Mechanization and agricultural farm structure in the agricultural area of the Dardanelles region

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the current mechanization in agricultural farms of the Bayramic-Ezine-Kumkale agricultural plains, in Canakkale (Dardanelles) region of west of Turkey. For this purpose, a questionnaire was carried out for 401 farms capable of growing both field and horticulture crops. Results indicated that each farm having small size characteristic has at least one tractor, but 19.20% of farms had more than one tractor. The status of having one (91.67%) or more (41.67%) tractors in a farm was higher in Bayramic, due to field and horticulture crops, than both others. However, the highest number of tractors was recorded in Kumkale farms (60.00%), followed by Ezine (31.65%) and Bayramic (8.35%). Most of them are young, but 12.00% are older than 24-year, especially Massey Ferguson-135, Universal and Fiat (54C, 480). The most used tractor brand has been New Holland (32.15%), followed by Massey Ferguson (18.99%), Fiat (9.11%), John Deere (8.10%), Case IH (7.85%), Same (5.05%), Deutz (4.05%), Steyr (3.54%), Valtra (2.28%) and others (Ford, Hattat, Erkunt, Basak, Tumosan, Universal, Kubota and Landini). On average three-plain, 77.03% of farms were preferred to purchase the new tractors, 22.97% preferred the second-hand ones. Tractor was 0.99 per farm, but it was the highest in Ezine (1.17). Agricultural area per tractor was 117 decare on average three-plain, the highest for Kumkale (136 decare) and the lowest for Ezine (83 decare tractor-1). Machinery per tractor was 7.67 for all farms, but Kumkale (8.78) had the highest, and then followed by Bayramic (6.58) and Ezine (5.87).