Increasing farm mechanisation in Uttar Pradesh compared to some other high yielding agricultural states in North India is fueling the tractor market growth.
The UP tractor market growth rate has bettered the pan-India figure in recent times.“UP has emerged as a major tractor market on the back of farm mechanisation and increasing scarcity of farm labour,” Escorts Agri Machinery Group executive director and CEO Rohtash Mal told Business Standard here.
During 2010-11, UP tractor market accounted for over 16 per cent or about 77,000 units, of the 4,80,000 tractors sold pan-India.“UP is growing faster than some other advanced states, such as Punjab and Haryana. In fact, some other states are now witnessing negative growth rates due to saturation, as farm mechanisation had started quite early in these regions,” he added.
He said government policies aimed towards rural India and boosting agricultural productivity was helping farm mechanisation, in which tractor was the central cog.
Mal informed that India was now the world’s largest tractor market overtaking China. During 2010-11, 5,40,000 units were manufactured in the country, of which 60,000 units were exported, while the rest were sold domestically.
Meanwhile, Escorts launched its ‘Jai Kisan Series’ of tractors in the UP market, which has been developed mainly on farmers’ feedback. UP is primarily a low horsepower (HP) tractor market. The prices of Escorts’ Powertrac Range of tractors start from Rs 3.75 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. UP contributes 24 per cent of total volumes of Escorts Group.
Mal further said the industry was holding confabulations with the Centre for including the tractor industry in the agricultural sector and not in the automobile vertical.
