National Start-up Day: Lack of pair of bullocks spurs Beed man to make small tractor

A man in Maharashtra's Beed district has become a good example of the ingenuity that is powering start-ups in the country by building an 18 horsepower tractor to tide over the need for a pair of bullocks to help with farming.

Speaking to PTI on National Start-up Day, Namdev Anerav (36) of Pimpalner, some 160 kilometres from here, said the idea of a tractor with a width of just 1.5 feet and length of 5 feet came to him in 2008 after the need for a pair of bullocks was stalling farming on his ancestral plot.

"Big tractors cannot perform optimally on small plots. To overcome this limitation, I created this small tractor, which runs on petrol and diesel. After a long process of trial and error, I used my welding skills to build the first prototype in 2011-12. The final product can plough, remove grass, break clods of soil," he said.

"I need to deliver 40 such tractors in the next four months, for which I have employed seven people. I plan to start a full scale facility in Pimpalner to provide employment. I started with Rs 1.10 lakh of my own and 28 investors put in Rs 8 lakh. The investment is worth Rs 1.10 crore now," he said.

The manufacturing unit had to be shifted from Pimpalner to Shendra in Aurangabad due to electricity supply issues, he said, adding that his product got patented in July last year.

Namdev's mentor and Marathwada Accelerator for Growth and Incubation Council (MAGIC) director Ashish Garde said MAGIC is India's first regional industrial association led incubator, which has 28 ideas under mentoring.