C

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Introduction

Combine harvester or simply combine is a machine that harvest grain crops. The

name is derived from the four operations comprising harvesting, reaping, threshing, and

winnowing into a single process and one fitted with various head options that are used for

harvesting of different types of crop such as rice, wheat, soybean, corn, and many more.

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Combine harvester is one of the most economically important labor saving inventions,

enabling a small fraction of the population to engage in agriculture (Bob, 2003).

Pinada (2014), mechanization, or the use of machines in farming, can bring down

the cost of labor particularly for labor-intensive crops like rice, sugar, and corn. Hired

laborers would usually have to be paid an amount equivalent to 14% of the harvest. Some

combine harvesters cost only the equivalent of 8% of the harvest, with diesel, rental cost,

and operator already in the package. This effectively saves the farmer by 6%.

Mechanization also reduces post-harvest loss, which in manual harvesting can go as high

as 4 to 4.5% losses of crops. This happens during reaping, when some grains or stalks fall

and during threshing when even more grains fall.

In addition, according to PCARRD, PhilRice and Briggs and Stralton (B&S)

improve machines efficiency by incorporating cleaning, bagging, and recycling

components. A machine that combine harvesting, threshing, bagging in one operation

was found suitable in major rice producing provinces in the Philippines where man power

for harvesting is insufficient (PCARRD, 2002).

It is more profitable to use combine harvester other than manual harvesting for

farmers with respect to the production cost. There is a significant difference between the

average production cost of two harvesting methods, manual and machinery. This result is

consistent with previous studies of Praweenwongwothi, Laohsiwong, Rambo (2010)

stating that net benefit of combine harvesting was about 30.3% higher compared to

manual harvesting and threshing.

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 The machine introduced to farmers should be suitable for use in small farms

easily repairable and maintainable, inexpensive and environmentally friendly. The

“Appropriate” machine should be interpreted as appropriate to the farmers in terms of

their needs and affordability (Salokhe, 2003).

Barangay Central and Barangay San Agustin ,are one of the three top rice

producer in San Jose Occidental Mindoro. Farmers have been using the farm

machineries to increase their income, savings, and investment of the farmer’s people can

say that the machines are very useful in agriculture. With the foregoing situation, this

study will be conducted to determine the cost and return analysis and economic benefits

of rice farmers renting combine harvester.

Statement of the Problem

This study will be conducted to determine the farmers perceived benefits on the use

of combine harvester.

Specifically, this will seek the following questions.

1. What is the cost and return of rice farmers renting combine harvester.

2. What are the strategies of combine harvester operators to rice farmers renting

combine harvester?

3. What are the positive benefits, negative effect, and other problems in using

combine harvester.

4. What are the types of renting of farmers using combine harvester.

Objectives of the Study

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 This study will be conducted to realize the following specific objectives.

1. To analyze the cost and return of rice farmers renting combine harvester.

2. To determine the strategies of combine harvester operators to rice farmers renting

combine harvester.

3. To determine the positive benefits, negative benefits and other problems using

combine harvester.

4. To determine the type of renting of farmers using combine harvester.

Significance of the Study

The investigation is a relevant research and important to the local development

planners and agencies in formulating, strategies regarding the transfer of technologies,

like combine harvester. Moreover, this undertaking could provide insights with regards to

problem relative to farm mechanization confronting farmers.

The rice farmers, this would serve as a source of their information regarding the

benefits they could have in renting combine harvester.

Finally, other researcher could also use the output of the research as reference

with their related studies.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study will be limited only on the economic benefits of rice farmers renting

combine harvester. The farmers who are renting combine harvester will be the

participants of this study. Only irrigated farmers of barangay Central and San Agustin

will be participants of this study.

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 Limitation of the study includes cost and return of renting combine harvester

and the possible in occurrences of the data gathered from the participants, who might

have provided. Inaccurate answers. Furthermore, the inability of the researcher to exhaust

adequate information from the participants could be limitations.

However, observation and secondary data were also used through focus group

discussion, formal interview were also employed.

Conceptual Framework

This investigation is an evaluation, thus, the conceptual framework is best

illustrated in research paradigm. The first box is the economic benefits of renting

combined harvester. The second box is the cost and return of renting combined harvester.

The third box is the strategies of renting combine harvesters use by farmers.

Cost and Return Strategies of Farmers Benefits of Renting

(Economic Analysis) Renting Combine Combine Harvester
Harvester into
 Before (Manual machine operators  Positive
Harvesting) (Advantage)
 Mode of
 Negative
 After (Using of Payment
(Disadvantage)
Combine
Harvester)

Fig. 1 Research paradigm.

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Definition of Terms

For clear comprehension, the following terms are defined operationally:

Economic benefits. It refers to the benefits that can be quantified in terms of

money generated, such as net income, revenues, etc. It can also be money saved when

discussing a policy to reduce costs.

Cost and return. It refers to the expenses use by the farmers and the profit earn

by renting combine harvester.

Strategies. It refers to the methods or plan of the farmers renting combine

harvester.

Renting. It refers to the agreement where a payment is made for the temporary

use of a good, service or property owned by another.

Payment. It refers to the transfer of an item of value from one party (such as a

person or company) to another in exchange for the provision of goods, services or both,

or to fulfill a legal obligation.

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 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This Chapter presents the review of related literature and previous study relevant

to the research.

The beginning of combine harvester

The combine harvester is the most modern harvester of wheat. It is called a

combine because it “combines” the job of the header and thresher which was where its

predecessors. Change wasn’t accepted so it would have to wait till the end of the century

for its turn. After it did become a dominant harvesting method. It revolutionized the way

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the world ran. It was successful because it made farming safer, more profitable, and

brought food to many (Keith, 2010).

Harvesting and threshing represent the financial field operations in the paddy

production processes. It is at this particular point that farmers and labors received this

capacity through cultivation. Harvesting is traditionally carried out Sri Lanka using

sickles. Four wheel tractors or low capacity mechanical threshers are generally used for

threshing operations consume as much as 30% of the total farm power requirement for

paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka (Wickramanayaka, 1978).

The combine is what keeps the price low. There is enough wheat to create a

surplus because of combine. The reason is over the years farming practices have

improved. Things like fertilizer made a crop of wheat yield more grains. Farms got

thousands of hectares bigger. The combine improved over time to keep up with its

growth. If stationary thresher were still used extra wheat that was produced throughout

the years would be wasted because the harvest crews run out at harvest time (Wiley, nd).

The Philippine version of combine harvester

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) research team in

cooperation with the Briggs and Stralton (B&S), a private company supplying farm

engines in the Philippines, modified the original design of the rice combine harvester

from China to fit local farm condition. China’s design has reaping crop conveying, and

threshing components only (PCARRD, 2002).

In addition, according to PCARRD, PhilRice and B&S improved the

machines efficiency by incorporating cleaning, bagging, and recycling components. The

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machine that combine harvesting, threshing, cleaning, and bagging in one operation was

found suitable in major rice producing provinces in the Philippines where man power for

harvesting is insufficient (PCARRD, 2002).

It is more profitable using combine harvester other than manual harvester for

farmers in Sri Lanka with respect to the production cost. There is a significant difference

between the average production cost of the harvesting method, manual and machinery.

This result is consistent with previous studies of (Praweewongwuthi, Laohsiwong,

Rambo, 2010) stating that the net benefit of combine harvesting was about 30.3% higher

compared to manual harvesting and threshing.

Importance of using combine harvester

According to Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Act (AFMA) No. 8435,

there is a need to modernize the Philippine Agriculture to improve the living condition of

majority of the farmers and increase their amidst and growing needs of the market (Local

and Abroad) modernizing agriculture is the way by which farmers can realize better

income. However, to achieve this, requires changes in perception of the farmers toward

modern technology as a way to increased productivity. Likewise, modern agriculture

implies that farmers are given to option to adopt what technology used and what

commodity to produce given his available resources and when and whom to sell his

produce to realize the highest profit possible.

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 The machine introduced to farmers should be suitable for use in small farms,

easily repairable and maintainable, inexpensive and environmentally friendly.

‘Appropriate’ machine should be interpreted as appropriate in terms of their needs and

affordability ( Salokhe, 2003).

Adoption of the combine harvester

Local government units (LGU’s) are in forefront of extension activities.

Extension workers under the LGU’s need technological updating, good management and

interpersonal skills to achieve the goals of extension. However, the number of farmer

clients. As much as they want to extend mechanization, they may not have adequate

knowledge and skills about mechanization and how it can become an important input to

the farming system (Paras and Amongo, 2005). The large farms were more likely adopt

the machine compared with small farms. In adoption processes, “those farmers who

perceived the economic as well as technical superiority of the combine were not only

more likely to adopt but adopted the machine earlier than those that did not perceived the

machine advantage. Access of the new technology to an area increase to probability of a

farmer using it. To be economical, the area harvested by a combine must be large and

contiguous. There is no doubt that the greater benefits of the new harvesting technology

have accrued to the machine owning class in the form that act as “ broker” or commission

agents. Farmers benefits from the reduction of harvesting cost and timely operation

which could well serve as crop from torrential rain. An indirect benefit to farmers stem

from the additional income obtained from part time work on other farms not using the

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machine, complete mechanization of harvesting is not envisaged in the Muda area under

the present state of the arts (Ayab, 1979).

Economic and social impacts of combine harvester to farmers

Rice harvesting became a problem for farmers due to a shortage of labor and

consequently, the increase of wages in the country, with the advent of industrialization,

there has been a migration of labor form the agricultural sector to the industrial sector

leaving limited numbers in the later sector to do the labor intensive farming activities like

harvesting. Agricultural hired labor is decreasing owing to preference of labor for

employment opportunities in urban centers and abroad and high level of education and

literacy in the labor force. In rice production, labor cost represents around 60% of the

total input costs in rice production. Farmers therefore have to mechanize in order to

lessen costs and dependence on unreliable supply hired labor while increasing crop

productivity Bautista, (2003). In most developing countries, human labor comprises as

much as 60% of women workers. Hence, the proposed appropriate machine designs

should be based on the ergonomic limitation of the individuals Salokhe, (2003).

In the Tung Kula Ronghai (TKR) are showed that use of combine harvester

increased rapidly between 1996 and 2000 (from preliminary field study). Fully

mechanized harvesting system has replaced the conventional system using human labor

with sickles in TKR. The advantage of mechanize harvesting system are reducing the

production cost and improving labor efficiency. However, operating the combine

harvester machines has a great potential to cause negative impacts (Praweenwongwuthi,

Laohsiwong, Rambo, 2010).

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 Farmers could easily grain access to machine directly with the machine’s owner

but most farmers contact the combine harvester, brokers (middle men) to obtain the

service of a combine harvester. This mainly due to economics of scale since a large and

continuous field is required to achieved maximum combining efficiency and also partly

due to a shortage of machine. Currently, the number of combines in the area increase and

the latter explanation become less important (Praweewongwuthi, Laohsiwong, Rambo,

2010).

According to Choun-udom (1998), yield loss due to manual harvesting and

threshing relative to combining was 10.0%. The yield difference between the harvesting

and threshing methods is due to a number of factors, with the most important being.

Yield loss which occurs during manual sickling, collecting, transporting, threshing (e.g.

animal feed whilst trampling over rice bundles) and untimely harvesting and threshing.

The major economic incentive for adopting the combine harvester is to avoid these

losses.

According to Philippine Agrarian Law , the small farmer is defined as those cultivating

not more than 5 hectares of land, similarly the land Bank of the Philippines (LBP)

defines small farmers as “actual tillers of land not over 5 hectares ‘’.

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 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the local of the study, research design, the instrument use,

the participants, data gathering procedure follow and statistical analysis use. This is

presented in details for the clear understanding of the research methodology.

Location of the Study

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 San Jose is a first class- class Municipality in the province of Occidental Mindoro,

Philippines. Moreover, San Jose is the economic, financial, cultural, and educational

center of the province (CLUP, 2001-2010).

This study will be conducted in Central and San Agustin, San Jose Occidental

Mindoro, one of the top three producing barangays in the province of Occidental

mindoro. Most of respondents are engaged in farming and the participants of this study

will be the farmers.

Participants

The participants of this study will be the rice farmers renting combine harvester

and the farmers not renting combine harvester in Central and San Agustin, San Jose

Occidental Mindoro. List of farmers will be obtained from the Office of the Barangay.

The number of participants will be based on the sample size required in the total

population. Simple random procedure will be employed in determining the final list of

participants.

Research Design

This study will utilize a descriptive research design. This is a reliable method. It

involves describing, analyzing, and interpreting the conditions that now exist. It attempts

to discover the relationship between existing variables (Librero, 1993).

Research Instrument

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 The interview schedule will be used as instrument in gathering data from the

participants. The researcher will prepare a set of items and questions on perceived

benefits of renting and not using combine harvester in Central and San Agustin. It will be

submitted to the thesis adviser for corrections to ensure that the content of the instrument

would satisfy the required information of the study.

Data Collection

Necessary permit to conduct the study will be secured from the Office of the

Barangay Captain. A letter of request will be send indicating the purpose of the study.

The participants, the target dates of data gathering through questionnaires, and interview

among others.

During data gathering elaboration of item will be done for the better

understanding of the participants and to ensure the correctness of responses.

Statistical Tools

Descriptive statistics is use such as mean, frequency, distribution, and

percentages, to describe the participants attribute in agricultural mechanization. The

following is the descriptive statistics uses in the analysis of data;

1. To determine the centrality of responses and scores, weighted mean is

computed.

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2. Frequency and percentages is used to distribute the participants according to

categories.

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