Tractor repair and maintenance costs and management policies in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Farm machinery management data were collected in Burkina Faso, for the prediction of repair and maintenance costs. Equations were developed to predict repair and maintenance costs of tractors, cane loaders, generators and motorpumps. The analysis of data revealed that tractor repair and maintenance appears a greater burden than predicted by the American and Australian data. Tractor trade-in was not prescribed by the rule of minimum total cost per unit tractor use. Farm machinery and power units were operated more than twice as long as in the United States. New machine purchase was discouraged by the current sugar prices on the local market.