Field investigation of component failures for selected farm machinery used in small rice farming operations

Abstract

Abstract Failure of farm machinery components is an undesirable event that often occurs during field operations and becomes a crucial problem facing rice farmers in Riau Province. The purpose of the research is to investigate the component type and failure frequency and find out the root causes of the component failures for selected farm machinery used by small rice farmers. The survey was carried out in three regencies of the province namely Kampar, Siak, and Indragiri Hulu from June to July 2022. The data were collected from personally interviewing 30 machine operators and 10 mechanics. Five types of farm machinery were selected for study, including mouldboard plows, rotary tillers, four-wheel tractors, rice transplanters, and combine harvesters. The machines have often experienced breakdowns on the field due to the failure of one or more components/parts. Mouldboard plows had the most component failures with 137 cases, followed by rotary tillers with 85 cases, and four-wheel tractors with 57 cases. There were 34 and 43 cases of component failures for rice transplanters and combine harvesters, respectively. The root causes of component failures were poor field conditions (30%), ignoring maintenance (22%), intensive use of machinery (21%), improper storage (14%), and unskilled operators (13%). The results recommend that machine operators must keep the work area clean before beginning operation, conduct regular maintenance, store farm machines inside and keep them clean from dust and filth, have the necessary training and experience to help reduce failures, and run their machines precisely at the maximum power levels to prevent needless strain and early failure.