Addressing the 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA),that was organised in New Delhi last week, Narendra Bhooshan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, said there is a big scope to increase the farm yields which are low in many areas.
Tractorisation will play a key role in increasing the farm power which is currently at 0.7 kw per hec, which should go up to 2.0 kw per hec. This will enable the country to reach the foodgrain target of 280 mt to be achieved by 2020.
He called upon the Tractor industry to innovate in terms of design and cost, to reach out to the small farmers, across the country. That is truly the focus segment.
He added that custom hiring and farm mechanisation, assumed priority for the government and requested the tractor industry to align itself, with these priorities. A new hiring model in this direction has already been initiated and will be announced soon. hooshan also highlighted that the Ministry of Agriculture was leveraging the farmers portal to reach out to the large farmer community in India.
Earlier, T.R.Kesavan, President, TMA reiterated TMA's commitment to work with the government, towards ensuring a reach out to the small and marginal farmers, across the country.
He added that the tractor industry, after witnessing good growth over the last few years, saw a small down trend last fiscal. Though there is a cyclical nature in this industry, however a quick reversal owing to the timely arrival of monsoons all over the country, has happened, he added.
Given the saturated land resources for agriculture in the country, it is imperative that we increase the output per hectare by ensuring necessary interventions through farm mechanisation, said Mr L D Mittal, Past President, TMA and Chairman, International Tractors Limited (ITL), while addressing the 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Tractors Manufacturers Association (TMA), that was organised in New Delhi on July 19.
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According to Mittal, there was a need to allocate ten per cent of the agriculture credit outlay, specifically for farm mechanisation. This would provide the necessary fillip to this vital link for enhancing agriculture productivity, he added.
Mittal said that there was a immense scope for expansion of the Indian tractor industry, while reaching out to large number of villages across the country, with less than 1 tractor on an average
Avinash Patankar, Vice President, TMA and Chairman, TMA Marketing Committee in his concluding remarks shared the industry trend and welcomed the reversal in tractor demand.
He said that technology is fast catching up in the Indian tractor industry and there is a good potential for mechanisation in the fast growing and rich horticulture segment. He shared some findings on the TMA study on "Farm Mechanisation in India- Trends and Future scenario was successfully completed and some findings are in line with what Mr Bhooshan talked about.
Moving ahead TMA has commissioned a forecasting study, which will be completed this financial year .One of the key deliverables from the study will be a dynamic forecasting model which will allow us to incorporating the latest market information to give us the latest near realistic market scenario, he added.
The TMA members also highlighted key issues related to Duty Drawback, Transfer pricing and Inter state movement of goods, during the AGM.
The tractor industry has always been a barometer for the state of rural economy in India. Indian tractor industry is relatively young but now has become the largest market worldwide accounting one third of the global production.
During 2012-13, tractor sales declined marginally by three percent. The growth across different parts of the country was pretty uneven. Central region, comprising of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was at the fore-front with 36 per cent YoY sales growth, albeit on a small base; while Northern region, largest tractor market in India, grew at a steady 10 per cent rate. In contrast, South and West saw sharp volume decline by 27 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.
Industry analysts projects tractor industry size to increase to about Rs 320-330 billion by 2014-15 from Rs 200 billion in 2009-10. This is a stupendous 60 per cent increase. While Domestic demand will have a healthy growth. Exports are expected to grow faster .Q1 of the current financial year has started on an extremely positive note.
