When they need to rent a tractor, small farmers in India typically have to rely on local owners, who may be arbitrary in their fees and cavalier in their treatment of their customers. A major Indian vehicle manufacturer offers the agricultural version of Uber or Lyft — a smartphone app to specify when they need a tractor and for what chores, says the New York Times.
The service went into operation last month in the state of Karnataka and will expand soon to other farming regions, according to the farm-equipment division of Mahindra and Mahindra. Only a small portion of farmers have smartphones, so the company operates call centers to book the rentals.
Most of India’s 136 million farmers cultivate small plots, so it would be costly and uneconomical to own a tractor. Mahindra and Mahindra’s next step: “adding other expensive implements that farmers need for only a short time, like harvesters and rice transplanters,” says the Times.