M&M eyes higher horsepower market

The company launched its new tractor Arjun Novo, which comes in 57 HP and 52 HP variants

Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M), part of the $16.5 billion Mahindra Group, today said it would tap the potential in higher horsepower segment in farm tractor segment in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, which witnessed investment from many tractor majors like Eicher and Tafe, is mainly lower horse-power segment which ranges from 25-35 horsepower segment.

"We will focus more on higher horsepower segment," said Sandeep Jaiswal, vice-president of the company's farm division. He was in town to launch company's new tractor Arjun Novo which comes in 57 HP and 52 HP variants. According to Nabard state focus paper 2014. Madhya Pradesh has projected 75,467 tractors are to be added in 2014-15 through project linked plans of various banks in farm sector. However, the agriculture department observes that Madhya Pradesh requires low horse powertractors since most farmers deal with black cotton soil of the state, which is soft and does not require more power for tilling. This year the state, according to state commercial tax department, has witnessed sale of tractors to an extent of Rs 3,300 crore.

The new tractor was developed at the Mahindra Research Valley located at Chennai. "The new model was developed through extensive research after conducting an extensive survey withover 100 farmers across 10 states to understand the need of the farm-mechanisation needs of farmers," he said, "It has passed in fact 12 years of testing in termsa total of 73 tractors were tested based on their performance in 40 applications, across eight states for a combined 70,000 hours."

The new tractors come with a monstrous power that can lift even 2,200 kg besides synchromesh gear shifting and lower fuel consumption. "We are marketing leader in the Madhya Pradesh and will now offer more to farmers with this tractor which is acomplete farm solution," said Jaiswal. The tractor is priced at Rs 7 lakh(ex-Showroom) in Bhopal.