Avaliação da eficiência de campo em operações agrícolas com recurso à tecnologia GPS

• Author(s): Tirapicos, António Maria Carvalho
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5376
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): GPS; agricultural machinery; field efficiency; agricultural operations
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: Portuguese
• Advisor(s): Pinto, Pedro Aguiar; Braga, Ricardo Pereira
• Contributor(s): Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Description

Mestrado em Engenharia Agronómica - Instituto Superior de Agronomia

In the past, the estimation of field efficiency for agricultural machinery based on measurements of area and time was difficult and time consuming using a stopwatch during operation. Currently with the GPS system one can obtain this information much faster and in a simpler manner. This study tested a methodology for the estimation of the field efficiency of agricultural operations using the GPS. We measured working time of several agricultural operations and subsequently compared with data available in the literature. Since there are few empirical studies conducted on this subject the comparisons were mainly restricted to the data collected from literature; it was found that the majority of the field efficiencies obtained were slightly lower than those reported (mainly in operations involving the application of production factors). Through further and more detailed analysis on data collected by GPS one can identify areas where the operation was less efficient and make improvements in work performance. The analyzed data can help managers improve farm management decisions on machinery use, increasing their operation efficiency.