Smooth Ride Podcast: Why 2021 was a bumper year for tractors and will we see anything like it again?
Episode 39, Jun 22, 2021, 01:32 PM
In the financial year 2021, when all segments of the auto sector shrank in volumes due to a brutal wave of COVID-19, there was one segment that stood apart and continued to grow -- tractors.
Growing over 20 percent, the most in a decade, India's tractor market benefited from a unique combination of factors in 2021. There was an unusually good monsoon, a bumper kharif and rabi output, and the government was in "mission mode" to support rural incomes leading to a robust circulation of money.
In this edition of the Smooth Ride podcast, Mahindra and Mahindra's head of strategy, farm equipment sector, Ramesh Ramachandran tells CNBC-TV18's Alisha Sachdev about the less obvious factors like reverse migration into villages during COVID-related lockdowns and an increased propensity to spend that played a critical role in making the year what it was.
The industry was in touching distance of 90,000 units of tractor sales last financial year but the growth in FY22 is likely to soften to single digits.
However, going forward the growth will be driven by non-tractor elements of the farm machinery market too, Ramachandran said.
In the latest episode of the podcast, the conversation goes beyond tractors to probe at length what constitutes the farm equipment market, the vast opportunity for mechanising Indian agriculture, and improving agricultural incomes.
Tune in to Smooth Ride podcast to find out how technology like the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence is of critical importance to the Mahindra Group's big global bets on this segment and more
Growing over 20 percent, the most in a decade, India's tractor market benefited from a unique combination of factors in 2021. There was an unusually good monsoon, a bumper kharif and rabi output, and the government was in "mission mode" to support rural incomes leading to a robust circulation of money.
In this edition of the Smooth Ride podcast, Mahindra and Mahindra's head of strategy, farm equipment sector, Ramesh Ramachandran tells CNBC-TV18's Alisha Sachdev about the less obvious factors like reverse migration into villages during COVID-related lockdowns and an increased propensity to spend that played a critical role in making the year what it was.
The industry was in touching distance of 90,000 units of tractor sales last financial year but the growth in FY22 is likely to soften to single digits.
However, going forward the growth will be driven by non-tractor elements of the farm machinery market too, Ramachandran said.
In the latest episode of the podcast, the conversation goes beyond tractors to probe at length what constitutes the farm equipment market, the vast opportunity for mechanising Indian agriculture, and improving agricultural incomes.
Tune in to Smooth Ride podcast to find out how technology like the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence is of critical importance to the Mahindra Group's big global bets on this segment and more