Mahindra, Italian firm tie-up for farm equipment

CHANDIGARH - The farm equipment wing of automobile giant Mahindra and Mahindra Saturday announced its tie-up with Italian company Maschio-Gaspardo, a leading global brand manufacturing rotary tillage equipment.

As a result of this partnership, Mahindras AppliTrac business will receive an exclusive supply of a complete range of rotary tillage equipment from Maschio-Gaspardo, company officials said here during the Agro-Tech fair being held here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Pawan Goenka, president, Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and Egidio Maschio, president, Maschio Gaspardo signed the agreement here Saturday.

Goenka said: “Mahindra has always endeavoured to deliver farm tech prosperity to the Indian farmer either through innovative products or services. Our partnership with Maschio is one more step in that direction as it will provide farmers with greater options for mechanization. With this association we hope to provide world class products to increase rural productivity and efficiency.

As part of the agreement, Maschio will manufacture rotovators bearing the Mahindra brand name. The latter will be available at both Mahindra and Swaraj dealerships.

Maschio will also manufacture other kinds of rotary tillage equipment for planting, seeding, crop care and crop residue management for Mahindra AppliTrac.

“This agreement will facilitate availability of an extensive variety of farm machinery to provide better mechanisation to farmer and all these equipments would be sold under the Mahindra brand name,” Goenka added.

With issues such as labour shortage and increasing wage and input costs, farm mechanisation has witnessed rapid growth in rural areas in the recent past, officials from both companies said.