Abstract
Successful operation of a farming system is determined greatly by availability of farm power. The objective of
this research was to examine the farm power status and requirement for small-scale rice farming operations in
Riau Province. Primary and secondary data were gathered from various sources. A total of 120 farmers were
interviewed to collect data primer from two selected rice centres in two regencies of the province during the
2008 rainy cropping season. The main sources of farm power practiced by small rice farmers are human labour
and mechanical power. The total power available is still very low and remains under the minimum requirement
for an efficient agriculture. The stage of the rice mechanization process is also relatively low and still below the
take-off stage of the critical point of the mechanization process. Under these conditions, the availability of farm
power has no effect on total cultivated area and yield of rice over years. The total energy required per hectare
of rice farm operations was 418 kW-h (561 hp) on average. Although mechanized farm operations need more
power, the total operation hours would decrease significantly. Efforts should be taken to continuously
encourage small farmers to adopt mechanical power in order to carry out timely farm operations and make the
rice production process more productive and efficient.
