Massey offers power back to the world’s smaller farmers

It’s good to see at least one of the multinational companies that bestride the world of food and farming turning its attention to the needs of smaller scale farmers.

That company is Massey Ferguson, which has taken more than six years and $350m (€271.5m) to develop its new global 4700 tractor range, which it is now rolling out across the world.

It will be a 60 to 130 horse power range, a modern but more basic range compared to the increasingly big and accordingly expensive tractors which dominate modern manufacturing.

It’s a major change of direction by Massey Ferguson, which says it recognises that feeding a global population projected at 9bn requires increased production from smaller farms, whether they be part-time lifestyle farmers in the US, sugar cane growers in Sudan, or farmers in emerging countries mechanising for the first time.

Included are Ireland’s livestock farmers, and our smaller farmers in general, most of whom can only afford secondhand tractors and who cannot depend forever on that machinery supply source.

For smaller farmers like these who feel crushed by today’s market swings and powerless compared to the big input suppliers and food processors they deal with, it’s an encouraging move from the tractor maker,which is part of the monster AGCO company, whose five tractor brands (Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson, and Valtra) are available in more than 140 countries.

It’s encouraging for our grain growers, who wonder if they can continue to afford the seeds, fertilisers and agro-chemicals marketed by the multinationals, now that grain prices have slumped below the cost of production.

Irish growers are appealing to plant protection, machinery and fertiliser manufacturers, and seed assemblers to recognise the gravity of the current situation, by reducing input costs to farmers.

Farmers here are also looking for a better deal from the giant meat processor companies.

Massey Ferguson says its 4700 tractors will be “cost-effective”,”more affordable than high-specification tractors”, and will be “built at the right costs”.

If smaller farmers to play their full role in feeding the world, they need more of that kind of thinking from the huge companies which ultimately control the purse strings of farming.