Determination of the Mechanization Indices in Fars Province of Iran

Fars province is located in the south of Iran with a population of 4.34 million people, total area of 122,400 km(2), and total precipitation of 320 mm. Fars is the most important province from the agricultural products point of view in Iran. The total cultivated area of this province is about 1.1 million ha. There are 22,518 active tractors and 2,090 active combines in this province. In this research, the mechanization level and capacity were used as indices to evaluate the mechanization status of Fars province in Iran. Data were obtained from the existing statistics in the different departments of Agricultural Organization of the province. Mechanization level was calculated by dividing the total power consumed in the province to the cultivated area. Power of tractors and combines was used to calculate the total draft power. Conversion coefficient of 0.75 was considered for the tractors and combines with the working age of less than 13 years while, coefficient of 0.5 was considered for the tractors and combines with the working age of higher than 13 years. Total area of irrigated crops plus 50% of rain fed crops and orchards area was considered as the total cultivated area of the province. Mechanization capacity (energy consumed per unit area) was also determined by dividing the total energy consumed in the province by total cultivated area. Results showed that the mechanization level of the province was 1.38 kW/ha which was higher than the average mechanization level of the country (0.75 kW/ha) but, the level had no acceptable uniformity in different townships of the province. Mechanization capacity (energy consumed per unit area) was 972 kWh/ha in this province. Results also showed that about 53.7% of tractors and 40.9% of combines existing in the province had the working age of higher than 13 years which should be replaced with new tractors and combines to improve mechanization productivity in this province.