alireza allameh

The results of this study show that the degree of mechanization of tillage, planting with transplanter, spraying, weeding and harvesting in the eastern areas of Gilan province is 100%, 70.41%, 37.32%, 3.85% and 91.12% respectively. The level of rice mechanization in these regions is 3.95 horsepower per hectare. Roudsar city has the lowest level of mechanization and Siahkal city has the highest level with 2.75 and 5.14 horsepower per hectare, respectively. The average mechanization capacity of rice in the eastern regions of Gilan province is 646.51 horsepower-hour per hectare. The highest amount of mechanization capacity is related to the Primary tillage (Spring) with a tractor-turned plow and the lowest is related to the harvesting operation with rice self-propelled reaper, respectively, equal to 1323.09 and 30.80 horsepower-hour per hectare has been obtained. The lowest economic efficiency for Siahkal city and the highest for Roudsar city were calculated as 0.43 and 0.74 tons per horsepower, respectively. The results of this study show that the number of tillage machines and transplanters available in the eastern regions is suitable, and only by improving the management of machines, the level of implementation of mechanized transplanting operations should be increased. In the case of harvesting machines, there is a need to strengthen and introduce more machines to improve the degree of mechanization, and in the case of weeding operations, due to the low degree of mechanization, there is an urgent need to plan for the introduction of suitable machines.

Mechanization is one of the main factors in the development of agriculture and is one of the examples of the application of technology in the agricultural sector, which makes it possible for the agricultural sector to reach the stage of industrial and commercial production. Agricultural mechanization, as a basic approach in the production of agricultural products, provides goals such as timely performance of agricultural operations, reduction of production costs, reduction of labor intensity, better management of agricultural inputs, quantitative and qualitative improvement of production and, in principle, the possibility of economic and mass production of products. There are inequalities in the development of agricultural mechanization, which is partly affected by natural factors, but human factors also play a significant role in its occurrence. Planning for the development of mechanization is one of the most important components in the development plan of the agricultural sector.The requirement for correct planning regarding agricultural mechanization depends on recognition of the existing situation. In order to determine the existing situation and comparing the mechanization status of each region to another, there is a need to have defined and meaningful indicators and criteria. The consciousness of the current situation and the distance between different regions as well as obtaining the optimal level can be used to provide a suitable program and development of mechanization for finding and resolving the disturbances and inequalities. In this research, the indicators of rice mechanization in central and southern regions of Guilan province were investigated and compared. According to the results, the current state of mechanization of rice has been determined and the necessary solutions for their improvement have been provided.

Guilan province is one of the northern provinces of Iran, with an area of 14711 square kilometers which stands the second ranking (31% of total) in terms of area harvested. A study was conducted during the years 2020 and 2021 for determination of indicators that govern the mechanization development in the central and southern regions of Guilan province. The studied areas were as rasht and khomam (in the central areas of guilan province) with an area under rice cultivation of 62430 hectares and roudbar (in the southern areas of guilan province) with an area under rice cultivation of 3375 hectares. The field method or field study was employed in terms of broad-based (holistic) and deep-based (depth-based) methods and its subset based on questionnaire for data collection in this research. Due to the lack of access to all villages of each city, one village was randomly selected and after checking their conditions, the relative homogeneity of the area was determined and the obtained information was generalized to other places. Collecting of data was done by completing the questionnaires through available statistical sources, field surveys and interviews with farmers. Data were collected from reliable authorities such as the Guilan agricultural jihad organization, agricultural jihad management of the cities, agricultural jihad centers, and the statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. From the obtained data, the mechanization indices including degree of mechanization, mechanization level, mechanization capacity, machine power, machine productivity level, mechanization economic efficiency and machine farm efficiency were calculated.The results revealed that in the central and southern regions of Guilan, the degree of mechanization was 65.1 and 78.9 percent, the level of mechanization was 2.71 and 9.12, horsepower per hectare, the economic efficiency of mechanization was 0.89 and 0.83 tons per horsepower, the average capacity of mechanization was 431.73 and 853.20 horsepower in hour per hectare, respectively. Transplanting by a 4-row rice transplanter in both regions had the highest productivity coefficient. The lowest productivity coefficient assigned to the spraying operation by a motorized backpack sprayer (4.72%) in the central areas and the mouldboard plow in primary tillage by a tractor (1.79%) in the southern region. On average, in the central and southern regions, there was one tractor for every 35 and 5 hectares, a tiller for every 5 and 11 hectares, a transplanter for every 46 and 31 hectares, and a combine harvester for every 88 and 56 hectares, respectively. For every 100 farmers, there were 3 and 5 tractors, 24 and 2 tillers and 2 and 1 transplanters, respectively.

The degree of mechanization for tillage and transplanting operations in the central and southern regions of Guilan province demonstrated a good circumstance based on the sixth state plan of development. According to the expectations, by the end of the sixth plan, the degree of mechanization in harvesting operation was acceptable in the south of Guilan, but in the central, in order to reach the expectations, there is a need to reinforce and import more machines for improving the level of mechanization. The degree of mechanization in plant protection operation for both regions had unfavorable situation. Therefore, measures should be taken for replacing appropriate machines. The level of rice mechanization was higher in the south region than the central. from the above-mentioned reasons, the level of mechanization of rice in the southern region can be attributed to the multiple usage of the driving machines for paddy fields and other crops, the low area under rice cultivation and the large number of tillers and tractors, the lack of companies providing mechanized services, and little time available to farmers to carry out land preparation, transplanting, protection, and harvesting in these regions. The findings also show that tractors and tillers, which are the most important sources of power supply, are not evenly distributed across the central and southern regions. tractors and other self-propelled machines have not been distributed based on the area under cultivation and the economic, climatic, and cultural conditions of the farmers. The smallholder farmers tended to possess a self-propelled machinery while this caused either unused power in rural areas or used only for a short period of time. In some cases, tractors and tillers were used in unrelevant tasks such as transportation and handling. The highest productivity coefficient in the central and southern regions were related to the transplanting by a 4-row rice transplanter. But the lowest productivity coefficient was assigned to the spraying operation by a motorized backpack sprayer (4.72%) in the central areas and the mouldboard plow in primary tillage by a tractor (1.79%) in the southern region. The low productivity coefficient of these machines has represented their lower usage in paddy fields. The highest mechanization capacity in the studied regions was related to the primary tillage by a tractor mounted moldboard plow. The lowest consumed energy in the central and southern regions were related to weeding by a three-row power weeder and spraying by a motorized backpack sprayer which were 18.25 and 8.32 horsepower-hour per hectare. Due to the high cost of purchasing self-propelled machinery and the smallness of the land, the average ratio of self-propelled machinery to operator was not appropriate, which brought the operators a great deal of weakness in performing operations at the proper time.

Mechanization is one of the main factors in the development of agriculture. Agricultural mechanization, as a basic approach in the production of agricultural products, provides goals such as timely performance of agricultural operations, reduction of production costs, reduction of labor intensity, quantitative and qualitative improvement of production and, in principle, the possibility of Economic production. There are inequalities in the development of agricultural mechanization, which is partly affected by natural factors, but human factors also play a significant role in its occurrence. Planning for the development of mechanization is one of the most important components in the development plan of the agricultural sector. The requirement for correct planning regarding agricultural mechanization depends on recognition of the existing situation. Knowing and evaluating the development indices of rice mechanization is necessary for the correct selection and optimal use of rice machines and timely and quality agricultural operations to be used as basic information in the calculation of rice mechanization projects and economic analyses. In this research, the indices of rice mechanization in the central and southern regions of Gilan province were studied with the aim of estimating the number of machines needed in rice cultivation.

Gilan province is one of the northern provinces of Iran, with an area of 14711 square kilometers which stands the second ranking (31% of total) in terms of area harvested. A study was conducted during the years 2020 and 2021 for determination of indices that govern the mechanization development in the central and southern regions of Gilan province. The studied areas were as rasht and khomam (in the central areas of Gilan province) with an area under rice cultivation of 62430 hectares and roudbar (in the southern areas of Gilan province) with an area under rice cultivation of 3375 hectares. The field method or field study was employed in terms of broad-based (holistic) and deep-based (depth-based) methods and its subset based on questionnaire for data collection in this research. Due to the lack of access to all villages of each city, one village was randomly selected and after checking their conditions, the relative homogeneity of the area was determined and the obtained information was generalized to other places. Collecting of data was done by completing the questionnaires through available statistical sources, field surveys and interviews with farmers. Data were collected from reliable authorities such as the Gilan agricultural jihad organization, agricultural jihad management of the cities, agricultural jihad centers, and the statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. From the obtained data, the indices determining the state of mechanization, working days and farm productivity were calculated.

The results revealed that in the central and southern regions of Gilan, the degree of mechanization was 65.1 and 78.9 percent, the level of mechanization was 2.71 and 9.12, horsepower per hectare and the average capacity of mechanization was 415.74 and 782.10 horsepower in hour per hectare, respectively. On average, in the central and southern regions, there was one tractor for every 35 and 5 hectares, a tiller for every 5 and 11 hectares, a transplanter for every 46 and 31 hectares, and a combine harvester for every 88 and 56 hectares, respectively. According to the results, the number of machines in the tilling and spraying stages is more than the estimated number of machines in the studied areas. The number of available machines in the central areas was 77.1 and 55% more in tillage and 35.6 and 41.2 percent less in planting and 25.8 percent more in the southern areas in tillage and 79.7 percent and in 56.4 plantings and 2.3 percent less than the estimated number.

The degree of mechanization for tillage and transplanting operations in the central and southern regions of Gilan province demonstrated a good circumstance based on the sixth state plan of development. According to the expectations, by the end of the sixth development plan, the degree of mechanization in plant protection and harvesting operations, there is a need to reinforce and import more machines. The level of rice mechanization was higher in the south region than the central. From the above-mentioned reasons, the level of mechanization of rice in the southern region can be attributed to the multiple usage of the driving machines for paddy fields and other crops, the low area under rice cultivation and the large number of tillers and tractors, the lack of companies providing mechanized services, and little time available to farmers to carry out land preparation, transplanting, protection, and harvesting in these regions. The findings also showed that tractors and tillers, which were the most important sources of power supply, were not evenly distributed across the central and southern regions. In some cases, tractors and tillers were used in irrelevant tasks such as transportation and handling. According to the results, in the stages of tillage and spraying, the number of available machines is more than the estimated ones in the studied regions. According to the results, the number of machines available in the central areas in Tillage (Primary tillage, Secondary tillage, Puddling, Leveling) is 77.1% and Plant Protection (spraying and weeding) 55% more and in planting 35.6 and harvesting (Rice reaper, rice combine harvester, baler) 41.2 percent less than the estimated number. The number of machines available in the southern regions in tillage is 79.7% and harvesting 25.8% percent more and in planting 56.4 and Plant Protection 2.3% percent less than the estimated number. The comparison of the current conditions of these areas with the estimate shows that there is no proper planning in the supply and distribution of agricultural machines according to the cultivated areas. This shows the necessity of planning to establish more balance to create appropriate and homogeneous conditions for the distribution of agricultural machines in the studied regions.

To realize the current state of mechanization, defined and meaningful indices and standards are needed. Evaluation of these indices can be used for correct estimation and optimal use of agricultural machines. In this study, by collecting data through questionnaires and available statistical sources, the indices determining the status of rice mechanization (including the degree, level and capacity of mechanization, executive level), working days and farm productivity were calculated. The number of agricultural machines needed to perform mechanized operations in different stages of rice production were estimated using the time opportunity method. The results showed that in the eastern and western regions the degree of mechanization was 74.8 and 66.9%, the level of mechanization was 3.95 and 3.54 horsepower per hectare, the average mechanization capacity was 390.48 and 391.80 horsepower per hectare, respectively. Also, there were a tractor for every 29 and 27 hectares, a tiller for 3 and 4 hectares, a transplanter for 29 and 25 hectares, a weeder for 81 and 189 hectares, and a combine for every 39 and 77 hectares, on average. The number of machines available in the eastern regions in tillage are 81.5%, Transplanting 2.5%, spraying 71%, and harvesting 38.5% more and in weeding 9% less than the estimated number. the number of machines available in the western regions in tillage are 80.6%, Transplanting 15.9%, spraying 70.8%, weeding 42.3% and harvesting 51.5 % more than the estimated number.