Chennai, India | January , 2020:TAFE - Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, the world’s third largest tractor manufacturer, launches‘100 Farmers. 100 Stories’ - a nationwide Photo and Video Story Contest, dedicated to the farming communityas part of its ‘Be a #FarmDost’ initiative. The objective of this unique contest is to curate the top 100 inspiring stories of farmers across India and spotlight the invisible farming community and agriculture as a profession. The contest has two main categories - Photo Stories and Video Stories, and offers Prizes worth uptoRs. 2,20,000* across categories to the winners, besides also awarding and recognizing the farmers featured in the winning entries. The Contest is open to all Indians above 13 years of age without any entry fee, and is being run on digital media platforms, urging participants to meet with farmers and share their inspiring and compelling stories with the help of photos or videos supported by the story behind them, which highlight positivity in farming and celebrate the contribution of farmers to the society. This contest is open till February 29, 2020, and allows participants to register and post their entries directly on the FarmDost website:farmdost.com/100Farmers100Stories.

The jury includes senior leaders and experts across domains. T. R. Kesavan, Group President - Corporate Relations & Alliances – TAFE, is the Special Advisor to the Jury. The Jurycomprises of Sunitha Subramaniyan- Head Corporate Communications,TAFE, Padma Shri Awardee Ram Saran Verma - Farmer, B N Kumar- Veteran Journalist, Hari Ganesh Desikan– Strategic Advisor & Brand Consultant, Ananda Ray - Creative Director,Re diffusion, and Faizan Patel -Photographer & Social Media Influencer. In its fourth year, TAFE’s ‘Be a #Farm Dost’ initiative through the 100 Farmers. 100 Stories Contestwill bring forth the stories that inspire people – urban, rural, young, old,to meet and interact with farmers, get a deeper insight about their work and their lives, and to recognize and respect the contribution of the farmers towards sustaining our nation.

About TAFE – Be a #FarmDost initiative:farmdost.com The ‘Be a #FarmDost’ initiative was launched by TAFE in 2015to recognize farmers in the public sphere andaims to bring back the farmers into our social consciousness while giving agriculture the pride of its place as a profession and as a career option.Within a short span of time, the #FarmDost community is over 1.1 million strong on Facebook and is steadily growing with an active following from over 50 countries around the world. Through various online and field activities this initiative has highlighted the importance of agriculture in India, inspiring people to realize the true value of the invisible heroes – the farmers.

    About TAFE:tafe.com The world’s third largest tractor manufacturer and second largest in India by volumes with an annual sale of over 150,000 tractors, TAFE is one of the leading exporters of tractors from India with a turnover in excess of INR 93 billion. TAFE manufactures a range of tractors in both the air-cooled and water-cooled platforms and markets them under its four iconic brands - Massey Ferguson, TAFE, Eicher, and the recently acquired Serbian tractor and agricultural equipment brand - IndustrijaMašinaiTraktora (IMT). Acclaimed for their quality and dependability, TAFE’s products and services are present in over 100 countries across the world, including developed countries in Europe and the Americas. Besides tractors and farm machinery, TAFE manufactures diesel engines, silent gensets, agro-engines, batteries, hydraulic pumps and cylinders, gears and transmission components, and has business interest in vehicle franchises and plantations. TAFE is committed to the Total Quality Movement (TQM). In the recent past various manufacturing plants of TAFE have garnered numerous ‘TPM Excellence Awards’ from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM), as well as a number of other regional awards for TPM excellence.

TAFE became the first Indian tractor manufacturer to win the Frost & Sullivan Global Manufacturing Leadership Award in 2018, being recognized with the ‘Enterprise Integration and Technology Leadership Award’ and two ‘Supply Chain Leadership Awards’. In recognition of its outstanding contribution to engineering exports, TAFE has been named the ‘Star Performer – Large Enterprise (Agricultural Tractors)’ at the 40th Engineering Exports Promotion Council of India – Southern Region Awards (2015-16), for the 21st time in a row. TAFE has also been conferred the ‘Regional Contributor Award’ for quality supplies from Toyota Motor Company, Japan, and the ‘Manufacturing Supply Chain Operational Excellence - Automobiles Award’ at the second Asia Manufacturing Supply Chain Summit for its supply chain transformation in 2013. TAFE's tractor plants are certified under ISO 9001 for efficient quality management systems and under ISO 14001 for environment friendly operations. # # #