The Telangana Government and Tirth Agro Technology Pvt. Ltd (Shaktiman) have inked a memorandum of understanding for setting up of Centre of Excellence and manufacturing facility of Farm Machinery.

This will be the company's second manufacturing facility in the country for farm equipment after Rajkot in Gujarat. The company expects the Telangana manufacturing hub will serve as a gateway to South India.

KT Rama Rao, State Industries Minister, in a statement said the Government's priority has been to encourage local manufacturing and assured all the necessary support to Shaktiman for setting up of their industry in Telangana.

The centre of excellence and the manufacturing facility would come up on a 200 acre site. The machinery will include Rotary Tillers, Power Harrows, Mechanical Seed Drills, Compost shredders, Flail Mowers etc. and field demonstration plots, horticulture plots, water harvesting plots.

Shaktiman is a leading manufacturer of farm machinery in India with a unit in Gujarat. With a big market share and exports to over 77 countries, the company closed with revenues of Rs 725 crore in 2016-17.

The company expects the proposed unit will generate direct employment for 500 people and indirect employment for about 1,500 people.

The centre of excellence aims to improve the process of farming by introducing advanced techniques and help in skill upgradation of the farmers and students.

The hands on training in modern agri implements aims to transform the farmer to an entrepreneur by increasing the crop yields with low operating costs.