Players like Sifang, Dong Feng have dealership arrangements with Indian firms
The dominance of Chinese companies is no longer restricted to toys, electronic goods or consumer durables. It is growing in the field of Indian agriculture as well.
Chinese companies are making steady inroads into the over Rs 800-crore farm equipment market in India with a wide range of brands.
The rapid use of mechanisation by the average Indian farmer, largely dependent on manual labour till a few years ago, has prompted many Chinese and Japanese farm equipment makers to look at India as a potential market. Encouraged by the government’s thrust on increasing food production through various measures, these Chinese companies are aggressively promoting their power tillers and mini tillers, mainly in the southern states.
More than half a dozen companies from China and Japan have entered into a dealership arrangement with over 20 firms in India to distribute their power tillers. Major among them are Sifang and Dong Feng from China and Mitsubishi, Kubota and Manam from Japan. Mitsubishi has even set up a joint venture company with Bangalore-based VST Tillers to make a wide range of power tillers.
Zhejiang Sifang Group of China has appointed close to a dozen dealers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to market its power tillers under the brand name Sifang. Sifang has tied up with Indian companies like Souza Sifang Agro Engineering Private Limited, Ganga Motors from Bangalore and Bengal Tools Limited from Kolkata to sell its products in India.
Another Chinese firm, Changzhou Dongfeng Agricultural Machinery Group Co Ltd, markets its power tillers under the brand name Dongfeng and Greaves Cotton Limited is its main distributor in India. Shandong Pengrun Machine Co., Ltd sells its products under the Kavi brand.
VST Tillers, which has its manufacturing plant near Bangalore, has been the market leader in the power tiller market. Other organised players are Greaves Cotton Limited and Kerala government-owned Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation. KK Birla Group owned Texmaco Ltd has recently forayed into the power tiller market and introduced its tillers using Kubota engines from Japan. Southern Agro Engine Private Limited from Tamil Nadu distributes Manam brand of power tillers.
According to BCS Iyengar, Executive Director of VST Tillers, the overall market for power tillers is estimated to be in the region of 46,000 units per annum and growing at over 20 per cent annually. “During the current fiscal, we expect the market to witness 25 per cent growth. The acute shortage of farm labour and cost-effectiveness of the machines will give a push to the sales of power tillers,” he said.
The Chinese inroad has been possible due to the subsidies offered by state governments to buy farm equipment. The central government, too, has extended subsidy under the National Horticulture Mission to buy power tillers.
The Karnataka government provides a subsidy of Rs 50,000 on any make of power tillers. These are priced between Rs 90,000 and Rs 1.75 lakh.
“An attractive feature of the Chinese power tillers is seating. Also, they are light in weight while they provide power up to 15 horsepower. They are easy to operate and low on maintenance,” said T Radhakrishna, sales official of Bengal Tools Limited.
The industry expects to get a big push for power tillers with the government giving emphasis on farm mechanisation to enhance food production. In addition, the shortage of labour has also encouraged farm mechanisation, consequent to which the demand for tractors, power tillers and other farm equipment has grown substantially. It is expected that the support prices for crops being enhanced by the government would also improve the capability of the farmer to buy agricultural machinery.
