Establishment of evaluation model for tobacco field machinery selection

Abstract: In order to avoid the bias occurred in empirical method for agricultural machinery selection, such as testing operation effects by field demonstration or organoleptic evaluation, this essay aims to develop an applicability satisfaction based evaluation solution for the agricultural machinery selection test. By adopting tobacco planting and tobacco field machinery as study objects, a practical production management oriented model is proposed. The process of tobacco planting is divided into ten links of three stages (Preparation, Planting, and Management). An evaluation index system, involving forty-four indexes in all, is set at the same time. In which, ten evaluation models correspond to ten tobacco planting links respectively, while each of the evaluation models consists of four major operational indicators, namely cost, efficiency, effect, and effectiveness. The system samples data from on-site test based on quantitative evaluation indicators as benchmark under agronomic requirements, and builds up a comprehensive evaluation model by means of AHP. The ridging link is taken as an example to demonstrate the application of the model. In the experiment, seven sets of ridging machinery are involved (with serial numbers as I, II, ...... , and VII). In which, IV and V are of Caterpillar type; VII is of Multifunctional, and all others are of Walk-Behind. From the process of the experiment, the following performances have been presented. First, the Walk-Behind sets work best from the perspective of operation effect and stability due to their small overall sizes that facilitate adjusting the working attitudes in time. Among all types, these sets show the best also in safety assessment that they have lest risk of rollover when operating between small pieces of fields in hilly area. However, the operation efficiency is hard to be largely increased restricted by the slow walking speed of operator. Second, due to the big size, the Caterpillars are slow in both operation and pushing forward when they are underpowered. The fuel consumption will rise high if the sets are overpowered though the operation efficiency may be improved. Finally, the Multifunctional set shows poor operational comfort and safety on account of the complicated mechanism. In general, by increasing the operational efficiency, compacting the machinery size and improving applicability effectiveness, the ridging machinery will optimize its comprehensive operational efficiency in hilly areas. Viewing from the evaluation results, sets I, III, and II rank high in operation cost, the values of which are 0.91, 0.89 and 0.85. Set V, IV and II rank high in operation efficiency, the values of which are 1, 0.49 and 0.41. Sets II, V, and I are high in operation effect, the value of which are 0.96, 0.69 and 0.66.And sets I, II and V are high in applicability effectiveness, the value of which are 0.93, 0.75 and 0.59. Comprehensively, sets II, I and V feature the best with the applicability satisfaction index of 0.75, 0.68 and 0.66.The results of assessment are consistent with the real local situation and practical performance of the machinery sets in the test process. Thus, the proposed model is reliable to make objective and accurate evaluation of applicability satisfaction for the tobacco machinery in the ten links, and provide relevant ranking for tested machinery sets in each link. The evaluation values will not only provide decision support and quantitative basis for the performance evaluation on the tobacco field machinery, identify the key restriction factors that cause poor operation effect, but also provide a new reference for the selection of agricultural machinery in other planting fields.