M&M inks licensing pact with Mitsubishi for rice transplanters

MUMBAI: Farm equipment and utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday said it has forged a licensing and technology transfer agreement with Mitsubishi Agriculture Machinery (MAMC), a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi, to make rice transplanters for the Indian market as well as for exports.

With MAMC technology, M&M will make rice transplanters at its Nagpur facility. The company did not disclose the fees it will be paying to the Japanese firm.

M&M targets to sell around 5,000 transplanters in a year in the domestic market, under the Mahindra brand. The product will also be exported to China and SAARC countries.

Anjanikumar Choudhari, president of M&M’s farm equipment business, said at a press conference that rice transplanters help realise a 20% higher yield than doing it manually. It increases productivity, while the cost of operation is low, he said.

He said rice transplanters have a revenue potential similar to that of tractors in India. Mahindra is the country’s largest tractor maker with a 42% market share. It sold 1.6 lakh tractors in 2009. Domestic tractor sales is expected to go up to around 3.9 lakh units this year against 3 lakh units last year.

“This licence agreement with MAMC will facilitate manufacturing of an extensive variety of farm machinery to provide better skilful mechanisation to the farmers. The need of the hour is to increase productivity of the existing arable land by employing innovative methodologies,” said Mr Choudhari.

“We have been working with the Mahindra team in the US for over eight years now and their initiative of ‘FarmTech Prosperity’ for Indian farmers,” said Shimizu, president, MAMC. M&M produces compact tractors for the US and Australian markets with Mitsubishi.