Abstract
Data science can help farmers when making a decision about tractor purchase. Buying a tractor represents a big investment for farmers, and price is one of their main concerns. This study presents the development of a web-based decision support tool (DST) that calculate the price of new and second-hand tractors, for the purpose of providing the decision-maker some information that will lead him to the final decision. The tool makes use of different algorithms based on predictive analytics methodologies. The dataset has information about 227 different observations of new tractors and 1003 of second-hand tractors, from different European countries. During the study, the prices of new and used tractor were modeled, testing parametric and non-parametric regression models with different segmentations and predictor variables. Non parametric models includes regression trees, support vector machines, ensembles of regression trees, Gaussian process, and neural networks. In both cases, for predicting the prices of new and second-hand tractors, adjusted R2 higher than 0.99 were achieved. The models developed were implemented in the DST which is fully operative, available in Internet, and free to use.
Highlights
Tractors are the most important equipment for most of the farmers
The models developed were implemented in the decision support tool (DST) which is fully operative, available in Internet, and free to use
Data science can help farmers when making a decision about tractor purchase
Summary
Tractors are the most important equipment for most of the farmers. Tractors are essential for farming as they provide machine power for performing farm applications.Tractors are capable of performing the most important operations in farming, like plowing, planting, cultivating, fertilizing, and harvesting crops [1,2].The top ten countries in tractor sales in Europe are: France, Germany, Italy, UnitedKingdom, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Sweden (see Table 1) [3]. Tractors are the most important equipment for most of the farmers. Tractors are essential for farming as they provide machine power for performing farm applications. Tractors are capable of performing the most important operations in farming, like plowing, planting, cultivating, fertilizing, and harvesting crops [1,2]. The top ten countries in tractor sales in Europe are: France, Germany, Italy, United. Spain, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Sweden (see Table 1) [3]. In the case of Spain, the total investment in new machinery purchased by farmers in Spain in 2020 exceeds 1331 million euros, being tractors the most sold machines [4]. With regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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