Estimation and Comparative Study of Operational Costs of Various Combined Tillage and Sowing Implements

Agricultural Engineer’s and economists use a variety of engineering and economic principles for calculating a machinery costs. An effective farm manager must also know these principles, and apply them when deciding to buy, lease, rent or share machinery. Thus, estimating farm machineries operational costs becomes essential to farmers for sound investment analysis and useful in planning, controlling production on their farms. Therefore, study was conducted to estimate and compare operational cost of various combined tillage and sowing implement namely Rotary Plough with Seed cum Fertilizer Drill, Till Planter, Roto Till Drill and Strip Till Drill at Vaugh Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, (Uttar Pradesh) and period of study consumed about 2.5 years to complete the research activities. This present study concluded that operational cost of roto till drill and strip till drill was noted higher 796.57 Rs/hr and 791.66 Rs/hr, on the other side operational cost of rotary plough with seed drill and till planter was estimated lower 375.40 Rs/hr and 673.66 Rs/hr. The result also shows that operational cost of agricultural implements significantly depends on their initial cost. Therefore, roto till drill and strip till drill has higher operational cost because of their higher initial cost as compared to other combined tillage and sowing implements. Thus, implements subjected to higher initial cost tend to increase the operational cost.