Assessment of Current Status and Determination of Rice Mechanization Indices (Case Study in Mazandaran Province)

Rice with the cultivation area of more than 565 thousand hectares and production amount of 2.45 million tons is the second most important crop after wheat in Iran. Most of cultivated area is also located in Mazandaran and Guilan province. It is clear that reaching to self-sufficiency in rice production is not possible without assessment of current status of rice mechanization. Therefore present study was conducted to determine current status of rice mechanization and propose needed solutions to improve it. Data were gathered by completing questionnaire and by reviewing the literature and field surveying. In view of information obtaeined; degree of mechanization, level of mechanization, capacity of mechanization, economic efficiency of mechanization, field efficiency of machine, potential ability of machine, working hours and days and productivity coefficient of machine were calculated. The results showed that degree of mechanization of primary tillage and secondary tillage was 99.7 and 99.3%, planting operation with transplanter was 22.69% and harvesting operation with mower and combine was 72.8 %. The lowest degree of mechanization of rice production was obtained for mechanical weeding with the value of 8%. The level of mechanization was calculated 2.63 hp/ha. Mean economic efficiency of mechanization and capacity of mechanization of rice was found to be 1.87 ton/ha and 235 hp.hr/ha, respectively.