Tractor Production and Sales in India, 1989–2009 -Anupam Sarkar

This paper ar­gues that mech­a­ni­sa­tion of In­dian agri­cul­ture, as mea­sured by growth in the pro­duc­tion and sale of trac­tors, has con­tin­ued, al­though not uni­formly, over the last two decades. While the last two decades were a pe­riod of slow­down in agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion, the data do not sup­port a view of un­dif­fer­en­ti­ated eco­nomic de­cline in rural areas. Our focus on trac­tors is jus­ti­fied as the In­dian agri­cul­tural sec­tor has a higher den­sity of four-wheel trac­tors than other less-de­vel­oped coun­tries, and India is also one of the major man­u­fac­tur­ers of trac­tors. The paper uses data from a range of sources on pro­duc­tion, do­mes­tic sales, and ex­ports of trac­tors for the pe­riod 1989 to 2009. Two fac­tors as­so­ci­ated with the sale of trac­tors, namely, avail­abil­ity of credit from banks and pub­lic in­vest­ment in agri­cul­ture, are ex­am­ined. The paper also shows that growth in trac­tor sales has been as­so­ci­ated with a de­cline in the re­gional con­cen­tra­tion of sales.

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