Bengaluru: The Indian tractor industry is a happy industry as it registered a 20% growth in the financial year 2020-21. It sold a record 9 lakh plus units, surpassing all records, reports Business Line. 

The growth is the highest in a decade. 

The strong growth in FY21 comes after a 10 per cent decline in FY20 at 7.09 lakh units, the website adds. 

But what led to the improvement in the sales prospects? 

“Healthy farm cash flows across regions, stable crop prices, supported by government’s focus on procurement, and healthy reservoir levels and government support programmes (including direct benefit transfers) supported the industry demand. All these factors helped the industry record a growth in volumes of 25-26 per cent in FY21 and touch an all-time high, Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Assistant Vice-President & Sector Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA, was quoted as saying. 

Another important point to note is how the rural and agri segments did not get impacted during the lockdown, thereby leading to a good improvement. 

“The most important factor during Covid-19 was the least disruption to rural and agri segments, supporting demand for farm equipment,” Mitul Shah, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, was quoted as saying. 

It is to be noted that industry representatives are sanguine about the prospect continuing in the next financial year also. 

“Tractor demand is expected to remain strong as rabi harvesting is progressing well along with the onset of sowing of summer crops in select markets,” Hemant Sikka, President, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, was quoted as saying.