ECONOMICAL ASPECTS OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUE

OUEDRAOGO, D.

Abstract
The use of agricultural technique is expensive and it is necessary to know and to calculate these costs according to the methodologies which have been presented by different authors. The most important is the cost item which represents the yearly depreciation of machinery. We recognize three strategies of depreciations: straight line, degressive and progressive. Each of them is chosen according to object, forms of provision and use of technique. For the developing countries, where the economic instability extremely threatens, we recommend the degressive strategy of machinery depreciation. The comparative study worked out for tractors of different age persuaded of the necessity to find out the level of the costs on the machinery according to the methodology of calculations compared with estimation and it became evident that the use of the second hand machinery is economically acceptable for farmers. From the point of view of technical service we recommend the use of mobile service, both for machinery testing, repairs and maintenance, and for popular activities, training, extensions etc. Two computer programmes have been used for calculation of costs and evaluation of the way of machinery management. These two programmes were "TechConsult" and "VUZT". They are convincing and their use with different modifications for the conditions of Burkina Faso is recommended.

Key words:
Agricultural technique, costs, depreciation strategy, second hand machines, computer programmes, work price list.

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