The Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Zimbabwe

The Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE) is a branch of the department of Agricultural Mechanization within the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation development.

Background

Farm mechanization dates back to 1912 when the first tractor (Fairbanks-Morse) was imported into the country. By 1947, the number of tractors in the country had increased to 1,155 rising to 3,448 and 12,115 tractors in 1949 and 1961 respectively.A Standing Committee on Agricultural Mechanization (SCAM) was established in 1962 to spearhead rapid agricultural mechanization. A farm machinery training centre (FMTC) was established at Domboshawa in 1964 and later renamed the Agricultural Engineering Training Centre (AETC). The SCAM established the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE) whose responsibilities included research, development and adaptation of imported machinery to local conditions.O

These institutions were mainly geared towards offering support services to the Large scale farmers but today the primary mandate addresses the smallholder farmers needs exhaustively. The target group includes all farming sectors, manufacturers and service industries, small rural repair workshops and various government departments.

The work undertaken by the Institute is divided into two key areas;

1. Research, testing and development
2. Training

Currently the Institute has a staff compliment of just above 100 who include engineers, technicians, artisans and nontechnical staff. All committed to the research and development and promoting of technologies and technique for enhancing sustainable food production.

The IAE comprises six key sections which are expounded on below.

1. Farm Power and Machinery

To conduct research, testing, development and training activities on agricultural mechanization technologies and practices to improve agricultural productivity in all farming sectors.

2. Soil and Water Conversation

Improved management of natural resources through provision of research and extension services in soil and water conservation technologies.

3. Post-Harvest Technologies

To contribute to food security, profitable and sustainable productivity through the provision of effective research, testing and development in postharvest technologies of durabke and perishable crops.

4. Farm Structures

Research and development of farm structures such as greenhouses, tobacco barns and other production, procesing and storage structures.

5. Training

To provide effective training in agricultural machinery operation and maintenance and animal draught power and rural technology.

6. Irrigation

The Zimbabwe Irrigation Technology Centre, whose objective is to test and provide and provide irrigation regulation standards as well as research, is under the IAE.


As alluded to earlier, the Institute plays a key role in promoting the adoption of techiques as well as technologies that ensure sustainable farming interventions. Currently, the IAE in collaboration with Food Agriculture Organization(FAO) and CIMMYT in developing and promoting development and adoption of Conservation Agriculture(CA) machinery. The Conversation Agriculture agenda is being pursued to ensure sustainable tillage practices that conserve the soil as the key resource and also improve productivity.

The introduction of CA machinery has its own challenges. End users require skills to set, operate, calibrate and maintain the equipment and the Institute has been fulfilling that role. The various CA machinery and hands-on training will enable farmers to make informed choices on the type of implement they can use within their circumstances.

This is just a highlight of what the IAE has been able to accomplish with just government and a few other external funders. With a bigger Research and Development budget, The Institute is capable of becoming a pillar of technology development and knowledge transfer centre for Zimbabwe and the region as it houses some of the best minds in agricultural engineering in Africa.

Farm Machinery Senior Class: Owning vs Hiring

In my last article we touched on technical details on estimating the true cost of a machine. The fixed and variable costs in order for a farmer to look at machinery investment beyond just purchase price. Now, besides the cost structure, there are also other factors that need careful consideration in evaluating farm machinery decisions: both technical and not so technical.

Ownership vs Hiring.

Should one own farm machinery, if they have an option to evade the ownership costs and just incur operating costs? Yes and No! There are hidden costs that are associated with depending on machinery that you do not have absolute control over. Some hidden costs can be quantified for example timeliness cost.

Timeliness Cost.

When one owns all the machinery for his tillage and harvest operations, he has control over the scheduling and deployment. Timeliness cost is the value of field losses incurred due to delays in carrying out certain farm operation. For instance, for every day delayed in harvesting wheat, one loses 50kg per hectare planted.

Advantages of Custom Hiring

The machine comes with an operator. That means that the hiring farmer has no responsibility for operating or maintaining the machine. Also, the farmer can perform other tasks such as hauling and unloading grain while the combine is operating, without having to hire extra help. This is an important advantage for farmers with a limited labor supply.

There is no long-term capital investment in the machine. The cost of custom hiring can be paid from operating capital. There is no responsibility for liquidation of the machine if production practices or farm size change and it is no longer needed.
The farmer pays only for the number of acres actually servicedserviced and the custom operator's machine is more likely to be a recent model and in good mechanical condition.

Custom hiring also may have some disadvantages, but their severity will depend on the local situation.

Disadvantages

There may not be a competent operator and machine available nearby.
The hiring farmer will not be operating the machine and will not have complete control over the quality of the job performed.
The custom operator may not be able to harvest or spray the crop when it is convenient for the owner nor during the optimum time period. Problems could arise if the weather is bad and the custom operator has several other farmers waiting. A schedule or priority list needs to be worked out ahead of time.

The strengths of hiring are the weaknesses of ownership and vice versa. So, the question ceases to be just which one is better than the other, but rather how can I make ownership of equipment as less costly and more profitable as hiring? How do I retain control while using the equipment safely enough to reduce the ownership costs per acre?
The best way to do that is to estimate how many acres you can hire out your equipment so that you earn an income that goes to pay your insurance, housing, interest and depreciation expenses.

Joint ownership allows responsibility for investment, repairs, and labor to be shared with someone else. Joint ownership may generate enough use to make owning a machine profitable when it would not be profitable for one owner alone. However, cooperation is absolutely essential for all involved parties.

Click this link to access the article on the cost structure for owning farm equipment

Farm Machinery Senior Class: Budgeting and Selecting

Investing in machinery at a farm is a major decision REGARDLESS of scale of the farm! Think of buying snow graders for road construction for a non-snow country? Investing in machinery is not only about one affording the shop price but whether it's economic for the farm. This article is about making smart decisions about how to acquire machinery, when to trade, best capacity to invest in.

First things first. One must know the best machinery for the purpose. The key operations that require machines are tillage,planting, weed and pest control, harvesting. Tillage implements prepare seedbed, destroy early weed growth. Planters ensure consistent spacing of seed and appropriate application of fertilizers. Harvesters reap clean and undamaged grain while minimizing field losses. Performance of machines depends on skill of operator, weather and soil conditions.

Machinery Costs

Machinery costs consist of Ownership and Operating costs. It is not about the dollar figure but minimizing the cost per acre, and reducing the ratio of cost per acre to sales per acre.

Ownership/Fixed Costs

These include depreciation, interest, taxes, insurance, housing or shelter for the equipment. These costs do not change as the machine sees more use. However fixed costs per work done decrease as the hours or acres worked increase. For example,the same machine that pays $400 per year, costs less if it does more work because it generates the money that pays the costs. These costs increase with size of machine and investment>bigger machine, bigger housing, insurance.
Principle: Buy machinery that does a lot of work for the farm or has less downtime.

Interest and  Depreciation

The lender determines the interest. But if you use your own capital to purchase machinery, the rate depends on the opportunity cost for capital elsewhere in your business. Inflation reduces cost of capital since loans can be repaid with cheaper dollars.

Capital recovery is the money that would have been set aside each year to repay value lost due to depreciation and paying interest. Another important term is the salvage/scrap value- the estimate value of the machine at the end of its useful life. Depreciation becomes the difference between the initial value and the salvage value, then divide it by number of years between purchase and salvage(economic life of machine, taken to be between 10_15 years). Interest is calculated as a percentage of the average value of the machine, which found by adding the new price and salvage value of the machine and then dividing by two.

Housing and Insurance

Insurance allows for replacement in case of disaster such as fire. An uninsured risk disadvantages the whole farm business. Properly sheltered equipment has lower depreciation rate and higher salvage or trade in value as well as less repairing costs. For simplifying Are calculated as 1% of the sum of purchase price and salvage value.
Principle: Insurance and Housing costs secure the machinery investment reduce other costs.

Operating/Variable Costs

Include Fuel, lubricants and repairs.Operating costs per acre change very little as machinery size change. Using larger machinery consumes more fuel but this is offset by the fact that more acres are covered per hours. Thus operating costs are of minor importance when deciding what size of machinery is best suited to a certain farming operation.

Repair and Maintenance

These depend on soil type, climate and vary from farm to farm depending on management policies and operator skill.  The best way to estimate your repair costs is your own past experience .

Fuel and Labour

For fuel costs, the easiest way is to use the standard fuel consumption rate for that machine per acre and multiply that by cost per litre to get cost per acre. cost per acre is then multiplied by the acres to be covered over the year to give total cost of fuel per year.

Adding all these costs gives you an idea of what your farm machinery investment is. Suffice to say investing more than you get per year is equivalent to economic suicide.  Another rule of thumb is that the total annual cost,(both operating and ownership) will usually be about 25-30% of the purchase value of the machine.

Let me categorically mention that the method I submitted above is only an estimation. The decision to buy machinery invariably involves the assessment a wider range of factors. Many of which are not quantifiable for instance, machine breakdown risk, timeliness costs, health and safety, comfort and easy of use to mention a few. One other thing: for large sized farms, as machines become larger, the cost per acre diminishes as shown on the graph below.

 I hope this information will add a little more objectivity in your machinery investment decisions. Put your questions in the comments box and lets have a conversation.

My next article, I will present a simple worksheet for the above estimation methods as well as standard rates in our Zimbabwean context. Let me know other areas that interest you around this topic.