| Bhanjibhai Mathukiya's invention will benefit poor farmers deprived of the motorised tiller
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| Move over Rs 1
lakh car, here’s a tractor similarly priced with Tata’s to-be-launched
small car. For years, banks and financial institutions have shied away
from giving loans to small farmers on the pretext that a tractor loan
of Rs 3.5 lakh could be a high risk. |
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| But, just when
the lack of options was threatening to push farmers away from
mechanisation, a rebel movement led by small town innovators and rural
manufacturers could challenge major tractor players. |
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| With tractors
below 25 horsepower (HP) constituting 10-15 per cent of the total sales
of 2,60,000 units, it was just 5 per cent two years back, experts feel
there is huge scope in the small tractors segment. |
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| Bhanjibhai
Mathukiya, a small innovator from Junagadh, has created a mini tractor
of 10 HP, after being moved by the plight of the small groundnut and
orchard farmers in Saurashtra. |
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| The innovation
has been shortlisted for the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad’s
‘Metamorphosis’ event, where top business school students will create
business plans for Indian innovators. |
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| Mahesh Patel,
chief innovator at the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network,
which has been incubating the small tractor, says that non-exclusive
rights of the invention have already been taken up by an Anand-based
company, with many others showing interest. |
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| “Working with
the students of the S P Jain Institute of Management & Research,
Mumbai, we have priced the product at just above Rs 1.6 lakh, which is
sure to be a hit with farmers who are otherwise helpless in a market
flooded with high power tractors suitable for use in a large land
holding only,” said Patel. |
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| Similar to
Mathukiya, another rural inventor had earlier come up with the unique
concept of ‘Bullet Saathi’, a multi-purpose toolbar installed on an
Enfield Bullet motorcycle, which was designed for those farmers who
found it difficult even to afford a low-end tractor. The vehicle went
on to become a rage in the Amreli district in Gujarat, where close to
700 units of the vehicle have been sold. |
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| Anil K Gupta, a
senior faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad,
and founder of the National Innovation Foundation, India, said that
although bigger tractor companies are doing good business through
high-powered vehicles, funding for 10-12 HP tractors would soon flow
in, considering that there is such a large pool of small farmers. These
inventors have been early to spot the winds of change in the tractor
market.
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| Local companies
have begun to price their low-powered tractors aggressively, since they
import components and engines from China and Taiwan. |
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| This has also
led bigger tractor companies to rethink their plans for lower-end
markets. International Tractors, maker of the Sonalika brand of
tractors, has just launched its entry-level tractor of 30 HP targeted
at small farmers working on chikku, groundnuts, orchards and waste weed
among others. |
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| “The product,
priced under Rs 3 lakh, has been launched to take advantage of the
below-30 HP market, which is set to grow to 20-25 per cent within the
next two years,” said PK Daukia, deputy GM-Gujarat, International
Tractors. |
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| Major tractor
companies have also woken up to the fact that in the smaller farming
pockets, a tractor doubles up as a transport vehicle. |
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| Ravindra Kumar,
MD of SAS tractors, which manufactures the Angad brand of entry level
tractors, says that due to the multi-utility factor, there is more room
for mechanisation in India compared with China where the market for
sub-25 HP tractors is in excess of 2 million units per year. |
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