northwest. The main agricultural activity is similar to that in the Ga West District.

Data for the study were collected through close ended and open ended semi-structured questionnaire covering the tractor owners and operators personal characteristics, tractor characteristics and what influences the owners choice of tractors, were used in a face-to-face interaction interviews with the respondents on their farms. The respondents who were a mixture of tractor operators and owners were selected randomly from each community. A total of 90 respondents were interviewed. They were composed of 60 tractor owners and 30 tractor operators. Out of the 60 tractor owners, 35 were tractor operators. Hence there was a total of 65 tractor operators. All of the respondents except 10 were farmers. The number of tractors studied was 95.

The questionnaire was composed of three sections. The first section consisted of questions inquiring about personal details and information on tractor operators/owners and general information on tractors being used by the farmer or farming company. The second section comprised questions identifying technical features that farmers and tractor owners consider

when purchasing a tractor. The third section consisted of questions identifying economic and social factors that influence farmers and tractor owners when selecting a tractor. A five point Likert type scale with A=very important, B=important, C=indifferent, D=not important and E= absolutely not important was developed for sections two and three of the questionnaire. The responses were collated and analysed for each statement. Analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The Kendalls W Test which is included in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was also used to rank the features or factors from most important down to absolutely not important with the least and highest rank mean value representing the most important and absolutely not important feature or factor respectively.

Results and discussion The age distribution of the tractor owners/operators are displayed in figure 1. From the figure 27%, 23% and 23% tractor owners/operators were above sixty years, from 51 to 60 years and from 41 to 50 years respectively. Ten percent were below 30 years and 17% were from 30 to 40 years. The number of tractor owners below 30 years is low because young people are often not interested in farming and they are also not credit worthy for them to acquire loans from financial institutions to purchase tractors. This trend has also been found in other developing countries (Baryeh and Raikane, 2003; Balasankari and Salokhe, 1999). There is therefore a need to make farming more attractive to and increase the credit worthiness of young people to attract them into farming. All the tractor operators and owners were married with 2 to 8 children except those below 30 years. Most people above 35 years in Ghana are usually married. There was no female operator but 3.3% of the tractor owners were female.

Figure 1: Age of tractor owner/operator

Figure 2 reveals that 17%, 53% and 30% have been in the farming business for 21 to 30 years, 11 to 20 years and below 10 years respectively. The study revealed that 24% of the

respondents were illiterates, 28% had primary school education, 30% had junior secondary education and 18% had senior secondary school education. None of them had university education. Farming in Ghana is done mainly by non-university graduates. Studies in

Botswana yielded 37% illiterates, 42% with primary education and 21% with secondary education (Patrick et al, 2002), while Balasankari and Salokhe (1999) have reported that the education level of the respondents of their study in India was secondary level. It is necessary to find out why educated people do not go into farming and device means for them to be interested in farming.

Figure 2: Number of years tractor owner/operator has been in business

The power of the tractors studied ranged from 25 kW to 80 kW with an average of 48 kW which compares well with the average of 50.1 kW for studies in Turkey (Aybek and Boz, 2006), but much higher than the 29 kW found in studies in India (Balasankari and Salokhe, 1999). Service records of more than half the number of tractors were non existent. The number of tractors owned by the respondents is shown in figure 3. Sixty percent, had one tractor, 20% had two tractors and 17% had three tractors each. Balasankari and Salokhe, (1999) found that in India 9.1% of the farmers owed more than one tractor. In the present studies and the studies in India referred to above, owing more than one tractor did not mean

that the owners farm sizes were large. They hired out the tractors for extra income. Only 3% had more than three tractors. Sixty three percent of the tractors were owned by individuals, while the remainder were owned by companies.

Figure 3: Number of tractors owned by respondents

The mode of acquisition of the tractors is displayed in figure 4.

Four modes, namely

instalment (10%), outright cash (23%), loan (23%) and savings (44%), were identified and their relative intensities are shown in the figure. In a study in India, Balasankari and Salokhe (1999) found that 81.8% respondents bought their tractors by borrowing money from commercial banks, 14.8% purchased the tractor from their own savings and 3.4% from a private finance company.

Figure 4: Mode of acquisition of tractor

Sixty percent of the respondents said the mode of purchase did not influence their choice of tractor while 40% said the mode of purchase affected their choice with reference as indicated in figure 5. This is because some loans and instalment payments restricted the tractor owner

Figure 5: Effect of acquisition mode on tractor choice

to certain makes of tractors, while the other modes of acquisition did not restrict the owner to any tractor make. The availability of dealers also affected the choice. The results also showed that 67% of the purchased tractors were new while 33% were used or second hand. Studies conducted in Turkey revealed that 43% were purchased new while 57% were purchased used

(Aybek and Boz, 2006). Furthermore, the new tractors were purchased from dealers while the second-hand ones were from individuals and farming companies. Small farmers usually cannot afford to purchase new tractors and hence they buy used ones which are priced lower.

Figure 6: Popularity of tractor brand/make

The most popular tractors were Massey-Furguson and Farmtrac which together made up 73.3% of all the tractors followed by Shangai (figure 6). This is because these tractors have dealers and readily available servicing and parts and credit availability for their purchasing. Patrick et al (2002) found that in Botswana, the most popular tractor was Massey-Ferguson. In India the most popular tractor was Mahindra followed by Massey-Ferguson, Swaraj and Ford in descending order (Balasankari and Salokhe, 2006).

Figure 7, indicates that 33% of tractor owners hire their tractors to operators or other farmers, 27% operate the tractors themselves, 37% are operated by a company worker and 3% share the operation between a hired operator and themselves. Those who hire to operators or other farmers do so because their machines are underutilised or they have more than one machine or they have small farms. The hiring of tractors to other farmers is practised in most countries. Those who operate the machines themselves are comparatively younger and full time farmers and those who share the operation with hired operators usually have other jobs or are too old to be full time operators. In Botswana it was found that some farmers share the operation with their sons (Patrick et al, 2002).

Figure 7: Kind of operator

The work the tractors perform are shown in figure 8. It includes ploughing, harrowing, making ridges and conveying agricultural produce and other goods. The percentage used for ploughing and harrowing is 43.3, while 46.7% is used for all the above operations. In contrast, over 85% of the tractors in India, Botswana and many other countries are used for ploughing. Despite these usages, the tractors are generally underutilised as found also in Botswana by Patrick et al (2002). The information in figure 9 also confirms the underutilisation of the

Figure 8: Work tractor is used for

tractors. It reveals that 23.3% are used throughout the year, 20% are used anytime a job is available, 30% are used only during the farming season and 26.7% are used 2 to 10 months in the year. Some investigators have suggested how such underutilised tractors can be put into more use to earn extra money especially during non-farming season (Patrick et al 2002; Yadav and Lohan, 2006; Balasankari ans Salokhe, 1999).

Figure 9: Period tractor is used

Eight technical features which influence tractor owners choice of tractors are shown in table 1. Out of the eight features listed, the first five are in the very important and the last three are in the important interpretative category respectively. There were no features in the indifferent,

not important and absolutely not important interpretative categories. Fuel consumption was the most important technical feature for the selection of a tractor. This was followed by availability of spare parts, features of transmission, availability of maintenance services and power delivered by the tractor. These were rated as very important. This is not surprising since fuel is generally expensive in Ghana. Aybek and Boz (2006) also found in Turkey that tractor owners prefer tractors with low fuel consumption and high power. A tractor with low fuel consumption has low production costs and one with high power increases work efficiency. The items that respondents ranked as important were features of power take off, power steering and features of tyres.

Table 1: Technical features which farmers take into account when purchasing a tractor Technical features Level of Importance Mean Fuel consumption Availability of spare parts Features of transmission Availability of maintenance services Power delivered by the tractor Features of power take off Power steering Features of tyres 1.67 1.70 1.70 1.80 1.83 1.97 2.23 2.28 Std. deviation 0.758 1.055 0.794 1.064 0.913 0.964 1.223 0.922 3.79 3.90 4.03 4.22 4.34 4.76 5.22 5.72 Kendalls W Test Mean Rank

Table 2 displays 10 economic and social factors which influence the choice of tractors by tractor owners. Out of the 10, one is in the very important, eight in the important and one in the indifferent interpretative categories. There was no item in the not important and absolutely not important interpretative categories. The most important factor is brand of tractor. This is followed by the following factors which were rated important: price of tractor, physical appearance of tractor, age of tractor, commonly used tractor in the region, make previously used, tractor advertisements in media, choice of household members and presence of operator cab. Influence of neighbour farmers was ranked as indifferent. A combination of the two tables will show that a Massey-Ferguson and Farmtrac tractor with low fuel consumption, available spare parts and maintenance and reasonably low price is likely to be a favourite choice by most tractor owners.

Table 2: Economic and social factors influencing farmers selection of tractor. Economic and Social factors Level of Importance Mean Brand of tractor Price of tractor Physical appearance of tractor Age of tractor Being a commonly used tractor in the region Using similar tractor earlier Tractor adds on mass media Desire of household members Having cab Influence of neighbour farmers 1.83 1.93 2.03 2.17 2.27 2.73 2.73 2.77 2.70 2.87 Std. deviation 0.648 0.944 0.999 1.053 0.907 1.202 1.980 1.073 1.149 1.224 Kendalls W Test Mean Rank 3.97 4.37 4.65 4.80 5.28 6.17 6.40 6.42 6.45 6.50

Conclusion This study investigated tractor and tractor operator/owner characteristics and the factors that are taken into consideration by tractor owners and farmers in the Ga West and Yilo Krobo Districts in selecting tractors. The majority of the tractor owners/operators were 41 to 60 years old. Fifty three percent had been in farming for 11 to 20 years. Their education was generally low. The tractor power ranged from 25 to 80 kW. Sixty seven percent of tractor owners bought their tractors without loans. Sixty seven percent of the tractors were

purchased new. The most common tractors were Massey-Ferguson and Farmtrac which made up 73.3% of the total. The tractors which were used mainly for land preparation and

transportation were generally underutilised. For 60% of the tractor owners, the mode of payment of the machines did not affect their choice, while for 40% it did. The technical features owners and farmers considered in purchasing tractors are fuel consumption and availability of parts, while the economic and social factors are brand and price of the machine.

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