A Computer Program for Agr-machinery Cost Estimation

Abstract

The computer program for machinery cost estimation (CP-Mace) is a Windows based software program that can be run on a Windows XP or higher system on computers. It is a user-friendly interactive program written in VISUAL BASIC 6 programming language for machinery management. It allows the user to interact with it by entering the required inputs and it will carry out the interactive calculations. The program enables the user to print out the output which is displayed on the screen. The CP-Mace can predict the effective field capacity (EFC) for different implements (fed/hr- ha/hr), calculates the total cost for tractor and agricultural machine separately, calculate the total cost for the agricultural operation per feddan and per hour and finally estimates total annual costs of operating machinery for different field crops. CP-Mace was successfully validated statistically (t-test) with reference to Habeela agricultural scheme data season 2014/2015 and Iowa State University model. The comparison reveals that there were no significant differences. The results indicated that the CP-Mace program could be applied to any real-life case successfully and with confidence.