The Telangana government and Tirth Agro Technology Pvt Ltd (Shaktiman) have inked a memorandum of understanding for setting up a centre of excellence and manufacturing facility for farm machinery.
This will be the company’s second manufacturing facility in the country for farm equipment after Rajkot in Gujarat. The company expects the Telangana manufacturing hub will serve as a gateway to South India.
State Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said in a statement that it has been the government’s priority to encourage local manufacturing and promised all support to Shaktiman.
The centre of excellence and the manufacturing facility would come up on a 200 acre site. The machinery will include rotary tillers, power harrows, mechanical seed drills, compost shredders, flail mowers etc. It will also set up field demonstration plots, horticulture plots and water harvesting plots.
Shaktiman is a leading manufacturer of farm machinery in India. With a big market share and exports to over 77 countries, the company closed with revenues of ₹725 crore in 2016-17.
The company expects the proposed unit to generate direct employment for 500 people and indirect employment for about 1,500 people.
The centre of excellence aims to improve the process of farming by introducing advanced techniques and help in skill upgradation of the farmers and students.
The hands-on training in modern agri implements aims to transform the farmer to an entrepreneur by increasing the crop yields with low operating costs.