Assessing Rice Farming Mechanization Indicators in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh Counties of Guilan Province

Introduction
The requirement for correct planning regarding agricultural mechanization is sufficient recognition of the existing situation. To determine the existing situation and compare the mechanization status of each region with another region, there is a need for have been to fully defined and meaningful indicators and criteria. The consciousness of the current situation and the distance between each region obtaining the optimal level can be used to provide a suitable program and development of mechanization for finding and resolving the disturbances and inequalities. In this research, the indicators of rice mechanization in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties of Guilan province were investigated and compared. From the data, the current state of mechanization of rice has been determined and the necessary solutions for their improvement have been provided.
Materials and Methods
Guilan province is one of the northern provinces of Iran, with an area of 14711 square kilometers which stands the second-ranking (31% of the total) in terms of area harvested. A study was conducted during the years 2020 and 2021 to determination of indicators that determine the mechanization development process in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties of Guilan province. The field method or field study, which broad-based (holistic) and deep-based (depth-based) methods are its subset, and questioning and observation as its tools, was the basis of investigations and data collection in this research. In this way, due to the lack of access to all the villages of each county, from the villages covered by the agricultural jihad centers, villages randomly have been selected and after examining their condition, the relative homogeneity of the area was determined and the obtained information has been generalized to other places. Collecting the required information and data has been done by completing the questionnaire and by referring to the available statistical sources, field surveys, and interviews with the exploiters. The desired statistics were collected from reliable centers such as the province's agricultural jihad organization, agricultural jihad management of the cities, agricultural jihad centers, and the statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad were also used. From the obtained information, the mechanization indices including the degree of mechanization, mechanization level, mechanization capacity, machine executive level, machine productivity level, mechanization economic efficiency, and machine farm efficiency were calculated.
Results and Discussion
The results revealed that in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties of Guilan, the degree of mechanization of tillage operations was 100 and 100 percent, transplanting 55.42 and 89.75 percent, spraying 34.09 and 57.98 percent, weeding 2.23 and 5.04 percent and mechanized rice harvesting with rice harvesters and combines 88.45 and 93.54 percent, respectively. The level, economic efficiency, and average capacity of rice mechanization in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties were determined to be 3.24 and 4.86 horsepower per hectare, 0.69 and 0.51 ton per horsepower and 201.57 and 437.92 horsepower-hour per hectare, respectively. On average, in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties, there was one tractor for every 34 and 36 hectares, a tiller for every 6 and 2 hectares, a transplanter for every 40 and 29 hectares, and a combine harvester for every 40 and 29 hectares, respectively. According to the results, the number of machines available in Lahijan county in tillage (Primary tillage, Secondary tillage, Puddling, Leveling), spraying and harvesting (Rice reaper, rice combine harvester, baler) is 67.1, 70.2 and 40.8% more and in planting and weeding are 25.5 and 64.3% less than the estimated number and in Astaneh Ashrafiyeh county in tillage (Primary tillage, Secondary tillage, Puddling, Leveling), planting and harvesting (Rice reaper, rice combine harvester, baler) are 88.3, 23.6 and 45.9% more and in spraying and weeding are 8.2 and 10.7% less than the estimated number.
Conclusion
The results of this study show that the number of tillage machines and transplanters available in Lahijan and Astaneh Ashrafiyeh counties of Guilan province is suitable, and only by improving the management of machines, the level of implementation of mechanized transplanting operations should be increased. In the case of harvesting machines, there is a need to strengthen and introduce more machines to improve the degree of mechanization, and in the case of weeding operations, due to the low degree of mechanization, there is an urgent need to plan for the introduction of suitable machines. Due to the high cost of purchasing self-propelled machinery and the smallness of the land, the average ratio of self-propelled machinery to the operator was not suitable, which caused the decision-making power of operators to be low in operating at the proper time.