Country’s largest tractor company Mahindra & Mahindra (M & M) has showcased first-ever indigenously developed driverless tractors.
Under the driverless technology, developed at Mahindra Research Valley (MRV) near Chennai, tractors with any field implement can be controlled and operated remotely using hand held tablets.
The technology is aimed at offering small farmers better operational efficiencies for tasks such as planting, spraying and harvesting.
M & M plans commercial launch of these tractors by early 2018 and it will be done at three levels over phases. Firstly, it will introduce automated steering-assisted tractors and second one will be quasi driverless tractors. Third stage will be the roll out of complete driverless tractors.
“We are bringing this technology for the Indian farm and tractor sizes to help achieve higher productivity and save on costs,” said Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M& M during the unveiling of the new concept at MRV.
He said the company is aggressively working on offering the driverless tractors at sub-1 lakh price levels for lower HP versions.
“Our cost is presently above that level and we are working towards selling it at less than a lakh rupee,” he said.
The development is part of M & M’s Farming 3.0 mission, which is about precision farming with an objective to bring technologies that are available to larger farmers in developed markets to small farmers in emerging markets.
The autonomous technology will be offered across 20 HP to 100 HP over a period of time,” said Shubhabrata Saha, Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing – Farm Division, M & M.
M & M is working on getting the regulatory approvals to introduce the tractors by next year. It is also working on establishing supply chain industry for this technology.
Initially a lot of components will be imported. But, it is looking to achieve localisation to the tune of 70 per cent gradually.
Global ambition
M & M has decided to focus on tractors below 150 HP, farmland below 50 acres and all the field equipment used by farmers as part of its renewed growth strategy.
Goenka said the company was aiming to boost the revenue contribution from outside India to 50 per cent from 30 per cent now in tractor business over a period of time.
“We have 43-44 per cent market share in Indian tractor market. While we intend to grow further in domestic market, the bigger growth is expected to come only by becoming global,” he said.
M & M will give bigger focus on Turkey, US and Japan, among others as part of its global mission.