Abstract
A model, Computed Farm Machinery System (ComFARMS), has been developed to analyse mechanisation problems of Italian arable farms (<250 ha) from strategic and management standpoints. The article mainly describes the model's strategic approach to multicropping farm machinery selection. Once a given crop rotation pattern and a list of operations per crop are put in, the selection offers the user a machinery set (tractors and implements) where each machine is defined in terms of type, number and size. This selection may regard only a part of the machinery set. The main model algorithms are discussed with numerical examples. Selection can be carried out by performing search and/or optimisation techniques. A run example related to a typical Italian five-year rotation is finally presented. ComFARMS can be run by researchers and policy makers to explore different agricultural mechanisation scenarios. It is being incorporated in a more general decision support system to improve its use by farmers and advisors at farm level as well. ComFARMS is also implemented on a PC running Microsoft Windows.
Published Version
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