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India's 01-02 tractor sales dive 13.6% y-o-y

Tractor sales in India, the world's largest market, fell 13.6 per cent in the past financial year from a year ago, as poor crop prices hurt farm incomes.

Data from the Tractor Manufacturers Association made available to Reuters on Monday showed that 10 Indian companies sold 215,609 tractors in 2001-02 (April-March) compared with 249,572 in the previous year.

Production during this period fell 15.9 per cent to 208,618 tractors.

Sales in the main 31-40 horsepower (hp) tractor segment dived 16.9 per cent to 114,865 units, the TMA data showed.

Sales in the less than 30 horsepower segment fell 15.2 per cent, those in the 41-50 horsepower segment dropped 2.93 per cent and in the over 50 hp segment by 5.0 per cent.

Tractor sales fell last year as farm incomes were hurt by poor crop prices resulting from surplus grain production as India's agriculture output jumped 5.7 per cent in 2001-02, rebounding from a 0.2 per cent fall in 2000-01.

Even though India is the world's largest tractor market, average tractor sizes are smaller than those found in western countries owing to the smaller land holdings in the country.

The data showed the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was the largest tractor market, followed by the central Madhya Pradesh state with the grain bowl of Punjab, finishing third.

Industry officials have forecast tractor sales to drop five to 10 per cent in 2002-03 as India faces its worst drought in 15 years.

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