In a new factory off Main Street in Fyffe, a business this week began marketing a product it says could revolutionize agriculture for the small farmer all over the world.

CleBer LLC hosted the opening of its plant which will manufacture the Oggun Iron Horse, a tractor designed for small-scale domestic and international farmers.

The tractor, which can sport a 19 horsepower Honda gas or Kohler diesel engine, weighs 1,500 pounds and uses hydraulic steering and brakes. It is built to sell at $10,000 in the gas model, and $13,000 in diesel.

The Oggun was designed so that all of its components are non-proprietary, so it can be fixed and maintained without having to order expensive, model specific parts - usually patent protected - that might be hard to acquire in the developing world.

The Oggun factory, which adjoins Liberty Steel Manufacturing, could produce up to 10,000 tractors a year. But first will come marketing, said Horace Clemmons, one of the founders of CleBer.

"This is where the real work begins," Clemmons said.

Clemons and his business partner, Saul Berenthal, have a background in personal computers and software. But Berenthal, a native of Cuba, believed a tractor like the Oggun could be a boon to the small farmers of his homeland.

Cuba annually imports about $2 billion in food, but still lags behind in agriculture despite publicized reforms in recent years. Part of the problem is that small farmers, relying on manual labor, find it hard to increase their production with basic farm implements.

As Clemmons explained, the price of heavy farm equipment can be prohibitive for small farmers the world over, and maintenance demands are even more frustrating.

The solution was to produce a tractor similar to the Allis Chalmers G, which was produced in Gadsden more than 60 years ago for the small farmer. At the same time, the company sought to design a tractor that would be easy to afford and fix. The Oggun's sales brochure proclaims that it can be maintained "in the field with nothing more than a wrench."

Originally, CleBer thought of selling the tractors in kits, which got Liberty Steel involved as a partner, said Kelly Pittman, Liberty's president. It took about a year to get the design nailed down.

However, CleBer is still working with the Cuban government at getting the product available there. For the moment, the Oggun is being marketed domestically and in the developing world.

Today, at the grand opening, observers from Senegal and Peru were among those getting a look at the tractor. Javier Matos, a Miami-based businessman, said he would like to make the Oggun available in Peru. He knows others who would be interested in Chile and other countries in South America.

"It's beautiful," he said, looking over one model. "I wish I had 10,000 right now. I think it has a lot of potential."

Kirk Iversen, an agronomist with Auburn University, said the most exciting aspect of the product will be the different uses owners will find for the tractor. He recalled his experiences in the Peace Corps.

"In Africa, they would use tractors to grind maize and several other things," he said. "You can't even imagine some of the things they'd be able to do with something like this."