Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited (KOEL), an industry leader in agricultural pump sets and power generating units, received acceptance from the patent office in Mumbai, India, for its patent for smarter farm machines (multi-utility power tiller).

The approval came in October 2014 with the filing of ‘side power take off arrangement’ for its power tiller.

Agriculture and Allied business strategy and head vice-president Antony Cherukara said: "KOEL has always focused on developing indigenous technology. The smarter farm machine is one such example of our innovation."

"This solution will immensely aid farmers from across the country, reducing their cost of investment [and] at the same time being able to do more with less."

Power tillers are generally used with ground engaging tools, such as rotary tillers that are mounted on the power tiller. The utility of the tiller can be increased with the power take-off arrangement, which can be used for a variety of other farming related applications. This reduces the burden of investing in separate prime movers for each operation, providing economic benefits to the farmer.

Smarter farm machine is the product of KOEL’s in-house design with more than 90% of components indigenous. With this machine, farmers will be able to sit on the machine and operate in the field comfortably. It could be used for multi-applications in dry land as well as wet land because of more power, better back torque, mid PTO (power take-off), better speeds, easy attachments, the driver seat and many more features.

Its safety aspects includedisc actuated brakes and better balancing, tractor style bonnet, side PTO and more space for entry and exit, allowing farmers to relax while operating in the field.

Kirloskar’s smarter farm machines will be manufactured at the company’s new manufacturing site at Kagal, near Kolhapur, Maharashtra, with a production capacity of 12,000 machines per annum.

The product will have over 200 exclusive sales, service and spares dealerships across India, with nearly 500 touch points for sales enquiry, servicing and parts availability.