Kamco forays into tractor manufacturing

Kerala Agro Machinery Corporation Limited (Kamco), a state government enterprise, on Sunday marked its foray into manufacturing of tractors, with the new manufacturing facility being inaugurated by chief minister V S Achuthanandan. The first batch of tractors will roll out from January next.

The plant is located at Athani, near the Kochi international airport. The state government has provided 10 acres of land and buildings for the factory from the 38 acre land taken over by the state administration from Crompton Greaves two years ago.

Sensing good demand, the corporation plans to market tractors in domestic as well as overseas markets. The Italian company which provides the technical know-how for the production, has also agreed to buy tractors for marketing in EU nations. The company will roll out tractors which feature an 18-HP diesel engine, power steering, and four-wheel drive.

 

Kamco, which functions under the department of agriculture, was set up in 1973 for producing agricultural equipment. It started production of power tillers in 1975 with the technical assistance of Japan. In the beginning only assembling of parts was done at the Athani unit. Now, the production is 100 per cent indigenous and tillers are being exported to Sri Lanka and Iran, among other countries.

The corporation started its Kalamassery unit in 1994 and Palakkad unit in 1995. In 1999, it developed and manufactured power reapers for various crops. A new unit was set up in Mala, in Thrissur district, exclusively for the production of reapers.

The corporation has achieved 30 per cent growth the in the sale of power tillers and 160 per cent growth in the production and sale of power reapers in 2009-10.

The corporation, which has 700-plus employees has been making profits since 1989, continuously returning a dividend of 30 per cent to the government from 2001 onwards. It has a pan-India marketing network of 50 dealers and 200 sub-dealers.