Cotton production in Africa through Mechanized farming over T he past twenty years (1995-2015) The case of Northern African region (SUDAN)) 16th A.C.A Annual congress Nigeria, Abuja, March 2018 ELTayeb ELTahir ELTayeb Sudan Cotton Company LTD.

Introduction Agricultural Mechanization is the backbone for all agricultural practices due to its high field capacity, low operation cost, précised execution and good performance compared with manual efforts. Adoption of cotton mechanized farming in the Northern African region differs with difference in social, economical and climatic conditions, accordingly methods & techniques of adoption varies from country to another. Taking Sudan as an example for the Northern African region due to its large cultivated area with different climates, soil and water resources. Cotton mechanized farming was adopted earlier in Sudan than other countries and developed much better during the last twenty years (1995-2015) specially in the rain-fed sector that constitutes 10% of the total cotton cultivated area.

History of mechanization in Sudan The first Agric. machine introduced in Sudan was steam engine equipments in 1911 working together with animal Powered implements . Replaced by a diesel powered equipments in 1949. The first powered crawler tractor followed by different size wheel tractor in 1950-1955 applied in Gezira Scheme with different agricultural implements. The government established three Agricultural training centers in Tamboul, Masaad and Tuzi beside the agricultural research Center at Wad medani and a complete technical package was stated as shown below

Level & percent of applic. Table 1. Adoption of cotton mechanical operations through the last 20 years (1995-2015) Machine & implements Operation Time of operation Starting Finishing Level & percent of applic. Remarks Big tractors 150-210 hp Primary tillage Feb. April For primary and secondary tillage Small tractors 80-85 hp Secondary tillage March May For establishment operations Crawler tract. 180-210 hp sub soiling ditching 100% Chisel plow ploughing Mid June Disc harrow harrowing Mid may Ridgers Ridging Mid june Planters Mech. sowing June July 80% Some farmer prefer manual sowing Inter row cultivator Mech hoeing Mid July 30% Most of the area done manually & chemically Sprayers Herboside applic. August September Using broadcasting and placement method Fertilizer broadcaster Fertilizer applic. Ridger Green ridging Cotton pickers Cotton picking December 10% Only rain-fed sector Strippers Striping Cotton stalk cutters Stalk cutting or pulling 50% Some of the crop grazed by animals

The current situation Rain-fed sector :- Cotton cultivated area in this sector is about 10% of the total cultivated area, distributed mainly in east, south & west parts of the country according to rain fall expectations (600-1000 mm) . All operations were carried by machine in this sector due to its large area and short rainy season (3-4 months) from mid June to mid October most of the area was harvested by cotton pickers due to shortage of labours in this sectors. Conservation tillage is the common practice applied in this sector and a high seed cotton yield (2500 kg/ha) was achieved due to adoption of high technology methods e.g. (Zero-tillage) in Southern & Eastern parts of the Country.

Irrigated Sector Sudan has a large irrigated area of 1.9 million hectare , the four main irrigated schemes are: Gezira, Rahad, New Halfa and Elsuki that constitute 1.2 million hectare i.e. 64% of the total irrigated area, all these areas situated in the central plain sector described as an alluvial origin, the deposit is mainly clay of thickness about 25 meters alluvial materials vary in color and texture and have a very gentle slope towards the north with altitude between 380-415 meter above sea level, the soil of this plain swells when wet, shrinks and cracks when dry and becomes hard and compact when it dries up. so it needs to be loosened to create favorable conditions for microbial activities and enhance infiltration rates and root perpetration for crop growth, specially cotton which has a deep tap root , to enhance infiltration rate and deep root penetration soil must be prepared accordingly .

Cont. Irrigated Sector Soil preparation and management require certain amount of mechanical energy, starting from primary & secondary tillage followed by shaping & establishment operations like ridging, sowing herbicides & fertilizer application except for mechanical picking that is practiced manually and the inherent constraints for this operation is mainly due to farmers social behaviors and their believe that mechanical picking deprive animal grazing and labors earnings and will minimize their benefits since mech. picking is once instead of t two to three pickings in case of manual picking , but in the future shortage of labours will play a good role towards the high response for mechanical picking and from now our company and other companies aiming to import more than 20 units of cotton pickers.

Mechanical cost. Us$/ha Table 2. Comparison between mechanical & manual operation cost/ha. for cotton crop Operation Mechanical cost. Us$/ha Manual cost Us$/ha Difference Chisel plow 12 Only done by machine Dis harrow 10 Leveling 5 ridging 3 sowing 4 8 Herbicides applic. 2 6 Hoering 13 40 27 Fertilizer applic. Picking 80 150 70 Ct. stalk cutting 11 Total 106 223 117 operation cost of machine is about 47% of the total manual cost for the same operations.

Agricultural mechanization benefits :- 1.Reduction in operation cost (47% from manual operation cost) . 2.High ability, capacity and efficiency of the machine . 3. saving of time to achieve optimum sowing date . 4.Precised execution of operations specially in mechanical sowing to control plant population, fertilizer and herbicides applications . 5. Adoption of complete technical package according to A.R.C recommendations to achieve good performance & high yield.

Future perspectives for cotton farming mechanization Recently farmers in both irrigated and rain-fed sectors respond towards cotton cultivation and in the last season 2017/2018 the cotton cultivated area jumped from 80,000 to 200,000 Ha due to :- The positive change in the government agricultural policy (contract cultivation ) - between farmers and companies . Introduction of Bt cotton season 2012 and the high productivity achieved . Private sector intervention and contribution in financing and importing agricultural machineries and production inputs . increase of international cotton price . for the above reasons the future for cotton mechanization in Sudan is so promising and it is expected to reach full adoption of farming mechanization in the near future, since gradual adoption of mechanical picking has started successfully and the shortage of labours will play a good role and urging for mechanical adoption .

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