Hemant Sikka, President of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd's Farm Equipment Sector has been elected as the President of Tractor and Mechanization Association (TMA) during an Annual General Meeting held on 8 September 2021 at New Delhi.
Chief Guest, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said that "Agriculture plays a predominant role in the growth of the economy".
"It must be recognized that agriculture is our intrinsic area of strength and we should leverage our core competence in this sector to take the economy to the higher echelons of growth and prosperity. The sector has the resilience to cope with adversity and emerge even stronger in the aftermath of the crisis, as was witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic," stated Tomar.
Elaborating further on the subject, the Minister stated that the government took proactive steps such as facilitating the supply chain and logistics, to ensure that agriculture did not suffer due to the lockdown imposed during the pandemic. As a result, our agriculture production increased, and the sector has emerged as a bright spot in the otherwise slowing economy. And consequently, the agro-based industry has also recorded better sales. This was essential because we accepted the predominance of agriculture in our economic performance.
Speaking about the strong interdependence between the farmer, the Minister mentioned that 80 percent of our farming community comprises small or subsistence farmers who owned less than 2 hectares of land. While the government has taken many steps to uplift the segment, the industry should also come forward to produce implements so that production on the small farm becomes viable.
The Minister maintained that" the agriculture implements and tractors industry have made an immense contribution to the Make in India vision of the Prime Minister. Today our products have gained respect in the world. Our endeavor should be to augment our exports of agriculture implements to the global marketplace."
Acknowledging the role of technology in agriculture, the Minister elaborated on the contribution made by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra for increasing the use of technology in agriculture. However, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra has its own limitations when it comes to expanding its reach to remote villages and imparting the scientific knowledge directly to the farmer to improve the viability of the farm produce. Here the industry can come forward and help, maintained Tomar.
Mr. T.R Kesawan, President, TMA during the welcome address, lauded the assistance provided by the government during the lockdown phase and attributed the growth of agriculture to the supportive policies of the government during this time. He reiterated that the true growth in mechanization will happen with the support of Govt, Academia and private organizations coming together for building testing facilities.
Hemant Sikka, who takes over as the new President of TMA, proposed the vote of thanks during the meeting and assured to take the mechanization agenda forward with vigor and collaborative participation with government and industry members. He emphasized that to drive the clarion call by our Hon’ Prime Minister on Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India, the government needs to come out with favorable policies for players who add value In India through local manufacturing and should strongly discourage importers of finished products. He mentioned a lot can be done in driving inclusive mechanization growth when government supports the small /marginal landholding farmer by providing direct transfer of subsidy to farmers for renting tractors and other implements, this will lead to faster adoption of mechanization, leading to higher productivity.
