Farm and garden care equipment maker Agrimart is looking to expand its presence in Tamil Nadu.
The company is scouting for partners / investors at the district or taluk level in the State to expand its presence.
As part of its promotional efforts, Agrimart, a part of the Ratnagiri Impex group participated in the Agri Intex Fair in Coimbatore.
Mr V. Muralidharan, Retail Adviser, Agrimart, said the company has in the last 12 years, been advocating the small and marginal farmers to take to mechanised farm practices. "It’s not been easy; but now, because of non-availability of farm labour and spiralling cost of farm hands, there is some level of acceptance," he said, referring to the use of mechanised equipments in farming.
He observed that Kerala topped in implementation of farm mechanisation. “It is pathetically low in Tamil Nadu. People are willing to buy the equipment only if it is entitled to a subsidy, but this is not so in Kerala and elsewhere. There, a group of farmers come together, bargain and buy the equipment," Mr Muralidharan told Business Line .
Stating that the company had around 250 types of farm implements, ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh, he said, "these are multi-purpose machines and available with accessories such as power weeder, power tiller, pole pruner, harvester, land mower and so on. It does not involve huge investment and the savings is phenomenal," he added.
To a query on savings, he said: "manual weeding is not only time consuming, but labour intensive. With the use of power weeder, it would be possible to complete the job in one-tenth the time."
The company has a network of 400 dealers and 100 Agrimart stores across the country. It plans to add 250 to 300 Agrimart store in the next 2 -3 years.
In TN, the company plans to open 45 Agrimart outlets in district and taluk centres in the first phase. It has started operations in Salem, Tiruchi and Madurai districts.
Apart from such sales point, the company is also simultaneously addressing the after-sales service needs of the customer, said Mr Muralidharan.