Mechanisation of Soya Bean Harvesting For Small and Medium Scale Farmers in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The new land holdings and cropping enterprises after the Fast track land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in 2000 have created challenges with respect to the forms of field mechanization inputs needed by the new farmers to undertake timely and cost effective production and harvesting processes without proper mechanisation. Harvesting is a time critical operation for soya bean farmers in that if undertaken late, shattering results leading to high quantitative field losses. The paper presents current soya bean harvesting practices and their respective economic and operational challenges. The use of animal or single axle tractor as a power source to pull a ground driven cutter bar for cutting soyabean, manual gathering and using threshers showed that soya bean harvesting can be mechanised cost effectively for low yield (0.8t/ha) farmers. The system is 50 times faster than manual methods of harvesting. The system improves farmers' access to the services basic technologies are existing and are currently commercially available on the market. A maximum capital of US$4200 is required to set up the complete system compared to $US 334 000 initial investment required for a combine harvester. The harvesting costs can be maintained at less than 13% of the market value of the crop. The paper presents ownership options which optimize capacity utilization leading to cost effective solutions for soya bean harvesting amongst Zimbabwe's emerging soya bean farmers.