[GTO]

For those of you interested in tractors, attached is a sector report by Kotak Institutional Equities.

[Zed]

Thanks GTO. Quite a detailed report from Kotak.

The situation in many of todays advanced\semi-advanced markets in the 60s and 70s have parallels to the current situation in India - small sized farms with low hp tractors. Penetration rates were probably higher.

However with the change in pattern of land holdings there was a shift to higher HP tractors and specialized farm implements.

This report does not seem to factor this possibility in the Indian context unless I missed a slide or two. Co-operative farming has caught on in some parts of the country and we are likely to see increased consolidation of farms in the not too distant future.

The use of Ag tractors for non agrarian tasks - transporting people, baggage handling at airports - is a questionable proposition going forwards on account of legislation (safety \emission) limiting this possibility or operations related factors.

But at the end of the day Ag tractor sales growth in India will remain healthy as Agriculture accounts for about 20% of our GDP and we will have more mouths to feed in the years ahead.

[SmartCat]

There is a Bangalore based company called VST Tillers that makes mini-tractors. They are growing their sales at 30% CAGR from the last few years (although, in recent times, growth has slowed down).

These mini-tractors are inexpensive and ideal for relatively smaller sized farms in India.



Company website: http://www.vsttillers.com/

[theexperthand]

Thank you for sharing the report, GTO.

Kamco - Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation - also have launched a mini tractor. This tractor is made in collaboration with Barbieri Srl, an Italian company specializing in farm equipment.

I think this tractor will find home with many rural co-operative societies and with people who have couple of acres of tillable land but cannot afford a full blown tractor unit.

Link

Pic from : Link

Originally Posted by Zed

This report does not seem to factor this possibility in the Indian context unless I missed a slide or two. Co-operative farming has caught on in some parts of the country and we are likely to see increased consolidation of farms in the not too distant future.

Though I wish to see this (Co-operative farming and increased consolidation of farms) what I see in Kerala is the reversal of this. I see that big paddy fields and agriculture lands are fast disappearing. My ancestral property is near to a large plot of paddy fields – about 50 acres or more combined. For the last 8 years or so, I do not see any cultivation happening in the land and many people who have their plots near to the roads have slowly converted their farm land to house plots and such.

As the area of tillable land decreases and pattern of land holding changes, I think small HP tractors makes a case for those few who are still serious about agriculture, at least in a state like Kerala.

I do not think the report have factored in the decrease in tillable land in India –I am sure we will see more and more farm lands being converted for other uses unless the income \ profitability of the farmer increases well.

[soonya]

I agree that there is a need for appropriate machinery for agriculture. We have very few tools and machinery, especially one with multiple attachments which will be valuable for the small farmer.

Normally a small farmer sows paddy for himself/herself or some grain and some for vegetables or other commercial crops. There are very few machines which pass the muster.

Interestingly I was scouting for some machinery and found the BCS Ferrari, an Italian company whose walk-by tractors (as the Europeans and Americans) which we call tillers here. Much of the technology came either from Japan or China.

I am trying to attach the brochure of BCS (trying uploading pictures for the first time) hope will be successful.

I am planning to buy it for my farm where I have an orchard of various fruit trees and also cultivate part of it for vegetables and also paddy.

Hope I get a chance to test it before I buy it, they do not have dealers in Hyderabad but have sold one to ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) am trying to get my hands on it.

While they have many attachments, including a snow thrower, I wish they also introduced wood-chipper which they have in their product portfolio in US and Europe.

[soonya]

Here is a video of BCS-ferrari attachments for your viewing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL4vQfIr78E

The pricing seems to range from 110K INR to about 172 K INR in south and the sicklebar-cutter costs about 38K and other attachments like sprayer 3K-18K.

One can attach to the PTO an alternator of a rating of 5 KV. Other attachments like potato digger and furrow maker at about 2-3K each.

They have a seed-drill as well which should significantly reduce the labor needed.

If one spends about 250K one can have all the attachments. They also have a reaper binder combo with a sprayer.

Understand from the sales manager that it consumes about 1 liter of Diesel. They had an option of Yanmar Diesel engine and recently changed to Lombardi. They also have petrol models.