Computer system development for Combine Harvesters management at Northern State of Sudan

Combine harvesters are highly required in the northern state of Sudan for harvesting the large areas grown by wheat, the important cash and food crop. The objective of the present study was to develop a computer program for Managing and selecting combine harvester under Northern State conditions. The required input data included machine initial prices (SDG), expected No. of working hours, repair and maintenance costs for each machine as (%) of initial purchase prices, machine age (years), area to be covered (ha), machine rent per hour (SDG), labor wage per hour, fuel unit price (SDG/L) and required tractor power (Kw). The results showed that predictions of the computer system which included machinery effective field capacity (EFC) in ha/h and costs in SDG/h; were compared well with actual data and the comparative percentage was within 81% to 120%. Moreover, the predicted effective field capacity was significantly higher (1.505ha/h) for Class dominator (4.30m) as compared to FOTTON4Lz2 (2.70m) which ranked the least (0.788 and 0.945 ha/h).. On the other hand, developed program predicts the lowest operation cost for FOTTON4Lz2 (2.70m) compared with SONALIKA International (4.20m).The developed program was verified and validated using actual data from the field. The results showed positive and strong correlations between the predicted and actual effective field capacity and operation costs. Moreover, for FOTTON4Lz2, SONALIKA International and CLAAS dominator, the predicted operation costs were lower than the actual ones by 16%, 19% and 9%respectively. Sensitivity analysis and accuracy tests were carried out and the developed computer system was found significantly respond to changes of inputs with high accuracy. It was concluded that, after optimization, the best combination option for planting %operation it was required two machines of size 4.20m, and field capacity 1.495 ha/h, in combination with 43machines of size 4.30m and 1.505 ha/h to cover an area of 50,000 ha.The obtained results of the computation were verified and validated for applications. It was concluded that the developed system was user oriented, dynamic and responded well to alterations in the input data which affected the output parameters.