Trouble in Paradise: Why are Tafe and AGCO fighting over Massey Ferguson?

Tafe and AGCO have been allies for 64 years. Tafe is the single largest shareholder in AGCO and AGCO holds nearly 21% in Tafe

“Ghee khao desi, aur chalao Massey.” This is the advertising line that would come to mind for several Indians at the mention of tractor brand Massey Ferguson. However, the story of the brand, currently at the centre of a dispute between Tractors and Farm Equipment (Tafe) and United States-based AGCO Corporation, goes much beyond the advertisement.

It symbolises the grit, dreams, determination, and passion of a young India in the 1960s that tried to ensure that the agricultural sector, on which 80 per cent of the country depended for their earnings at that time, was modernised. According to