Autonomous Tractor Market - Growth, Impact of Covid-19, Trends, and Forecasts of 2022 - 2027

The autonomous tractor market is projected to register a Compound annual growth rate of 26. 1% during the forecast period (2022-2027). During COVID-19, the sector saw a sharp dip in the tractor business, and the most affected business was the dealership network due to the disruption in the supply chain and as manufacturing units were also not 100% active. Due to the travel restrictions, production was delayed and supply was being interrupted, which resulted in a sharp decrease in sales of the tractor business during 2019-2020.

Adopting Agricultural Mechanization as a Substitute Of Labor

Agricultural labor is decreasing as a result of the price of farm labor rising. Farmers are increasingly adopting agricultural mechanization as a substitute for manual labor with more cost-effective, easily available, and more efficient means of agricultural operation. Tractors are the primary source of power for driving agricultural machinery.

The semi-autonomous systems operate independently enough within reasonable distances that the farmer can intervene if any problems occur, and therefore, they are more realistic than fully autonomous equipment. Because of the presence of the operator on agricultural vehicles, the safety of such a semi-autonomous system can be easily ensured without the incorporation of costly sensors and complicated sensor fusion algorithms, making them the most feasible for farmers to purchase, especially in developing economies.

Key Trends Of Agricultural Market

Due to decreasing agricultural labor, the prices of farm labor are rising. The cost of farm labor has a direct relationship with the percentage of the total population of a country employed in agriculture, considering simple demand-supply economics, thereby affecting the agricultural tractors market. On average, developing economies have larger percentages of the population dependent on agriculture. However, the percentages have decreased over time as a large number of people are migrating to urban areas every year. According to the World Bank’s database, the employment in agriculture out of the total employment fell drastically from 29.43% in 2014 to 26.75% in 2019.

As technologically assisted agriculture needs skilled laborers who are at an acute shortage of availability, farmers are adopting technologies such as autonomous tractors that can be productive, considering the current challenge. This scenario is one of the major factors that drive the market forward. According to the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture, the percentage of agriculture workers in India is estimated to decline by 25.7% in 2050.

According to the World Bank, the area of arable land per person decreased from 0.20 hectares in 2011 to 0.19 hectares in 2016. Thus, declining arable land pushed growers to increase their productivity per hectare of land available to meet the growing demand for food. All these changes in the agriculture field are boosting the use of autonomous tractors, which helps farmers increase their productivity and return on investment.

Competitive Landscape Of Agricultural Market

The autonomous tractors market is consolidated. The major players in this market are focused on innovation and launching new products globally. Since the inception of the market is very recent, it is considered to be a consolidated market with a few players holding the majority of the shares in the market. The top players in the market are Deere and Co, CNH Industrial, AGCO Corporation, Kubota, and Yanmar. The companies were involved in various strategic activities such as product innovation, expansion, partnership, and merger and acquisition. For instance, in 2018, Yanmar launched new autonomous tractors for easing the farmer’s burden with labor-saving ICT.