Escorts to provide farm equipment to small farmers

Escorts India is setting up a nation-wide dealers network to provide expensive farm machinery at affordable rates to small and marginal farmers on rental basis, a top company official said on Friday.

The company would appoint dealers across the country, who in turn would train students or skilled labourers to work in the field of farmers by giving machinery on rent, Rajan Aggarwal, Head, Crop Solutions, Escorts Agri Machinery, told reporters.

The machinery like Rotopuddler, wet leveler, automatic tray seeding machine, weeder, and a unique harvester, are costly at about Rs 40 lakh and are out of reach of poor farmers, he said.

Stating that labour shortage, coupled with disinterest among the new generation to continue in agriculture and migrating to urban areas, had resulted in decline in production, Aggarwal said that Escorts wanted to bring advanced technologies in the field, so that the farmers sustain their income, through custom hiring, since they were not in a position to buy machinery on individual capacity.

The company has already appointed 10 dealers in Andhra Pradesh, where four already started operations, and three in Tamil Nadu, who would become operational by the end of this month or middle of next month, he said.

Aggarwal, here to demonstrate the machinery in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said the fourwheeled Rotopuddler would the job of seven days within three and half hour in a two acres, while the power weeder will remove weeds among the rice crop in an acre in three hours time, without damage to paddy. 

The response in Nellore, Kakinada and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh where this concept become operational was tremendous and similar encouraging response was expected in entire South India, he said. Depending on the success, the company would extend the
service in other crops like wheat, sugarcane and maize, Aggarwal said.