Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, the Chennai based had announced an impressive growth of 35.96 % in 2004-05. This has been made possible by a large number of new products released in the market in the last couple of years contributing close to 25 % additional volumes. These new products also opened up new market niches, hitherto unpenetrated by TAFE, through special purpose tractors, made for specific crops .

According to Ms. Mallika Srinivasan, “TAFE launched recently a special purpose orchard tractor called TAFE 30 DI Orchard Plus for use in orchards and vineyards. Launched initially in the Nasik and Malegaon districts for use in the extensive vineyards in these districts, these tractors have subsequently found wide acceptance in Orange, mango and other fruit orchards on account of their compact size, horizontal exhaust and dependable power.”

Similiarly, TAFE has released specialist tractors for cultivating Paddy, Potato and even for the hard black cotton soils of Maharashtra which is possibly one of the toughest soils to operate in. TAFE’s Sarja tractor with its heavy duty transmission has proved to be very sucessful in such soils.

Similiarly, TAFE has designed special purpose machines for Brick Kilns, Compressors, Combine Harvesters and other such applications. The uniqie point in these machines is the fact that they are not restricted only to these special purposes but are in fact Multi Utility Tractors which are equally at home in other agricultural as well as heavy duty haulage functions.

In the current fiscal, TAFE expects to grow further by expanding both its reach and range through a number of new products and opening out new markets. In this it has the advantage of a full fledged R&D set up which designs, validates and productionises new products in surprisingly quick periods to capture markets .