• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2009

When a farmer buys a tractor, the power size of a tractor is determined by various factors such as farm size, farmer's age, farming type, topographical area of farm. Relationships between tractor selection and these factors were found. Three regression models were developed to analyze the relationship. Those models were an OLS-1 model (based on 567 samples having tractors), an OLS-2 model, and a Tobit model (both based on the 1,941 samples). Regression analysis results showed that farm size and farmer's age affected selection of power size for all models at an 1% significance level. It was also shown that some farming types also had significant relationships with the tractor power size. Upland cultivating farmers and livestock farmers had larger tractors than rice cultivating farmers, while orchard farmers had smaller tractors. As for the topographical area, only middle area had significant difference with plain area. Farmers who had a rice-transplanter or a combine had larger tractors than those who didn't.