Harvesting costs
Costs of harvesting rice are often (but not always) estimated in terms of percent of grain output, as in the following examples from 2004:
- Vietnam: harvesting costs are 8% for manual collection by a crew and stationary thresher
- Philippines: harvesting costs are 15% for cutting by sickle and use of trailer mounted thresher
- China: harvesting costs are 6% by tractor-mounted combine harvester
The table below shows an example of costs of the three systems:
- manual harvesting (including cutting, threshing, cleaning);
- manual cutting + machine threshing/cleaning by own labor and machine;
- manual cutting + machine threshing by contracted labor and machine.
Please note that the table is a entirely fictitious (made up) example and that actual costs are location and time specific, meaning that they can vary by region and per season. By using a spreadsheet you can estimate harvesting costs for your own situation.
|
Manual cutting, threshing, cleaning |
Manual cutting and machine threshing by own labor + equipment |
Manual cutting, machine threshing by contracted labor + equipment |
|
|
1. LABOR |
|||
|
Labor for cutting and gathering |
25 man-days/ha |
25 man-days/ha |
0 |
|
Labor for threshing |
15 Man-days/ha |
2 man-days/ha |
0 |
|
Labor for cleaning + bagging |
8 man-days/ha |
1 man-hours/ha |
0 |
|
Labor rate |
$ 3 /day/person |
$3 /day/person |
0 |
|
Total labor requirement |
48 man-days |
28 man-days |
0 |
|
Total labor cost/ha |
$144 /ha |
$84/ha |
0 |
|
2. EQUIPMENT |
|||
|
Purchase price thresher |
0 |
$1,000.00 |
0 |
|
Life of thresher |
0 |
2000 hr |
0 |
|
Capacity thresher |
0 |
1 ton/hr |
0 |
|
Use per year (100 ha @ 4 ton/ha) |
0 |
400 hr |
0 |
|
Capital cost/yr (excl interest) |
0 |
$200.--/yr |
0 |
|
0 |
$900/yr |
0 |
|
Repair and Maintenance (15% of capital/yr) |
0 |
$150.--/yr |
0 |
|
Total equipment cost/ha |
0 |
$12.50/ha |
0 |
|
3. CONTRACTING |
|||
|
Cost per ha (% of grain) |
0 |
0 |
12% |
|
Value of grain (4 ton/ha) |
0 |
0 |
$150 $/ton |
|
Total contracting cost/ha |
0 |
0 |
$72/ha |
|
TOTAL |
|||
|
Labor+equip+contr |
$144/ha |
$96.50 |
$72/ha |
|
Estimated threshing and handling loss (% grain) |
5 % |
2 % |
3 % |
|
Expected grain yield |
4 ton/ha |
4 ton/ha |
4 ton/ha |
|
Costs of lost grain ($/ha) |
$30/ha |
$12/ha |
$18/ha |
|
Total harvesting cost |
$176/ha |
$108.50 |
$90/ha |
|
Total Harvesting costs-equivalent in grain |
29 % |
18 % |
15 % |
In general, costs of owning equipment are dependent on how often the machine is used. When comparing costs of ownership with contract hiring, there is a “break-even” point (expressed in terms of tons, hectares or hours that the machine is used) above which ownership becomes more attractive than contract hiring.
Besides direct costs, there are a number of other factors the farmer/ station manager will have to consider when deciding whether to purchase or to contract hire machinery:
|
Ownership |
Contract hiring |
|
|
Timeliness of operation |
Machine is ready when needed |
Contractor may not be available when needed |
|
Repair, maintenance |
Own repair and maintenance needed to reduce downtime |
No expertise needed for repair, maintenance |
|
Quality of work |
Quality of operation is under control of farmer |
Quality of operation in control of contractor |
|
Cost |
Can be lower if there is sufficient work on the farm |
Costs not dependent of amount of work |
|
Skills required for operation |
Operational skills required |
No skills required at the farm |
|
Finance requirements |
Capital outlay + financing needed |
No large capital outlay needed
|
