SAS Motors has introduced a range of farm tractors and implements, christened Angad that will, for the first time, offer an appropriate technology for Indian conditions. These new products will cost half the price of what are available in the market currently and promise to offer the optimum price-quality-feature mix that has been the crying need in the rural sector.
With Angad, we have brought a basic functional tractor with high quality implements within the reach of every single farmer in the country; and in doing so; extend the tremendous benefit of productivity, employment and prosperity that mechanisation has brought only to a select few in rural India.
The future of a prosperous farm sector lies in the de-branding of machines that are today sold like cars, in turning tractors and harvesters into commodities that are assembled, deployed and repaired right in the villages and in providing a farmer with a year long source of employment and earning. Angad may well become the future of a prosperous farm sector in India.
The medium-sized Angad 240-D tractor cost 40% lesser than the cheapest tractor today and will demand 25% and 60% lesser costs in fuel and maintenance respectively. It has 22 HP an ideal range of Horse Power (HP) engine, which is best suited for the small and medium size Indian farms. The technology used is simple and rugged and can be repaired even by a cycle mechanic in a village. It is designed to suit large variety of implements making the unit versatile for as many as 40 different crop and soil varieties. Its multipurpose functionality makes its ideal for use in various purposes like irrigation and transportation.
The Angad Rotary Cultivator can perform the functions of a disc harrow and a plough in a swift single motion and can be easily attached to a tractor. Its design enables it to plough only the top layer that not only protects the hard pan (lower layer) of the soil but also leads to significant energy and fuel savings.
Wheat and rice together account for the bulk of crop cultivated in India today. Harvesters for these crops should not have a cutting length greater than 5 feet. Strangely, all of the varieties available in the market today have a minimum cutting length of 16 feet, making the entire lot unsuitable for the two most grown crops in the country.
While our immediate attention is on tractors and farm implements, appropriate technology is not only essential, but is also missing for rural transport vehicles in India. It is also a sector that we have a solution for.
Any increase in agricultural productivity is immediately negated if the farmers do not have reliable means to transport produce to the markets in time, and issue even more critical in the case of perishable commodities. All currently available rural transport vehicles have, unfortunately, been designed for the kind of roads that exist only in larger towns and cities; compromising their ability to serve as a reliable and rugged means of rural transport. Frequent breakdowns and expensive repairs add both to the cost of transportation and the time-to-market.
The clear solution to the lack of road connectivity that would suit existing means of transport is of course improving the quality of the rural road network. This, however, is not only an expensive and long gestation infrastructure project, its benefits may never reach the small villages that are often not even marked out on a district map.
However, and as the adage goes, the best solutions are often the simplest ones. In Angad, we have exactly the kind of technology that has been custom designed for poor quality 'kuchha' roads. Till such time that a nationwide rural road network project is executed, these vehicles could provide the immediate solution to transport problems in rural India.
While developing the road network will need the government to not only allocate massive funds, but infact re-route scarce funding from other infrastructure projects, all that the Angad project needs from the Government is an approval.
However, denial of technology that is already available to suit the reality of our rural landscape in favour of committing vast funding to an ambitious road development project that will take years, if not decades, to even begin demonstrating results, would be much like the case of putting the cart in front of the horse.
The need for this project - Unfulfilled needs of the small farmer
Tractors available in Indian market ranges from 25 to 40 HP engines and use advanced western technology. There are around 7 established domestic players in the market, which control about 98% of the market share. A few international brands have set up facilities in India and cater to select high-powered tractor category markets in northern India. The price range of tractors starts Rs. 2 lakhs upwards and 90% of the tractors are financed by bank credit at a concession.
A variety of farm implements like power tillers, combine harvesters, mouldboard ploughs, disc ploughs, disc harrows, cultivators, seed drills, power threshers, spring loaded tiller, and leveller are being manufactured in the country by big and small domestic companies.
While the above data sound impressive, the ground realities present a different view. Indian tractors, although priced at 1/4th of their counterparts in the West, cannot be afforded by majority of farmers. The inability of tractors in India, therefore, to be adopted for widespread mass usage is evident by the sharp decline in tractor production over the past decade.
Tractors available in the market are also designed for western agricultural conditions with Horse Power in excess of what is required in Indian farms, leading to higher costs and higher fuel consumption. Their complex design increases outgo in maintenance and farmers end up with heavy investments, more often on loans, on technology they don't need.
The variety of implements available is also of poor quality and is appropriate only for single crop cultivation. While technology in tractors has evolved, even if towards a faulty direction, there is absolutely no new technology brought in for over 4 decades by the players who control almost the entire market in implements.
The farmers in India continue to use the same poor quality and limited variety of implements that their forefathers used 40 years ago.
The need of the hour is to adopt a collaborative approach among industry players and the government to benchmark relevant technology and engineer indigenous and cost-effective solutions. This mechanisation process must penetrate deep into the rural population for it to have a telling impact on the rural economy at large.
The Angad initiative - larger benefits to smaller farmers
The cost advantage, both in purchase and maintenance, and the simplicity of its design are of course the core benefits of the Angad initiative. However, the impact of these advantages becomes explicit as we explore all the possible applications that open up with the availability of this low cost technology.
The recent spate of farmer suicides is one case in point. The suicides were attributed to a failure of monsoons and the unavailability of an alternate source of irrigation that led to widespread crop failure in large parts of Andhra Pradesh, a death knell for farmers already buried deep in debt. This has led to increased concerns about possible measure to increase accessibility of water to farmers. Constructing bore wells can cost upto one lakh rupees and can dry up at any time. Building canals again is a long term and expensive solution and even then cannot possibly reach all fields. A solution, however, that can allow farmers to transport water from nearby canals, rivers and other water sources cost effectively to the farms to counter the immediate threat, can be a life-saving solution indeed. This is really where a low cost transportation tool like Angad can play a significant role.
A low-cost and easy-maintenance farm mechanisation system can also come in as a steady and reliable income source during non-agricultural seasons. Supplemental income through rental and transport of goods and people can, at an estimate, generate close to Rs. 750 per day for a tractor owner. Furthermore, the usage of really basic technology enables these tractors to be assembled at small garages at tehsil levels and repaired by a village cycle mechanic. Repair shops at villages, dealerships at tehsils for the unemployed youth and manufacturing and assembly right at the district level spell out tremendous opportunities for self generated employment and alternate income during lean seasons. The resultant overall boost in rural employment will be a welcome change that will halt the increasing migration from rural to urban areas and social problems like unemployment and crime that come along.
While the cost comparison is clearly made with the existing tractors and farm mechanisation that is available today, it is not the best comparison to make. Angad tractors actually stand to benefit the small farmer much more than those with large land holdings, the small farmer for whom a tractor today is not even an option.
So what other option does a small farmer have? A pair of bullocks that tread the farm daylong and are hitched to a small cart to transport produce later. The cost comparison with Angad is not only more relevant in this case, but even more stark.
Owning a pair of bullocks cart the farmer at least Rs. 140 per Day where as he can own an Angad Tractor for Rs. 75 per Day .
Low-cost and affordable transportation will power farmers to transfer and sell their goods, especially perishable food items like vegetables and fruits, quickly and directly to the markets, and thus boost their incomes. This will directly convert greater farm productivity into more income for the farmer.
Benefits to the Economy
Higher per-capita income, resulting from enhanced productivity, will have a significant impact on disposable incomes in the rural economy. Higher spending capacity will also enhance trading in the rural markets and boost the real Indian economy.