NEW DELHI, (ANI) March 5, 2012 — Chennai based tractor major, Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), announced its entry into a strategic alliance with Captain Tractors Private Limited, Rajkot (CTPL).

CTPL will design, develop and manufacture application-focussed compact tractors in the sub 20HP segment for TAFE. This arrangement with TAFE is on an exclusive basis. TAFE's proven expertise in tractor design and manufacture combined with its 50 years of understanding of the markets and its extensive reach will be deployed to value add and market these tractors on a pan India basis.

TAFE is India's second largest manufacturer of tractors with a large range of tractor models and variants in the 25 to 100 HP range with a significant percentage being exported to 67 countries worldwide.

CTPL is an ISO 9001 certified company that has been manufacturing tractors since 1998 with a range of special attachments promoting diverse use of the tractor for a variety of crop applications both in farms and off-farm.

The tractors have been tested at the Central Farm machinery Testing and Training Institute at Budni, apart from being approved by ARAI for stage II and stage III emission norms. CTPL was the recipient of two national awards in 2008, for research and development and entrepreneurship of the mini tractor.

The tractors are reputed for its lightweight, small size, affordable price, fuel efficiency and low maintenance cost.

The final contours of the arrangement are expected to be rolled out in the first quarter of the next financial year. While TAFE will extend reach of these tractors through its pan India network, it welcomes the existing CTPL dealers, who will continue to sell and service these tractors, into the network.

TAFE will work closely with CTPL and its present suppliers in sharing its engineering proficiency and quality focus in select areas and help strengthen CTPL's supply chain.

"Through this alliance, TAFE aims to offer a complete range of products to the farming community of India to meet their diverse needs, both well articulated and emerging. CTPL will enable us offer innovative application oriented special purpose tractors to farmers growing various crops such as groundnut, sugar cane and cotton, apart from orchard crops," said Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman, TAFE.

"This coupled with TAFE's wide network, engineering and manufacturing competencies and deep understanding of farmers' needs will provide unmatched value-added product offerings that will richly benefit the vast number of small landholdings in the country," she added.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Patel, Director, CTPL, said the strategic alliance with TAFE will boost the efforts to realise the true potential of India's market for small tractors.

"The globally renowned expertise of TAFE and Captain Tractors' in-depth experience in manufacturing of small tractors makes way for a formidable strategic alliance which will deliver unparalleled value for the country. This is the beginning of what we expect to be a long and successful partnership with TAFE. Captain Tractors believes in providing technology at affordable prices to their customers," said Patel.

"We have always endeavoured to offer our customers innovative products of the highest quality supported by excellent service to obtain the utmost customer satisfaction. We plan to leverage this alliance with TAFE in creating multiple products up to 20hp with suitable implements and Captain Tractors have currently an installed plant capacity of 12000 tractors per annum," he added.

TAFE is a US$ 1.3 Billion tractor major incorporated in 1960 at Chennai in India, in collaboration with Massey Ferguson (now owned by AGCO Corporation, USA). member of the Amalgamations Group of Chennai, this company is among the top three tractor manufacturers in the world.

TAFE is also involved in making diesel engines, gears, panel instruments, engineering plastics, hydraulic pumps, plantations and passenger car distribution through other divisions and wholly owned subsidiaries like TAFE Motors and Tractors Limited (TMTL).