The Hindu : Business : John Deere offers crop solutions

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John Deere offers crop solutions

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

FARMER FRIENDLY: Vice-President Sales and Marketing (Agriculture and Turf Division Region 1) Raj Kalathur (right) with Director (Sales and Marketing) Ravi Menon, John Deere Equipment Private Ltd., at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: U.S.-based agriculture equipment maker John Deere on Thursday announced its entry into two new market segments in India — crop solutions and micro irrigation products.

“Both crop solutions and water technology will help enhance farm productivity and help enterprising farmers from subsistence levels to business entrepreneurs,” said John Deere Director (Sales and Marketing) Ravi Menon.

“We are assisting farmers in India in their quest towards global levels of productivity and their new products will be a major step in helping farmers realise their potential. There is huge potential in the two segments. While over 7,000 harvesters are sold annually in India, only 5-6 per cent of farmland is under modern irrigation techniques,” Mr. Menon said. John Deere is also hoping to increase its tractor sales in India.

“We expect our tractor sales in India to grow by over 7 per cent in 2009-10. We sold 25,000 tractors 2008-09 (November to October) against 15,000 tractors sold in the year-ago period. This happened due to continuous demand from the rural market despite a bad monsoon. Also, the government took measures to put more money into the farmers’ hands,” he added.

John Deere’s plant in Pune has an installed capacity of 45,000 tractors and it manufactured over 35,000 tractors last year.

The company is planning to raise production in the Pune plant to meet the growing domestic demand.

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