Development of a web based decision support system to choose optimum machinery size and tractor power for agricultural farms

One of the most important key factors for an efficient and profitable agricultural production is agricultural mechanization. Since agricultural mechanization system expenses are nearly 30% of an agricultural enterprise investment, planning of the mechanization system should be planned very carefully. Since internet technologies spreaded up all areas including agriculture, an internet based decision support system (DSS) has been developed to plan an agricultural machinery system to be used in Turkey's farm enterprises. Developed DSS has been written in PHP and the databases has been created using MySQL database administration system. Several tables like tractor test reports' data, machines' technical data which are produced in Turkey, fieldwork days for Turkey's climatic conditions, machines' typical working speed and efficiencies to select proper machine size and tractor power have been included in the databases. Using the developed DSS machines that are used for producing the most common products in Adana region, machinery systems have been created and tractor power sizes are selected. According to the results, it is found out that for the areas which are below 400 da 1 tractor less than 157 kW power size can be used and for the areas that are over 400 da 2 or 3 tractors needed to complete the agricultural activities in an effective time.