04-09-2014, 02:59 PM
As we know that agriculture & tractor are very much co-related thus impact on agriculture is directly going to affect the tractor industry. When India became independent in 1947, its agriculture was backward. A country of 36 crores people, primarily 85% agricultural, could not produce enough food grain for its own needs. Import of food grain was a compulsive drain on scarce foreign exchange for the nascent republic. Agriculture was therefore accorded the top priority by Indian Government. Farm mechanization made a small beginning in the 1st 5-year plan, with introduction of imported tractors in isolated pockets. Pace, however, was very slow as farmers were slow to accept mechanization. Early 60‟s saw no change in this scenario. Scarcity of 1964-66 & the slap to national pride/resources pushed Govt. to step up irrigation facilities wherever possible & intensify adoption of techniques like high yield variety seeds, fertilizers, pesticides & mechanization. Because of these inputs, growth rates in agriculture production accelerated. The decade of 60‟s India saw green revolution r
With the Indian emphasis on engineering exports, criticism is often voiced for the poor tractors exports in this criticism, it has to be appreciated that the need of market in developed countries a totally different from Indian market. Farmers in developed countries have to manage much larger farms & availability of labour is low. Their need, therefore, is far much larger H.P./size of the tractor. These farmers have to use a very wide variety of implements for every agricultural operation. To enable tractor usage with such specialized implements, tractors have become exceedingly sophisticated & versatile. Currently, Indian tractors are not geared to meet such requirements. Many of the developed countries have established their own manufacturing facilities in collaboration with advanced countries. With western design moving towards higher H.P. (horse power) sophistication, the resultant cost penalties have placed tractors outside the reach of large segments of the farming community of the developing nations. Moreover, infrastructure/ skill for maintenance of such sophistication don‟t exist in developing countries.