| In the dry season 1990, a farm survey and field experiments were carried out in Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia to evaluate the technical and economic factors of rice thresher mechanization. A system analysis approach was used to determine the optimum thresher size, the economic feasibility of engine-powered threshers and to estimate the agricultural labor available in Indramayu.;Engine-powered threshers produced losses 1.7% lower than that of manual threshing, and reduced total cost of harvesting and threshing, 2.78% lower than that cost of sickle harvesting and manual threshing. This cost reduction was to cover machine cost (2.32%) and thresher operator (0.46%).;Optimization results suggested that an engine-powered thresher size of 0.5 t/hr was optimal for farms less than 10 ha. Further, the results also indicated that subsidized credit made the larger thresher size more economically feasible. The profitability analysis of thresher ownership indicated that a local thresher made by artisan and priced less than Rp 1,550,000 was profitable with or without subsidy (BCR ;The population model indicated that during 1988-1998, agricultural labor force in Indramayu will increase by 0.4% annually and by 2008 it will decline by 1.3% annually. On the other hand, the non-agricultural labor force will increase by 6.6% annually.;The system approach techniques of the rice threshing mechanization provided a means of studying the influence of social-economic character of farms, government involvement and engineering technology on determining the level of rice threshing mechanization for small farms. |
