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

2. 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 ( ) specially in the rain-fed sector that constitutes 10% of the total cotton cultivated area.

3. 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 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

4. Level & percent of applic.
Table 1. Adoption of cotton mechanical operations through the last 20 years ( )
Machine & implements
Operation
Time of operation
Starting Finishing
Level & percent of applic.
Remarks
Big tractors hp
Primary tillage
Feb.
April
For primary and secondary tillage
Small tractors hp
Secondary tillage
March
May
For establishment operations
Crawler tract 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

7. 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 ( 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.

8. 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 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 .

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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 .

13. Thank You For your attention