Abstract
The economic analysis of a manual and automatic turning hot spring incubator developed at the University of the Philippines-Los Baňos, Laguna Province, Philippines, was studied by comparing its performance with the conventional electrical incubator. This research can help small-scale farmers by reducing operational cost and increasing profitability. To determine the feasibility, undiscounted and discounted measures were used. For undiscounted measures, the break-even point (BEP) and payback period (PBP) for the conventional electrical incubator, manual and automatic turning hot spring incubator were 2788, 1950 and 4552 balut; and 2.31, 0.751 and 1.755 years for balut production; 723, 660 and 1540 ducklings; and 1.852, 0.856 and 1.998 years for duckling production, respectively. For the discounted measures, benefit-cost ratio (BCR), net present value and internal rate of return (IRR) for the conventional electricity incubator were 1.07, 1.36 and 1.20; ₱4176.88, ₱34359.81 and ₱22357.39; and 7.16, 36.44 and 20.35, respectively, for balut production and 1.15, 1.44 and 1.16; ₱6264.42, ₱28320.29 and ₱12740.51; and 15.15, 43.78 and 15.88, for ducklings production, respectively. Finally, the outcome of this research can be adopted by balut producers that have access to hot spring. The hot spring manual turning incubator was the most feasible incubator for balut production than the conventional incubator. Key words: Hot spring incubator, conventional, manual, automatic, ducklings, economic analysis, balut.
Highlights
At present, there are more than 1.3 billion people worldwide that do not have access to electricity and most of them are concentrated in Africa and Southern Asia (Fontaine et al, 2016)
These two settings of the hot spring incubator were compared with the (c) conventional electrical incubator which was locally manufactured in the Los Baňos area
Separate test was conducted at a local balutan to compare the performance of the conventional incubator with the hot spring incubator at two different settings
Summary
There are more than 1.3 billion people worldwide that do not have access to electricity and most of them are concentrated in Africa and Southern Asia (Fontaine et al, 2016). Due to the unequal demand and supply of electricity, people are finding alternative means of energy source. The geothermal energy is already in the form of heat. It can be used as alternative source of heat in agricultural and industrial processes. Balut is fertilized duck egg that has been incubated for a period of 14 to 18 days steamed or cooked for about 20-30 min for human consumption (Magat, 2015). These duck eggs are usually incubated in conventional electrical incubators. With the demand and availability of electricity, balut producers are faced with a problem of continuous electricity
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