A major portion of the demand for Power tillers in India come from Southern and Eastern part of the country which signifies the trend of large amount of Paddy crop cultivation. With the power capacity of 5.5HP to 13 HP the average cost of the power tillers in India is recorded at INR 95,000. For small farmers who are not capable of buying tillers for such high cost, they look for the option of custom hiring where the machines are available for hiring at certain cost for a certain period. Custom hiring is a viable option for farmers however in recent past with Government initiatives to support farming by allowing subsidy in agriculture equipments, sales for farming equipments have witnessed a rise.
In 2012, Tamil Nadu state government decided to provide subsidy to the farmers to purchase Agriculture Equipments which was ranging from 25-25% supported by under the National Agricultural Development Programme (NADP). The subsidy was mainly allotted for harvesting machines, weeding machines, power sprayers, threshing equipment, mini-tractors, power tillers and small farm equipment. This has further helped tiller manufacturers to gain market share and forecast market growth by 15% in 2017.
The government subsidies further supported the market growth of power tillers which differ as per the scheme launched by the state government. The north-eastern state of Assam also announced allocation of 20 power tillers on a 75% discount to each assembly constituency during its annual budget for the year FY’2010. Orissa is considered to be the largest power tiller market in the country and account for one fourth of the power tillers sold in India.
Due to low cost, Chinese power tillers have gained popularity and expected to showcase positive growth trend in Indian agriculture equipment market forecast.
